Galactic Cowboys

June, 2000 via telephone

What's the meaning of the name Galactic Cowboys
We got it from a motor cycle gang in Texas. That was in the sixties and I think that they don't gather anymore. So we took the name because at that time [1990: beginning of the Galactic Cowboys - Ed.], it sounded kind of futuristic, experimental and spacy.

You've been playing music for more than ten years. Which musical developments have occured to you during that period?
There has of course been a progression. The earlier albums have been more Metal influenced. Our music got loossened up as we were more experimenting with melodies. Nowadays the songs are more important to us than the styles. Over the last four or five years, we got pretty diverse. The last albums were more eclectic and contained very different sounding songs.

Do you also listen in your private live to different kinds of music?
As a band, we all listen to different things. Each band member also has his own style of song writing. I personally tend more into Hard Rock music, but Ben is a little more ballad driven. We don't listen anymore to much Metal individually.

Are the Beatles one of your musical influences?
Oh sure! We grew all up listening to the Beatles. They had such a great sense for melodies and harmony. We try to put that into our music. And the Beatles are a band that have changed a lot themselves over the years. Their early albums were Pop music and later on, they were more experimenting.

You come from Texas, a place we Europeans often associate with Country music. Are there also lots of Rock bands in your state?
There's us, King's X and Pantera. You find a lot of Rock bands, but especially Austin is known for Rhythm'n'Blues and Country stuff.

Why is Alan Doss no more a Galactic Cowboys musician?
He has a family now and decided to be no more a musician in a band. But he's still working in the studio. On our last CD 'Let It Go', we used Jerry Gaskill from King's X to play the drums. Wally, our guitar player, did most of the producings. That's why the album is sounding differently than its predecessor 'At The End Of The Day'.

How is your relationship with King's X?
We've been friends for a long time. It's a good relationship. We've also been touring quite a lot together. We also appreciate very much that Jerry Gaskill was playing drums on the CD. But it's not a day to day friendship as we don't have so much contact.

Will you pick one song of the CD as a single edit?
Definitely, but we don't have any plans yet. I'll do a solo album myself and I hope that it will come out ext year. We all have different things running and we'll see what we'll do with the Galactic Cowboys.

What are your expectations for 'Let It Go'?
I don't really have some. I just wanted to write and perform the songs to my very best ability and make an artistic statement. We hope that it does sell, but that's also the work of the label and the distributours. But we are happy with the album and think that it's really great.

Why have you put short musical intermezzos between some tracks on the CD?
Just for fun. This was Wally's idea during the production process. It gives people an inside look to the band. There are recorded tracks about what happened in the studio.

Do you consider the Galactic Cowboys as a Christian band?
We are Christian people, but we don't label our music that way. We don't see ourselves as a part of the Christian industry. Our music is no kind of propaganda.

But you already played at Christian festivals.
We also played at Metal festivals. My policy is to play anywhere for anybody. People of all religions and races can enjoy our music.

Your lyrics are much less radical than those of your label mates Tourniquet.
Tourniquet have another vision of what they want to do. But that's fine. We write quite personal songs about what we are feeling. This also might be of political or spiritual nature.

Are the lyrics important to you?
They are very important. We get a lot of mail by fans who have been affected by our lyrics. I don't think about the importance when I'm writing the lyrics. I'm just trying to produce some art. I often feel a need in myself to write.

How important is your homepage to you?
It's very important as it's a way for the fans to talk to us and to each other. It's like a kind of family. The homepage also often gets updated about what's going on.

What's your opinion about downloading MP3 tracks from the internet?
It's not very fair towards the artists. We work hard on the stuff and it's our music. We should have the right to decide what's happening to our music.

Is it possible to download songs or samples from your homepage?
I'm not sure to be very honest. I haven't checked lately, but there were tracks or samples to download.

When you released 'At The End Of The Day', there were rumours that you would split up. How can you explain them?
Maybe people got the idea from the album title.

Do you think that there might be a seventh Galactic Cowboys album?
I'll let the possibility open. We're still friends and everything's always possible. But right now, Wally and I are working on our solo album. But we might come back together some time.

Thank you very much for your time and the interview.

Interview published on August 29^th 2000