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Okay Cowgirl’s Leah Lavigne catches up with Atwood Journal for an intimate dialog about vulnerability, empowerment, self-discovery, and the band’s new singles “Little Splinters” and “Ceaselessly” – taken off their extremely anticipated debut album, ‘Couldn’t Save Us From My Intestine’!
Stream: “Little Splinters” – Okay Cowgirl
“Little Splinters” is about my imperfections, however I sing it confidently. It’s about feeling challenged, however I sing it with hope and conviction. It’s about being upset, however I’ve enjoyable each time I play it.
Ook Cowgirl’s Leah Lavigne has been on a journey of empowerment these days.
She’s been studying to hearken to her internal voice and belief her instinct; to permit herself to be weak when she’d in any other case put up partitions; to search out consolation in discomfort, and settle for when conditions are in and out of doors her management.
It’s a litany of highly effective life classes we might all stand to develop from, and thru Okay Cowgirl’s upcoming debut album, we are able to: Lavigne and co. pack the entire above and extra into Couldn’t Save Us From My Intestine, an emotionally charged, rip-roaring indie rock file born out of unfiltered vulnerability and uncooked grit (out August 16, 2024 through Simple Does It Data). It’s fiery and feverish assortment of uncooked reckonings and reveries from the up-and-coming Brooklyn five-piece – a soundtrack to non-public progress and self-discovery that hits arduous and leaves a long-lasting mark on each the ears and the center.
I’m going to plan
Too many espresso dates
And when morning approaches
That’s when I’ll flake
Inconsequential,
Why can’t you let me be
I don’t need you to wish me
Simply need you to please my each whim
Oh such whimsy
I want that I might breathe
In air chilly like winter
It retains me on my toes
Oh little splinters
Sooner or later bushes will develop
Oh little splinters
Sooner or later bushes will develop
– “Little Splinters,” Okay Cowgirl
Couldn’t Save Us From My Intestine is a profound elevation of Okay Cowgirl’s already breathtaking artistry: The band – one among Atwood Journal‘s 2022 artists to observe – have developed significantly since they first launched themselves in late 2020. “The burden of reflection, connection, and self-discovery hangs heavy all through Okay Cowgirl’s music,” Atwood Journal stated of their debut EP, launched in 2021. “A dreamy and uncooked reckoning, Not My First Rodeo is as turbulent as it’s stirring: A visceral coming-of-age file dwelling in an area of feverish emotion and dramatic sound.”
Couldn’t Save Us From My Intestine will arrive practically three full years after that first EP, and its spellbinding lead single “Little Splinters” (launched in late Could) acts as a convincing reintroduction to the band of Lavigne, lead guitarist Jake Sabinsky, guitar and synth participant John Miller, bassist Ryan Work, and drummer Matt Birkenholz. “Our earlier EP was about feeling misplaced, and this music is about discovering myself,” Lavigne explains. She and her bandmates erupt in a frenzied fury of cool, breathtaking ardour on their first music in effectively over two years’ time.
It’s an particularly welcome deal with for Okay Cowgirl followers, who’ve been ready for this second with bated breath for fairly a while. Fortunately, that endurance pays off tenfold.
Homecoming queen
However no date to the dance
Sneaking in chips
In a black bodega bag
Posted a topless pic
Name it an consideration seize
To be effectively appreciated can really feel so small
Whenever you simply need one to like your all
“I like that this music is enjoyable to hearken to, despite the fact that it’s about going by way of one thing actually troublesome. I believe that in itself shows the very private progress this music is speaking about,” Lavigne tells Atwood Journal. “‘Little Splinters’ is about my imperfections, however I sing it confidently. It’s about feeling challenged, however I sing it with hope and conviction. It’s about being upset, however I’ve enjoyable each time I play it.”
“All of that’s as a result of I’ve realized to like myself despite the fact that I’m imperfect, and to know my energy particularly when life will get arduous. I’ve gotten so a lot better at having fun with this life, as heartbreaking and disappointing as it might be at occasions. I hope that this music makes individuals really feel the best way it makes me really feel – assured, and hopeful, and powerful, and like I’m having time.”
Okay Cowgirl’s artistry is proof that vulnerability might be loud, feverish, and unapologetic.
We hear that fact borne out in “Little Splinters,” in addition to in Couldn’t Save Us From My Intestine‘s sophomore single, “Ceaselessly” (launched in June). “I hate to select favorites, however this music is perhaps it,” Lavigne says of “Ceaselessly,” explaining the way it’s about leaving her first severe relationship, and all of the mourning and longing that got here with it.
“As I looked for a approach out of this sense, I couldn’t assist however want I might bend time.”
If I knew I’d stay without end
I would go away you and attempt to come again
If I knew I might have without end
I would love you with the plan of leaving
After a while passes
To search for greener grasses
That I’ll by no means discover
However I’d have the time
To be taught it the arduous approach
And nonetheless have life to spend
If I knew I’d die tomorrow
I’d keep proper right here in your arms
And if I lived the day that was to observe
I’d keep right here too
Atwood Journal not too long ago caught up with Leah Lavigne for an in-depth dialog about Okay Cowgirl and their new singles. Dive into the band and their new music in our interview under, and keep tuned for the upcoming launch of their debut album Couldn’t Save Us From My Intestine, out August 16!
“This file… shouldn’t be about life being simply stunning or dramatic or dreamy; it’s about a lot extra – concerning the huge and small, the mundane and life altering, the beautiful and irritating,” Lavigne smiles. “And I’m so grateful that (our producer) Alex Farrar might choose up on this and information us in direction of [creating] one thing that feels trustworthy, uncooked and potent. This felt like an enormous step within the evolution of Okay Cowgirl’s sound. I believe it serves my songwriting so effectively and has opened the doorways for us to make a extra expansive and thrilling vary of music than ever earlier than.”
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Stream: “Little Splinters” – Okay Cowgirl
CATCHING UP WITH OK COWGIRL
Atwood Journal: Nice to catch up, everybody! Firstly, what is the story behind “Little Splinters,” and why did you select that as your first little bit of music in two years?
Leah Lavigne: We selected this as our first music again primarily due to the power behind this music. Once we play this music stay we really feel excited, and we needed our listeners to really feel excited and energized as we start to launch new music.
Sonically, this music feels so contemporary and fired up. What have been you going for when recording it? What was your imaginative and prescient for it, if any?
Leah Lavigne: This music is a few journey of empowerment, so naturally we recorded a bunch of energy chords within the guitar association. I don’t know what it’s concerning the sound of energy chords that will get me so fired up. Maybe the convenience of enjoying an influence chord lets you focus much less on technicality and extra on having a freaking blast whilst you’re doing it, and that power is someway captured. Once we introduced this demo to Alex Farrar, he instantly recognized it as a music worthy of being a single. We needed it to sound energetic, pop-y, and enjoyable, whereas nonetheless holding on to the grit and vulnerability of the story it tells.
Do you’ve gotten any favourite lyrics or traces from this observe?
Leah Lavigne: We love the road, “generally vulnerability simply seems like trash.” Once I first sang it for Alex he raised his eyebrows and was like, “Did you simply yodel? Are you aware methods to yodel?” – it was hilarious. It’s nearly yodel like. Switching forwards and backwards between my head and throat voice rapidly is a vocal approach that I’ve been utilizing for the previous couple years and preserving in thoughts once I write melodies as a result of I believe it feels evocative and emotional. It jogs my memory of when somebody on the verge of tears has a crack of their voice – how when you’re feeling that emotional, your throat voice, your on a regular basis speaking voice that’s normally so easy can simply slip away from you and you might be left with a voice that’s softer, larger in register, tougher to manage. A wail is so near singing, and there may be nothing extra emotional to the ears than somebody cry-talking.
So, sure, individuals surprise why they find yourself crying at our exhibits… and I assume that is in all probability why. As a result of I’m virtually cry-talking… however just like the singing model. Anywho, as a result of I exploit this vocal approach to specific lyrics which might be normally weak, it was solely pure for me to make use of an exaggerated model of this to sing the phrase itself. And to focus on it we determined to dramatically have the remainder of the instrumentation drop out at that second, leaving it naked.
A wail is so near singing, and there may be nothing extra emotional to the ears than somebody cry-talking.
You’ve got talked concerning the self-empowerment and self-love that impressed this music. The place, for you, did these feelings stem from? Had been these actual life, lived experiences, and the way did you navigate them?
Leah Lavigne: This music comes very a lot from my actual life and lived experiences.
The primary verse:
I’m going to plan
Too many espresso dates
And when morning approaches
That’s when I’ll flake
Inconsequential,
Why can’t you let me be
I don’t need you to wish me
Simply need you to please my each whim
…is about how for years I chronically over-scheduled myself. I simply tried to take action a lot. I used to be actually dangerous at setting boundaries, and I needed to be all the pieces that everybody needed me to be always. I needed to be the very best daughter, and the very best pupil, and the very best worker, and the very best pal to each single one among my mates. I used to be making an attempt to do an excessive amount of. And in the end, making an attempt to people-please, making an attempt to make everybody completely happy on a regular basis, ended up making not solely me sad, but in addition these very individuals sad as effectively. I wasn’t caring for myself, I used to be stretching myself too skinny, and infrequently that meant I couldn’t present up for individuals as the very best model of myself.
For thus lengthy I believed that this people-pleasing tendency was me being beneficiant and caring. I believed making an effort to be who they needed and “wanted” me to be, dwelling as much as their expectations, not making them uncomfortable was a beneficiant factor; I believed it made me individual. However I felt empty, exhausted and ultimately I began to really feel nearly dishonest. My therapist (shoutout <3) helped me notice that truly essentially the most beneficiant factor I might do for myself and for others, was to determine who I used to be, and be that, not some hyper-curated, compelled or tailor-made model of myself. Believing this meant I needed to be taught to imagine that I used to be factor, that individuals might love me for who I actually am, that I used to be sufficient.
Not anticipating myself to please others on a regular basis, allowed me additionally to not count on them to please me. It has been so liberating to let myself be me, and let different individuals be themselves. To let myself be free, and to not take others’ actions so personally. It has been revolutionary for me. And that’s the leaping off level for this music.
The second verse:
Homecoming queen
However no date to the dance
Sneaking in chips
In a black bodega bag
Posted a topless pic
Name it an consideration seize
To be effectively appreciated can really feel so small
Whenever you simply need one to like your all
… alludes to a extra harmless time in my life. “Homecoming queen however no date to the dance” is a considerably true line. I used to be voted onto homecoming court docket, and I used to be really by no means actually requested to a single dance in highschool. This actually harm my ego once I was youthful; it took me so lengthy to recover from. It gave me this sense of not being needed. This verse is about norms and expectations in our tradition and the way one thing like getting requested to a dance is usually relied on as a marker of validation. Am I cool, am I fairly, am I needed, am I worthy? I hinged all of that on whether or not a handful of 16 12 months previous boys is perhaps drawn to me and have the self-confidence to behave on it. It feels so foolish now; the world is so huge, and there are lots of issues you’ll be able to’t belief 16 12 months previous boys with. Why would I ever put my self-worth of their palms? Nevertheless it took me a very long time to understand this, and to cease counting on exterior validation for my sense of self-worth.
“To be effectively appreciated can really feel so small, if you simply need one to like your all” is an fascinating line as a result of at a sure level in my life I believed that that “one” who I needed to like me was a romantic accomplice. I believed that if I had been requested to homecoming that I’d be ok with myself, that if I might simply have a wholesome romantic partnership I’d really feel higher. What I noticed after being in a number of relationships with individuals who liked me very a lot (and it by no means feeling like sufficient) was that what I actually needed, the individual I actually needed to like me was me.
How have you ever introduced your self again from feeling like a splinter? Any suggestions to others who really feel the identical?
Leah Lavigne: The refrain of this music is about feeling small, disjointed, prickly. I used to really feel like I had all these little items of myself, these little fragments, tastes of “perhaps I’m this, perhaps I’m that.” However I felt confused. I couldn’t discover my heart of gravity. I couldn’t work out how these little items got here collectively to type one thing that felt robust, and entire and delightful, like a large tree I’d stare at by way of my window.
And my reply for methods to begin feeling like that huge stunning tree might be discovered in direction of the top of the music. I needed to “let it go.” I had to determine what thought patterns, what behaviors have been holding me again, and allow them to go. And it was arduous, it was messy, it felt like wading by way of the mud. Nevertheless it acquired simpler, and it was so price it. Simply maintain taking one step in entrance of the opposite, and whilst you’re doing this difficult private work don’t neglect to let your self have a bit enjoyable.
Typically vulnerability simply seems like trash
Shared it simply to scare myself after which to have
To let it go… To let it go
I’ve wasted years
Attempting to flee worry
I’ve wasted years
To let it go…
– “Little Splinters,” Okay Cowgirl
Breaks my coronary heart to say this, but it surely’s been 2.5 years since Not My First Rodeo’s launch. Leah, how have you ever and the band as a complete grown since then?
Leah Lavigne: We’ve got grown a lot! For one, we’ve gone from a 4 piece to a 5 piece! Voila! However one other actually unimaginable factor is that we’ve grown nearer. A few of us, my drummer Matt and I as an illustration, have now been making music collectively for 10 years. It has been such an unimaginable expertise to develop with this group of individuals as mates and as collaborators. Only recently we have been engaged on writing a brand new music collectively at rehearsal, and it wasn’t till I noticed the look on our latest band member’s face that I noticed how dialed in our course of is.
To Jake, John, Matt, and me, writing a music collectively feels so pure. We all know who does what, who does what when, how a lot enter every of us is open to and methods to ship it, when to step away and are available again, and many others. However to anyone who hasn’t been in that room for years with us, the best way we learn one another’s physique language and minds, the best way we cross concepts forwards and backwards with half completed sentences and guitar licks, might be insane. We’re extra expert, extra environment friendly and having extra enjoyable than ever. So prepare for extra music! I can’t look ahead to what’s to come back.
How, for you, does “Little Splinters” function a reintroduction to Okay Cowgirl?
Leah Lavigne: “Little Splinters” seems like reintroduction to Okay Cowgirl as a result of our earlier EP was about feeling misplaced, and this music is about discovering myself.
Persevering with alongside that line of thought, how does the band we’re attending to know as we speak examine to the one we final actually knew in 2022? How do you are feeling you have modified over the previous 2-3 years, and what excites you about returning with new music now?
Leah Lavigne: Once we have been within the studio recording Couldn’t Save Us From My Intestine, one of many greatest manufacturing selections that our producer Alex Farrar inspired was to file issues “dryer” or with much less reverb than we have been used to. I used to be used to having a number of reverb on my voice and guitar, however Alex thought it was taking away moderately than including in some instances. One thing Alex helped me notice is that I used to be hiding behind the reverb. Reverb had been a lot part of our sound on earlier recordings that we had deemed ourselves a “dream rock” band. When Alex challenged me to lose the reverb I expressed that with out it I used to be afraid my guitar enjoying or singing wouldn’t sound ok or fairly. And as soon as I used to be trustworthy with myself in that approach, I used to be decided to lose the reverb… as a result of my principal intentions once I based Okay Cowgirl have been to free myself from insecurity, not be duped by a narrow-minded understanding of “good” nor tamed by a have to be fairly/stunning that was so ingrained in me as a younger woman.
On the file there may be some reverb, however as a substitute of being a veil I’m hiding behind, it’s a selection, an intentional sonic device at my disposal on my mission to specific myself. This file, in any case, shouldn’t be about life being simply stunning or dramatic or dreamy (issues that reverb usually evoke), it’s about a lot extra – concerning the huge and small, the mundane and life altering, the beautiful and irritating. And I’m so grateful that Alex might choose up on this and information us in direction of making manufacturing selections that helped us create one thing that feels trustworthy, uncooked and potent. This felt like an enormous step within the evolution of Okay Cowgirl’s sound. I believe it serves my songwriting so effectively and has opened the doorways for us to make a extra expansive and thrilling vary of music than ever earlier than.
Your debut album is called Could not Save Us From My Intestine. What does that title imply to you, and what are you able to share with us about this file?
Leah Lavigne: The album is called Couldn’t Save Us From My Intestine as a result of this file is about me studying to hearken to and belief my instinct in numerous contexts from leaving my first long-term relationship, to getting into my first queer relationship, to coming to phrases with rising aside from mates, to navigating my profession in a f*d up financial system. That’s the through-line, and it’s a direct lyric from the third observe, “Our Love.”
Within the spirit of teasing listeners, what else can followers sit up for off the brand new album? Something we are able to share to begin getting of us excited?
Leah Lavigne: The second single off of this file is known as “Ceaselessly” and it got here out on June twelfth. I’m so excited for individuals to listen to this music. I hate to select favorites, however this music is perhaps it. It’s actually fairly completely different from “Little Splinters,” so I believe individuals are going to be stunned by it. We additionally filmed this beautiful music video for it up in Vermont with our pal Nic Motyka. It’s in contrast to something we’ve ever finished earlier than, so I’m excited for that as effectively.
Are you able to discuss a bit extra about this music?
Leah Lavigne: I wrote “Ceaselessly” whereas I used to be grappling with the concept of leaving my first severe relationship. It was an odd and new expertise to me, to care about somebody so deeply and be capable of see a future with them but be tormented by what-ifs. I felt trapped by my life, and I mourned the lack of potential futures I’d by no means get to discover. As I looked for a approach out of this sense, I couldn’t assist however want I might bend time.
Lastly, what do you like most about “Little Splinters,” and what do you hope listeners take away from it?
Leah Lavigne: I like that this music is enjoyable to hearken to despite the fact that it’s about going by way of one thing actually troublesome. I believe that in itself shows the very private progress this music is speaking about.
“Little Splinters” is about my imperfections, however I sing it confidently. It’s about feeling challenged, however I sing it with hope and conviction. It’s about being upset, however I’ve enjoyable each time I play it. All of that’s as a result of I’ve realized to like myself despite the fact that I’m imperfect, and to know my energy particularly when life will get arduous. I’ve gotten so a lot better at having fun with this life, as heartbreaking and disappointing as it might be at occasions.
I hope that this music makes individuals really feel the best way it makes me really feel – assured, and hopeful, and powerful, and like I’m having time.
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Stream: “Ceaselessly” – Okay Cowgirl
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