COWZ on Being Besties and Making ‘Feral’ Pop Anthems (Interview)
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COWZ music feels like a DIY dreamworld. Best friends Saga and Tash are a Brighton-based, genre-smashing, Queer alt-pop duo with a sound that can be best described as Bratz dolls gone feral. Their aesthetic combines a pastel sweetness with a lo-fi edge. To me, they represent a neon-lit Gen Z corner of the internet.
The twosome recently dropped a fresh EP, ‘YOU’RE INTO THIS‘, fully leaning into their trademark maximalist energy. My favourite track from the new drop is ‘Ur No Rockstar‘, which was a First Listen Fridays pick of mine recently. If you like your pop chaotic, hyper, and with a confrontational tone or political edge, they will be up your street. This pair are unapologetically weird (in the best possible way), brimming with punk and punch through a glittery glitch filter. I simply had to sit down with them.
How did you both come together in the first place?
Saga – My housemate moved out, and I needed a new housemate. I think [I’d] met you [Tash] two or three times at that point. You just responded [to] me [asking you to move in]. My studio set up was in the living room, and I think it just kind of… happened. We [then] started doing [music together].
Tash – We didn’t do it on purpose; we just lived together and had our own solo projects. Then we both realised that we work quite well together, and have similar music tastes. So, we just kind of combined everything. It was a very natural process; it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, let’s start a band.‘. It was just an accident which is crazy, because everything I do has a motive. [laughs]
Interestingly, you were both working already on your own solo kind of endeavours – was music something that was always in your lives? Did you think that was going to become your career?
S – I mean, I’m good at other things. But this is like what I’m good at, so I don’t really know what else I would do.
T – Yeah. We say this all the time, I don’t know what else I would be doing [if I didn’t do music]. We’ve both been in music in different ways since we were very young. We were both in church choirs. We also did the same course at uni.
How did you come up with the name COWZ? It’s so recognisable. Did you get any pushback from it?
S – It was after my hamster, who was called ‘Cow‘ [laughs], and then we just added a Z because it looked cool!
T – We combined ‘Bratz‘ because we really like [the] Bratz kind of aesthetic. And also it’s a bit ratty, isn’t it?
S – It looks trashier with the Z.
T – Yeah, we were like this is trashy, cool, and looks punk, which is what we [were going for]. Luckily, I think it has been received in that way. To be honest, we were kind of struggling for a name for a bit. Then you just went, ‘Let’s name it after my hamster.‘. Yeah. RIP Cow.
S – I think there was another ‘Cows‘, but I think they backed off, [like] we don’t want to mess with these girls. They seem scary.
T – I will fight you outside. [laughs]
S – The only time we get anyone being like ‘hehe‘ is when we have a slightly older, male sound engineer. [They’ll say], ‘Hello COWZ. Can I say that?‘. Like, they think it’s hilarious.
Your aesthetic is pop and punk. It’s like rebellious, riot girl sort of music. How would you guys describe your sound?
T – Like Barbie if she’s taking loads of c***k c*****e? [laughs] It’s Charli xcx vibes, but a bit more Barbie. There’s a bit more pop in there. We don’t limit our genre that much. I say predominantly punky pop music, but a lot of the stuff we sing about is very political, and sometimes it does have guitar in it!
S – Yeah. Someone once said ‘feral and funny‘. That’s cool, but still catchy.
T – By not limiting ourselves by what we want to put in tracks, we’ve managed to find our own sound. Even if the genre is varying from track to track, I think it’s still very recognisably us. [That’s] the most important thing when you’re establishing yourself as a new artist.
S – We produce and write everything ourselves, so there’s no one else who needs to interpret the vision.
T– We both [have] had that issue before, [but we’ve also been] working with people and it’s turned out really well. For example, we worked with our friends Jake [Roche] and Stefan [Abingdon] on our track ‘Video‘. I think doing it ourselves, that’s what has made it work.
You live in Brighton. It’s known for being a forward-thinking area and has connections to LGBTQIA+ movements. Has this influenced you in any way?
T – Yeah. I came to Brighton [for] uni to do music. But, I specifically wanted to come to Brighton because of the art scene, and that it’s very Queer here and liberal. That’s the kind of spaces I feel safe in.
S – As well, we come from very rural areas. I especially come from a really, really rural area. There’s a certain type of confidence you just get growing up [being] Queer in the middle of nowhere.
T – You have to be strong in how you’re presenting yourself otherwise, you’re fed to the wolves.
Do you guys feel like disruptors?
S – I love pop music, so I don’t want to call it soulless [as a genre]. I don’t mean it as an insult, but [often] it’s very palatable [from] the subjects and the branding of artists in the past. We grew up in a time with Disney stars – before they had their mental breakdowns. I think now a lot of pop stars are way more ‘out there’, and more strange and off-putting.
T – Normalize being strange and off putting!
S – Locally and musically, there’s a lot of indie music. [Indie] used to be quite a forward-thinking genre, especially in the early 2010s. So many good indie bands came from that [time]. [Now] a lot of that just gets recycled.
T – I will say that I think in Brighton, we’re privileged in the sense that there is more space for the kind of music we do and the kind of band that we are. But, I think people don’t realise that just because it’s more [Queer-friendly], we still have to fight to get on some lineups. A lot of the lineups will still be five men, an indie band or Matty Healy cosplayers, and they will still be prioritised. Do I think we’d have less opportunities if we were elsewhere? Yeah. [However] I think we are still pushing boundaries and making space for more music like ours. [We’re inviting] more conversations surrounding the things that we are speaking about in our music.
Tasha, a lot of people compare you to Chappell Roan. Is that a comparison you welcome?
T – It is a comparison that I welcome because I think she’s brilliant. It’s funny, though. I don’t know whether it’s just because I have ginger hair. Although I think my humour is quite dry, similar to hers. I think we would be friends. I love how she acts in the media and that she doesn’t take s**t from anybody and does things on her own terms. That’s something really important for people, especially [for] women and Queer women when you’re that famous. I think the way that she’s leading things is really inspirational. I love her very much.
You come across as opposites, with different vibes. Do you find that it really works in the group, as one of you has greater strengths than the other?
S – Yeah! And, also, it’s good, as well, because it’s like, ‘Pick your fighter‘. Are you a Tasha or are you a Saga?
T – I think it works really well functionally for us. Not to be capitalistic about it, but in a branding sense as well. It’s interesting because if you heard the news, Dan and Phil ‘hard launched’. We’ve been watching some of their videos, and we keep being like, ‘Oh my God, we’re so Dan and Phil.‘. I’m Phil, and she’s Dan. When is it going to come out? [laughs]
Also, in terms of functionality for the band, I’m very good at admin and staying on top of [things].
S – Social anxiety fears you.
T – Yeah, [but] I am not scared of networking. I find it funny because people have asked us how we get the opportunities we do, and it’s literally just me being really annoying in people’s emails. I will spend an hour every day emailing people I have no business emailing, and sometimes we just get put on a list. [They’ll say] ‘Maybe you can be a support act for this,’, or whatever. It’s about one hundred to one of people ignoring me and someone actually replying.
S – You don’t let that discourage you.
T – I have autism, where I don’t really care about what other people think. I’m very good with the social and networking aspect and admin stuff. Saga sits there on a Gremlin doing production on her laptop, and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, this is our ‘Espresso’ – thank you so much!‘.
S – I do all the tech stuff, and you go, ‘How do I turn it on?‘.
Do you guys have a favourite song that you’ve ever done?
T – My favourite song at the moment is one that isn’t released.
S – You always get obsessed with the newest.
T – Then I don’t want to listen to it when it comes out because I’m so sick of hearing it. But then two weeks later, I’m like, ‘This is great‘.
S – I like ‘ur fave song‘. It’s very ‘crying in the club‘. ‘La La Like You‘ and ‘VIDEO‘ were two [songs] that I mixed as well, so I’m particularly proud of those.
Was there a moment where you realised ‘This is happening, this is real. Are we really doing this thing?’
S – I think when ‘DOMINATION‘ started getting a lot of traction. That was the second song we ever released. It’s been nearly two years now. It felt great because it was like, ‘Oh, people just think it’s a good song, and they like it and buy into it.‘, and it wasn’t necessarily the people who we thought it would be!
T – Radio 6 dads love us.
S – Oh, they do. They love that one. I think it has like 65,000 streams or something, which makes me feel really good about myself.
T – I think the big moment for me was when we got picked for ‘The Band App Competition‘. We got to play, main stage at Truck [Festival] this year, which is basically my dream come [true]. My first ever festival that I went [to] and camped at was in 2018, and it was Truck Festival. I remember being with my friend and watching Wolf Alice. He was like, ‘Imagine if you did that one day.‘. At this point, I’d quit music for a bit, [but] I just started busking again and was thinking about going to uni. So when I got this email being like, you’re playing…
S – You called me. I was on the bus sobbing. I couldn’t comprehend what you were saying.
T – That was absolutely insane. It was crazy setting up and seeing Blossoms next to us. We had the same dressing room as The Big Moon. Also last week at Radio X, we did a session and an interview with John Kennedy. That was in the big Global building in Leicester Square. When I was younger, I used to wait outside that building to meet musicians. 5SOS were there last week. So there have been quite a few moments where I have imposter syndrome, but also slay! But the cool thing is, it never really stops happening. It happens all the time.
Tasha, you’ve spoken out quite a lot about your struggles as a Disabled musician. You’re really putting yourself out there and speaking about that openly. How have you found performing, and how important is it that you’re vocal about that?
T – I haven’t really seen much Disability representation in music. The only other people I’ve really seen talk about it are [this] band that we’re friends with called ALT BLK ERA. But apart from them, I haven’t seen anyone speak about it. Music is a very full-on thing, and if you’re Disabled, you can’t push yourself the way that an able-bodied person can. It’s just not feasible. Even able-bodied people get burnt out doing a tour or doing stuff within their band or music project.
It’s really important for me to talk about because I haven’t seen anybody else talk about it, [despite knowing] that there are lots of Disabled people in music. Within music, there’s this peer pressure to keep pushing yourself until you drop, and for people with chronic illnesses, it’s really dangerous. I have some disabilities that people don’t really know what they are, or there isn’t much research done into them. Some people think they’re rare; they’re not rare. I have MCAS (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome); I have PoTS (Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome); I have endometriosis. It can be quite difficult because, for example, there are some venues we can’t play [at] because I’m so allergic to [the] mould in the building. It limits what we can do sometimes.
S – It’s less that we can’t make things happen. It’s just that to make things happen, we need to do it a certain way. For example, this festival season, you were really ill, but that just meant that I [had to take on] more work. No worries. You do such a good job knowing where your boundaries are.
T – Disabled people need places to be accessible and [to] make accommodations. So, if I’m playing somewhere, I usually get them to put up a sign [asking if] people could not spray perfume or deodorant in the same room that we’re going to be in because it can make my throat swell up. That’s not a hard thing; they just do it. I will say I’ve found in the past year [that] a lot more venues and festivals are way more on top of this stuff, and it has made a massive difference. If you can put accommodations in for people like Disabled musicians, they’re more likely to be able to do the gig in the first place.
S – It’s so disheartening to see people that can’t, or don’t have the ability to be like, ‘Guys, this is too much.‘. We want this to be sustainable.
T – No matter how much you love it, [you need to take] necessary precautions and breaks. Especially in the UK, [where] there’s [a] drinking and drug culture. I think that’s just a really unhealthy culture for bands and artists surrounding touring. There needs to be more focus on mental and physical health in this industry.
Do you have a standout performance moment that sticks out to you?
T – At Truck [Festival], we thought we performed really well, but, obviously, just the experience of it was absolutely amazing. The crowd was amazing, and being on a stage felt really natural. We’re just going to be chasing that high until we do it again, basically.
Are there any venues that you think, ‘I would love to be performing there’?
T – I really want to play King Tut’s in Scotland. I’ve played there with my friend, but I’d love to play there as COWZ.
S – I’m from Sweden [and] I really want to play Scandinavia. [There’s] less of a grassroots scene in Scandinavia, but that would be sick.
T – I want to play Reading and Leeds. That’s next on the list. I’ve been going to Reading for ten years. Festivals in general are just so much fun.
As we’re coming towards the end of things, I’ve got a ‘Who is most likely to’ game.
S – Oh my god, yes.
Who’s most likely to forget the lyrics on stage?
[Points at Tasha]
T – It does happen occasionally. I sing the wrong verse, and you notice straight away.
S – I just go, [sings ahh]. I do the harmony [over it]. It doesn’t happen that often, but it happens.
Who’s more likely to pull an all-nighter before a big show?
[Points at Saga]
S – Me, because I will be [producing] and be like, ‘Oh my God, what if the decibels on this are wrong?‘.
Who is more likely to go rogue on stage?
T – It’s absolutely me.
S – The amount of times I’ve been like [to her], ‘Why did you just start screaming?‘.
T – Yeah, sorry. [laughs]
Who’s more likely to make a friend with a stranger in five minutes?
T – Me. [Saga doesn’t] talk to people.
S – I don’t.
Who’s more likely to take control in a crisis?
[Both point at Saga]
Who’s more likely to get starstruck?
T – Both of us in different ways.
I get starstruck by really random celebrities, but then I met Ariana Grande, and it was fine. I met Ariana Grande at my local train station. Anyway, that’s another story.
Final one – who is more likely to write an anthem at 3 AM?
[Both point at Saga]
T – Although I [have done] songwriting at three o’clock in the morning!
S – Yeah, but you mostly send me less cohesive bits.
T – That’s true.
Finally, why should people listen to COWZ?
S – First of all, it will cure all your mental problems. It will make you very happy. It’s just the right amount of angry and funny to make you feel better about whatever situation you’re currently in. It’ll clear your skin. If you’re having any anger towards anyone, you can listen to [us] and burn a photo, and then move on with your life.
T – Also, it’s Mercury retrograde, so get anything out of your system that you need to. Just set things on fire.
S – Legally.
T – We don’t endorse illegal activity.
S – Arson is bad.
T – No arson, please. Thank you.
I think we’ll finish with that line. Thank you, guys, so much.
COWZ are on Instagram, X, Bluesky, and TikTok. You can buy their music here or stream the new EP below. You can read more interviews here.
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