We have a very special guest abroad who brought us an amazing Alfresco festival ’21 promo mix. Please meet almighty Ed Mahon! The man in charge of Cowbell Radio and a part of Alfresco Festival showed us how it’s done and recorded 3 hours long mix for Quixotical Mix series. Tune in and take a look at what is waiting for you on 27-29th August 2021. Feeling excited already? don’t forget to visit this site: https://alfrescofestival.co.uk/tickets and purchase the tickets. They are melting like snow in late spring!
Thank you, for accepting the invitation to record a mix and answer some questions for our Quixotical Mix series!
1. Imagine driving a long distance. You’re going home. You’re tired, red bull is not helping anymore. The only thing that can save you right now
is a good song, but the worst part is that your player is broken. It can only play…RADIO UUUUUUUUUUU SPOOOKYY! You have no
other choice, you turn on the radio, you jump from station to station and nothing. That moment you realised that someone has to take
charge, someone has to change things, so people won’t have to suffer the tirony of these radios, that play the same songs
over and over again and all those songs seem like one and endless road to annihilation. Is this a story of how you started your
own radio station? If we’re wrong, tell us your story, but keep this in mind, if your story sucks, we’re gonna stick to ours.
(audience laugh)
-> Ha ha not quite! Chinny already had his own show (The Cowbell Show) on a local station and he needed someone to help when he was away. We compliment each other pretty well musically and it just clicked straight away.
Within a year we had outgrown the station and decided to start our own station, by then the Cowbell brand had grown and we were starting Cowbell events, so it just made sense.
2. Cowbell. Not a lot of musicians can proudly say or even brag that they have established a radio station that’s
been with us for almost a decade and still has so much to offer to its audience. From new wave to hip-hop, from indie to eletro and ect.
It only begs the question, where do you stand on country music? The name itself suggests that it
most certainly is a country radio station or it just might appear that way, which can lead to some confusion. Do you ever
find yourself in a situation where someone requests a song, for example, to play Shania Twain – Any Man Of Mine? And you’re like –
Hey dude, this isn’t what you think it is…
-> We pride ourselves on a lot of different styles of music, but it has to be underground, a bit edgy and definitely nothing you’d hear on network radio.
No chance we’re playing country music though, I can tell you with confidence in all 10 years of Cowbell, there has never been one country song played!
We’re called Cowbell because of the prominent sound of Cowbell in the punk/funk DFA sound (LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture) and in hip hop, which featured prominently in our early shows.
Nowadays we focus more on the acid house scene and we also still proudly run our Lazy Sundays every week, with a full day/night of chilled beats and lazy listening!ace flight to a distant galaxy.
3. Besides having a radio station and being a DJ, could you tell us a bit more about yourself? Maybe something that nobody could have ever
guessed about you from first sight?
It doesn’t have to be anything personal, it can even be a funny story that happened to you recently
or maybe a few years back, that still makes you crack.
-> Well I dunno about the funny stories that you could print, I have plenty I’ll tell you over a beer some time! I guess one thing no one realizes about me, at first sight, is how greedy I am and how much I can eat (either that or how hairy I am)!!!
4. Some people surf, some people read books, watch movies, collect various stuff. Everyone has a hobby.
Something that they love doing no matter what, something that helps them, let’s just say TO REACH NIRVANA (audience laugh)
So what’s yours? If you don’t mind us asking?
-> You mean apart from music? That really dominates a lot of my life but I do love my sport too. I played a lot of football, rugby, and cricket as a young lad and will still watch loads of sport and happily talk about Liverpool FC with anyone who’ll listen (for as long as they’ll put up with me for)!
5. 2021. middle of the year. It still brings us not only new opportunities but also some new challenges. Alfresco festival is coming soon.
We can only imagine how excited you are to be part of it. Can we get a small glimpse of what to expect from the festival and your performance
in it? We bet you have something special prepared. If your answer is going to be as detailed as the instruction
manual on how to use U.S. Military fighter jet F-15 Eagle, don’t forget to type “SPOILER ALERT” beforehand. (audience laugh)
-> Alfresco is always such a riot and this year will be so much more intense after all the covid shit. Also, I’m buzzing for my set on Friday night as it’s me and Tronik Youth all night in the Cowbell tent, basically playing dark, dirty acid house (just like the tunes in this mix)! As usual, I’ll be popping up with the odd balearic set and I believe we will be doing some live streaming on 16Loop as well. I may even do a Cowbell Breakfast show just for old time’s sake!
Alfresco is also 10 this year and has grown so much, we now have a real Alfresco family and we can’t wait to see everyone for a dance in the trees, the line-up is great and the crowd is always so good, it really is a magical weekend! For anyone who wants to know more go to https://alfrescofestival.co.uk
Interview by Vidas Stanynas