Peeled Back is a new series on Dead Good Music that looks to peel back (good, right?) the orange behind an artist. Learning a little about them and their latest release. You might have seen our trial version of it with friends of the blog and all round nice duo Sunflower Thieves.
This month we’re pleased to introduce Modern Rodeo, comprised of Corey Bowen and Charlie Glazebrook. The Middlesborough duo have been making music together for years, but this is the first under the Modern Rodeo name, and their first crack at writing “proper songs”.
Hello Modern Rodeo! How’s it going? We are feeling good. We’ve just finished a big project, literally about an hour before we chatted, so we’re feeling accomplished.
How’d you find 2023 as Modern Rodeo’s first? Immense. When we started writing as Modern Rodeo, we didn’t intend on anyone else hearing the songs to be honest, we were doing it very much for us, just enjoying writing music. But after a while I suppose we got a bit of an itch for other people to hear them so started to release stuff. It’s been fun, this is just the beginning.
Their first foray into the world of “proper music” comes in the form of debut EP, Modern Rodeo Vol 1. Five songs that introduces the duo’s country/indie pop sound to the world. Its easy-breezy vibe really setting us up to have a good start to the new year.
Opener ‘Tell It To The World’ eases its way through the airwaves with a mid-tempo instrumental that breathes a cool breeze into the ears. Snapping with an occasional beat, it’s opening seconds immediately feel at home. Littered with all sorts of melodies and harmonies, the song feels familiar despite being brand new. It feels easy to connect to.
You’ve just released your first EP – Modern Rodeo Vol 1. What can you tell us about it? The least exciting way of putting it would be to say it’s just 5 of the many songs we’ve written over the last year. But really, of the group of songs that we have written, these 5 just seemed to fit together nicely, they’re like a little family of songs. They weren’t necessarily our 5 favourite or the 5 we thought were the best, they just marry really well for us.
The whole ‘body of work’ thing is really embedded in us because of the way we listen to music, so as soon as we realised we wanted to release music, our first target was to release a group of songs together. Our good mate Nat is helping us out with a lot of that stuff, and he knows a lot more than we do about when and how to release stuff. I think if we didn’t have that guidance, we would have just dumped 20 songs on the internet and moved on.
‘Suppose She Was Right’ follows with more of the easy-going sound but with an edge that showcases the duo’s knack for variation. As the guitars bring more of the surf-ready melodies, the drums hit a little harder, bringing a real grittiness to the backdrop. Its more direct lyrics offers more insight into the duo, once again making it relatable.
Does that mean we could expect future volumes? Yeah, absolutely. It’s nice to sort of tie songs together in that way. Singles are all well and good, but our main goal is to release as much music as possible as quickly as possible. I think the EP/volumes thing is a nice way of marking where we are at with the writing, it helps us to put a pin in things and acts like a sort of milestone.
Is that what’s planned for 2024? We’re both keen on doing as much as we can musically I think. This first group of songs that we’ve got, the 5 on the EP and then the rest that we wrote this year, were a conscious effort to write pop songs that were structured and produced in a traditional way. We want to be more expansive with the production going forward and not restrict ourselves to making guitar music, be more experimental with the writing and the production. That will come later in the year, we’ve got a couple of bigger projects planned for the first half of the year.
Other than that, I (Corey) am getting in to writing songs for TV and Charlie wants to explore soundtracking. That’s part of what makes us what we are, the fact that we aren’t a typical live band. It’s really the writing that we’re interested in.
What did you listen to the most last year? We’re both massive fans of The Lemon Twigs so their album Everything Harmony has been on repeat for months now. We both got back in to a lot of albums we were into as kids too so Smashing Pumpkins’ album Siamese Dream has had a fair amount of plays.
The Lemon Twigs influence shines through the EP, with a lot of its instrumentals baring the same level of old-school soft rock, and care-free music that made Everything Harmony so well received. ‘Ready When You Are’ feels like it could be a Lemon Twigs song. Its Beach Boys-esque vocals ease through the layers of guitars, producing a really nice vibe that welcomes anybody in. ‘Lifetime’ picks up the pace but ensures its highlights are given the time to be heard, including the little vocal/guitar duet that sounds really good, as it celebrates life without an…unfavourable person.
The sound of Modern Rodeo Vol 1 has a very old-school, easy-going vibe to it. Was that the sound you wanted to make for this project, or did it just happen naturally? A bit of both really. It’s definitely what we wanted it to sound like but that came about quite naturally. There are certain guitar tones and arrangements that we are interested in so they naturally tend to come up in the songs, but equally we record and produce everything ourselves at home with quite limited gear so we don’t have much of a choice really; we’re doing the best with what we’ve got. We like to think the songs are good enough that the production can afford to be a bit creased here and there.
How’d you find songwriting and working as a duo compared to solo? It’s a weird one really because even when I (Corey) was doing the solo stuff all them years ago, Charlie was still very much there and we still played music together at that time; he even recorded the guitar for a few songs here and there back then. But collaborating with Charlie on this level is far more rewarding. We have similar taste, but each bring different stuff to the table. We complement each other well.
You mentioned that Tumblr and Pinterest helped you discover songwriters that you became inspired by. I don’t think I’ve heard those places mentioned as a goldmine of music before – just how good are they? We are a duo that cares solely about aesthetic and being on trend. Tumblr and Pinterest allow us to dive in to what cool young people are doing and listening to, then we just cater what we write around that. We’re really trying to make like massive amounts of money from this so being up to date with what is commercially viable is super important to us. We have weekly round table meetings with Nat about what’s selling and what isn’t, what’s hot and what’s not; that really helps shape the nucleus of the duo.
Finally, what’s your favourite fruit? The fruits of our labour! We’ll be right back after a word from Marshall Rug Gallery…
If there was one release that would help ease us gently into the new year, this would be it. Modern Rodeo Vol 1. is an effortlessly accessible EP that could be enjoyed by anyone. Sonically it sticks to its genres well and packs its songs with instrumentals that always have something going on. Whether it’s the melodies, harmonies or vocals – there’s something for everybody. The duo do a great job of allowing their personalities and emotions to be heard through the lyrics, without taking too much away from the light-hearted nature of their sound. This is great, and a great go-to EP.