OneMetal.com INTERVIEW:
Job For A Cowboy talk to Onemetal.com

As Lamb Of God storm into the UK on the European leg of their “Wrath World Tour”, I`m lucky enough to be invited onto a tour bus for a chat with main support band and death-metal titans “Job For A Cowboy”.

As I settle into the front lounge opposite lead vocalist Johnny Davy, I`m struck by how “normal” everything looks and feels- there`s no upside-down crosses painted on the walls, no dead animals hanging from the ceiling, and Johnny himself looks more like a regular rocker than a death-metal frontman – time to find out more!!!

OneMetal: So, Johnny- you`re the only original and founding member of JFAC and you started out as more of a metalcore band- how did you get to this point being so different to how you started out?

Johnny Yeah that`s true though I consider Brent (Riggs- Bass guitar ) to be an original member too as he contributed to the first EP we ever wrote. back then we were a totally different band, different line-up and were all still at highschool. Then we kinda broke up for awhile before me and brent got a new line-up together and a new direction and death metal was just a natural progression.

OneMetal: What was the catalyst for this change in direction?

JohnnyWell we were all about 16 so it was just maturing and growing up, we didn`t know what we were doing back then, we were really under-developed as a band and we got recognised pretty fast for whatever reason, it`s beyond me (laughs)- so it was just us progressing with our craft and taste in music.

OneMetal: Over here, death-metal seemed to become more mainstream back in the 90`s whereas now, it`s more underground again- how was the scene in the U.S when you started out?

JohnnyI think we started in the midst of when the death-metal scene really started to progress, you know, it started to regain it`s popularity again but back then we got tagged along with alot of hardcore and metalcore bands so we were kinda out of the loop for a little bit so we didn`t really get accepted on the death-metal scene til 3, maybe 4 years ago.

OneMetal: And how is the scene over there now?

JohnnyIt`s been accepted alot more now, with gateway bands like Lamb Of God of course, the only difference being, now we have a bigger court to do it on.

OneMetal: You`re one of the few Myspace success stories, getting your break from your myspace page- how do you see Myspace now? Is it too swamped with bands vying for everyones attention?

Johnnyyeah, we got kinda lucky in that it was before every band realised that you could get your own music on the internet, with Myspace, and get hugely popular without even touring or doing anything- we couldn`t tour at the time because of our age and being still at school but at this point, I feel that it`s really watered down, it`s much harder to find good music now than it was back then in contrast- obviously it`s a great means to get your music out there but it`s gonna get washed away with all the other bands doing it.

OneMetal: So, how have things been for JFAC since signing with Metalblade Records?

JohnnyGreat, everything kinda picked up after that. Alot of younger bands think that once you get signed everything happens for you but it`s not like that at all, it`s alot of hard work- a label really doesn`t help as much as alot of people think,especially in this day and age where the record industry`s falling apart,every year, quicker and quicker, labels are closing down and scrambling to figure out what to at this point, especially underground labels.

OneMetal: Do you think that`s because of the current economic climate or because of downloading?

JohnnyIt`s the pirating- people downloading, which is something alot of bands really care about but when it comes to us, we`re more underground so it doesn`t really affect us so we`re all for it- we all do it ourselves so download away (laughs).

OneMetal: That said, how has (2nd album) “Ruination” been selling?

JohnnyIt`s been great- we hit the billboard charts again in the U.S which was cool the first time and again the 2nd time- I never thought I`d be in a band that makes the U.S billboard charts top 100 ha ha…..

OneMetal: Especially a Death-metal band…

Johnnyyeah- it`s kind of a mind-f*** really but alot of other bands like The Faceless and The Red Corps have just made it onto there too so it`s a good sign that metal is becoming alot more accepted, which is great for the metal community.

OneMetal: JFAC`s music is extremely brutal- is there anything in your upbringing that you feel may have led you specifically down this road?

JohnnyOur drummer Jon (Rice) and myself have metal parents that dragged us along to Pantera shows when I didn`t know what the hell was going on (laughs) and along with typical teenage angst I became a fan of grindcore and death metal growing up. Lyrically, my songs tend to be more political- my great grandfather was once the president of the Dominican Republic- which was weird ha ha- I used to live over there for a few years and my family would drag me out to hold signs on rallies and political campaigns and I didn`t know what was going on but I guess it`s a part of me now- I avoid the typical gore, horror death-metal cliches with my lyrics and do stuff that has meaning to me personally.

OneMetal: So what drives you on as a band? are you always striving to be more brutal than anyone else? what is your inspiration?

Johnnywe don`t have the inspiration to be the fastest, most brutal or most technical band by any means- we listen to all genres of music- Jon likes all the European black metal stuff whereas I`m more of a crusty, punk metal fan- when we write a record we all just get together, put our opinions in and pretty much do whatever makes us happy- we don`t really worry about anything else that`s out there, just ourselves.

OneMetal: With the intensity of JFAC`s music and live set, are you one of those bands that get so fired-up onstage that, to anyone not in the band it`s a case of “Stay away from us” before and after your performance?

JohnnyIt kinda is, yeah- usually we`re really mellow as you can probably tell by the area we`re sitting in (laughs) but that`s our time to really let our aggressions out- that 30minute timespan. It`s cool having that limited amount of time cos it keeps the energy levels up- we`re not the sort of band to just stand there and play, we`re all young guys and we like to be aggressive on stage- kinda like a punk rock attitude.

OneMetal: So what do you do to wind-down after your performance?

JohnnyWe`ll usually go hang out at the bar for a few beers then come back to the bus, weed…. ha ha. Some of us like to read, others draw and we do the videogame thing too- just typical stuff really.

OneMetal: Who inspires you personally as a musician and collectively as a band?

JohnnyThat`s always the hardest question!!! Someone asked me that just yesterday and again I`m spacing-out on his name right now but personally I`ve always been a huge fan of Nile`s vocalist (Karl Sanders) -Amongst the Catacombs was the first record I bought with my own money- Nile`s frontman is just awesome. as far as musically, I don`t know, I try to get inspiration from all music- I`m a huge Bjork and Radiohead fan….

OneMetal: Really? I think that`ll suprise alot of our readers…..

JohnnyYeah, all the guys are like that too, I think, when you`re in a metal band, you can`t always listen to metal cos it`s part of your job- you kinda want to avoid it sometimes and not deal with it.

OneMetal: Alot of bands that started out brutal like yourselves seem to have started adding alot more melody to their newer material- even Lamb Of God`s latest album sees Randy doing alot more melody with his vocals- do you see this as natural progression or selling out? and do you see JFAC heading in that direction in the near future?

JohnnyIt depends- I think we`ve added alot more melody on Ruination in contrast to the 1st album, Genesis and I think with LOG it`s a natural progression. For me, selling out is where you blatantly change your music and your style…

OneMetal: (coughs- Metallica ha ha)

Johnny (laughs) fair enough- but if as a band you`re progressively becoming more melodic I wouldn`t call it selling out. Alot of bands put out the same album, over and over, over and over (laughs), I`d love to name a few bands but I wont,ha ha but with us we really try to do the opposite and change things to some extent- to keep ourselves interested in the music and to keep our fans interested in our music.

OneMetal: So how`s things touring with LOG?

JohnnyThis is only day 2 but we just finished a tour in the states with them and GWAR and The Red Corps and it`s great- there`s no egos or anything- they got to tour with `tallica and everything yet they`re still cool- we can`t complain.

This is probably the biggest tour we`ve been on in Europe and when you go overseas it`s kinda like starting over but our fanbase seems to be getting bigger and better so we must be doing something right.

OneMetal: So what`s next for JFAC?

JohnnyWell, when we get back we`re gonna do a short quick U.S run, then we`ve got some dates in Australia and Japan with Goatwhore before coming back to Europe for the festivals and in the midst of all that we`ll be writing a new album!!!

OneMetal: Good times- on behalf of Onemetal and our readers I wish you all the best for your continued success and look forward to hearing more from you guys in the future.

JohnnyThank you.