Have you ever wondered about the experience of up and coming artists in The Pacific Northwest? In this post, I will be showcasing an interview with Oregon-based folk rock artist, Christian Boyd, AKA Cowboyd, how he got into the industry, and how he navigates venues, social media, music videos, and promotion. I am hoping this will give insight to other artists who may be wondering how to navigate those topics themselves and give insight on what others in similar situations are doing.
Where are you from?
Chris: I’m from a really small town in Oregon, called Burns but I moved to Eugene for college, and I’ve lived there since 2019.
When did you start playing music?
Chris: Oh god, I think I started in fifth grade. I started playing saxophone in fifth grade.
What drew you to it?
Chris: I was gonna pick trombone and then my parents were like you should pick something cooler than trombone, and I was like sure. I had the option to either do like a home room studies class or band and I was like, you know, that sounds really boring, I’m gonna do band.
What kind of music do you currently play?
Chris: I play a lot of stuff. I guess my my main project me as an artist is cowboy, and that’s sort of like a folk-rock emo grungy type situation. but I I’ve played everything. I play saxophone for a kind of like an R&B rap group we’re on hiatus because our singer is in LA, but he’s coming back. So I do that, and then I also play bass for like an emo band. Yeah, I’ve kind of done it all.
We’re sort of on hiatus at the moment, but I used to front a grunge rock band called Kidcaid. We’re kind of just all going our separate ways. We met in college. And then just the way things are working out. We’re not gonna end up in the same place together, which is just how things go sometimes, but we’ll probably drop some like last stuff that we’ve been working on as a band. But that will probably be it. I think pretty much every band that I’ve known that started in a college scene that was like a band, wasn’t someone’s solo project that they had people playing for or something adjacent to that either, broke up or they moved, and then they like replaced most of the members.
Will Cowboyd be continuing for a while?
Chris: Definitely, that is going to continue, I think, as long as I still feel the drive to make music for that project and I don’t really see that ending anytime soon. But we actually recorded a record in December of just stuff that I had written over the past couple of years. And I have a band that backs me up and we went up to Astoria and did some recordings. It’ll come out this summer, so we’re gonna stick around for at least that long.
Who else is in your band?
Chris: So, my good friend, Jack Keith, plays guitar. He also does a lot of the production for my recorded stuff. I have an album of just some solo tracks on Spotify, and that was all mastered, mixed, and produced by him. My friend Kira plays bass for me right now and then my friend, Bradley Colleen, plays drums and he’s incredible. He’s honestly probably the reason that we even had a band in the first place.
How did your band start and how did you meet your band members?
Chris: The band itself has actually only been a band for under a year, which is kind of crazy. Me and Kira both played together in Kidcaid and, like I said earlier, Jack did all of the production on my first album and he also played like a couple of instruments on it, and I guess by the way it went down, we started making music together at least from a technical standpoint, probably 2 years ago. But I had known Jack since my freshman year of college because he was an ex-music Major and I met him at the music school. We were just kind of friends, and then in my junior year of college, we actually became roommates and that’s how we met. Then I met Brad because he moved to Oregon because his friend, Isaac, had moved to Oregon, who was the cousin of one of my roommates named Damian who I was also in Kidcaid with and then we just sort of met that way. He said something about liking Pine Grove, and we just kinda took off from there.
Did you want to make a career out of this?
Chris: You know, that is the question, right? I think I’ve always kind of approached being in a band like I’m gonna do everything I can to make sure that if people are hearing my music and they like it, I’m gonna promote it and I’m gonna put it out into the world. I’m not going to bank on the fact that I would make it into a career and I’m not going to attempt to do that. I think that’s something that if it happens, that’s a really incredible thing, but the second you start to make things with the intent of it being a job, it changes how your art is made. It changes your reasons for making it, and it changes the outcome. So, I mean, if it happened, it would be really cool, but I definitely don’t make music with the intent of it like blowing up. If that makes sense.
Is this the biggest focus in your life?
Chris: You know, I don’t know if it’s the biggest. It’s definitely a big piece of my life, but I would say it’s a bigger piece of my creative output at the moment. I mean, there’s so many things that happen in my life. I wouldn’t say it’s the main thing. It’s definitely a really big part, but not the main thing.
What venues did you start off playing at?
Chris: My first ever show as a band was at, I think they’re called the Monster House now, but it was in a backyard. As a solo project, the first time I ever played songs for that [Cowboyd] was in my living room, I think, the summer previous.
What venues do you currently play at?
Chris: Kinda everything. It really depends on where people book us. We played at John Henry’s, which is a bar, last night. We played a backyard a couple of weekends ago. We’re playing a house show next weekend, it just depends. There are definitely venues that are more fun. And sometimes, there’s venues that just have better sound quality. But it’s pretty much wherever.
Do you like house shows or bars better?
Chris: The energy in a house show, if everyone’s going crazy, is a lot of fun but, like last night our mix and our sound quality at a bar was incredible and it’s kinda nice to have that, because a house shows a toss-up most of the time. It’s also nice to have a stage, which is cool. I don’t know, I like them both. I think they both have their merits.
How do you usually book venues?
Chris: Either someone reaches out to you, It’s usually another band, or for this show, we had an actual like booker, like someone who book shows for that bar reach out to us or if that doesn’t happen then usually me or somebody else that I know is like, I wanna do a show and I’m like cool, I also wanna do that show. And then we do the exact same thing, we hit up a band or we get a booker to book us a bill.
Do you have a band manager or do you all collectively take on a little bit of that role?
Chris: I think it’s technically me. I think I’ve booked all of our shows for the most part. And that’s, I think, mostly because it’s my solo project. The band is an extraordinarily important piece, and I would not be doing what I’m doing without them. But when I was first starting to book shows just for myself, I was just doing them anyway, and then I just kind of snowballed from there.
Do you have anybody that helps promote your band?
Chris: Not specifically, I don’t. I definitely don’t hire a promoter. I do plenty of that on my own. I do the whole TikTok thing. I definitely manage all the social media and make all the posts and stuff, and I’m pretty active there. But also, there’s some pretty good Instagram accounts that just promote local shows in Oregon which is really rad, and then if we’re playing at a bar, usually, there’s a promoter of some kind cause they wanna make sure they hit their guarantee for the show. And then just friends too; people reposting your stories on Instagram, that kind of thing.
I know you only have one released music video right now, do you plan on making more?
Chris: You know, was it a lot of fun? And would I like to do another one? Yeah, it was sick. I loved making a music video. It was really cool. I don’t think it’s beneficial. I think that if any bands end up reading this, you are a lot better off spending your money on filming vertical content for the Internet than you are spending money on filming a music video for YouTube. That’s just how people consume stuff now, but if I was rich and famous, and I had all the money in the world and was like, you know what? I’m just gonna throw money at shit that I would do music videos all the time. It’s so much fun.
Do you make them yourself or do you work with a media production company/videographer?
Chris: So the only reason I actually did a music video at all is because I have a friend, who is like a pretty famous TikToker, and she was like, I have this music video production friend, who like runs this company in Eugene and they’re looking for people to just start doing music videos with and they’ll do it with you, and they’ll do it for cheap. And I was like, that sounds awesome. And they’re incredible. If they end up reading this, or if anyone is looking to do a music video, Palisade Plain Music Videos is incredible. They’re on Instagram. They’re awesome, it was awesome. It was seriously the best experience I’ve had with a production crew, probably ever for anything, but they were amazing. They made the process so easy, and I just had to sit there and just kind of look cool, and that was it.
Who are your favorite bands to be on the lineup with?
Chris: That’s a tough question. Solution Honey is practicing in my basement right now, but I love Solution Honey. I’m friends with the band, and they make incredible music, definitely shout out to them in general, but also they’re so much fun to be on a bill with.
And then they’re PNW, so I’m gonna put them out there, but Desolation horse. Those guys are unbelievable. Best band in the PNW if you ask me. But we played a show with them in July, and it was probably the most fun I’ve ever had at a show. I love their music. Absolutely incredible musicians. I should throw out a third one. It’s tough, there’s a lot of good bands here locally.
I only played with them once, and I played with them with my old band, but Growing Pains. You’ve probably heard of them, they’re definitely popping off. They’re insane. They’re just so good, and I remember, we opened for them one time when I was playing with Kidcaid, and then they followed us. And I was like oh my god, this is just insane! So yeah, I need to play with them again. But I would say, as far as bands that I like looked at the bill and then they played, and I was like oh my god, it’s Growing pains for sure!
Have you gone on tour? Do you plan to go on tour?
Chris: Kind of yes, and then yes, definitely planning a tour. We were going to try and do one in April and schedules just did not line up. But I think we’re gonna try and do one, I’m hoping for fall or winter. It probably won’t be anything crazy, but we’ll probably do something around then. I wouldn’t say that I’ve gone on tour fully, but I definitely have played like a lot of dates consecutively on weekends before, like I’ve done like Corvallis, Portland, and then Eugene, which is 3 days. It’s not really a tour, but it’s fun, it’s a lot of fun.
When you go on tour in Fall or Winter, are you going to keep it in the Pacific Northwest and West Coast or are you going to branch out a little bit more?
Chris: I think we’re gonna keep it in the PNW because that’s where we have the most friends, and it will probably just be easiest. We’ll probably do like Eugene, Corvallis, Portland, something in Idaho, Seattle, something along those lines.
Do you have a website?
Chris: I don’t have a website, but all of my social medias are just @Cowboydchris.
Will you be getting a website one day?
Chris: Yes, working on that right now. I would love to because I have a band camp, and I own the rights to Cowboyd, the domain, but I want my own website, because I wanna be able to ship people merch if they want it. I’ve had a lot of people asking me about that. So yes, TBD on timing, but hopefully within the next couple of months.
Which streaming platforms do you post your music on?
Chris: If you can stream music on it, it’s there. But just for like the main ones: Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube music, it’s on TikTok, pretty much everything.
Do you have a close relationship with your fans?
Chris: The short answer to that is, yes, and like I don’t know if we know each other on a deep spiritual level, or anything, but I will always talk to a fan if they’re out at a show, if they see something on my TikTok and they shoot me a DM, or if they just come up because they see me walking around, and they’re like hey, I love this song, I will always, always talk to someone who has anything to say about my music. And especially if they’re at a show or if they’re streaming my music, that means a lot to me, and it is not something that I overlook or take lightly.
When promoting a show, do you just post it on social media or are there any other promotion tactics that you have?
Chris: The best ones are social media, and then, at least in Eugene, putting up posters on college campuses is pretty much the best way. There are other ways, but in this day and age everyone consumes stuff online, or you see it because you are forced to go there. Putting stuff on billboards around classrooms because people are just there. I think I’m lucky enough that my demographic is almost all under 40 years old and heavily uses their phone, myself included.
Do you want a larger following in the future?
Chris: That’s the goal. One of the funniest things I ever heard was, I was talking to one of my friends about just the size of bands, and like where they’re hoping to get to, and he was like, well, they’re not getting smaller. And I think that has a lot of merit, because like I said earlier, I’m not like banking on blowing up, and I would never attempt to make a career out of something that doesn’t want to be a career like organically. But with that said, if you’re making art and you’re not promoting it, then like what’s the point, you know? And especially if it starts to catch on, because then you’re like, oh, this is something that people are into, and I should do more of this because somebody out there likes it more than just myself stuck in my bedroom. And there’s a lot of people who spend their entire creative careers just stuck in their room. But I don’t believe in that, because I don’t think you can move forward unless you’re trying to grow as an artist and if that means legitimate numbers, like you have more followers and more fans, that’s awesome.
You said that you have a TikTok that you manage. Do you do viral videos and all of that?
Chris: I’m not like a viral TikToker by any means, but I post on it because basically, what happened is, I was like still in college, and I was like super broke, I’m still not rich or anything, but I was like what do I do? I’ve released this music and I don’t have money to promote it. I’m not rich. I’m not backed by a label. I’m completely independent. What do I do? And I was like, well, people are blowing up on TikTok. They’ve been doing it ever since the pandemic happened. I might as well give it a shot. And for, like I don’t know, probably 2 months, it was just like nothing. And I was like, well, they say you have to do it every day, so I just kept sticking with it. And then eventually I had stuff start to do well. And I’m still, like I said, by no means am I like viral or famous, but I was like, oh, I broke the 1,000 followers mark, and then I broke the 5,000 followers mark and I just kept going. And I could see a direct correlation between posting a video that does well about your music, and then growth in numbers or fans where people come into your shows. And I was like until I have a ton of money, who knows when that’s gonna happen, this is the best thing to do.
And unfortunately, social media is at the forefront of people under 40 years of age in society right now. That’s where you get your information, that’s just how you consume. And kind of back to my comment, I said you would be better off spending money on however many dollars’ worth of vertical content than a music video, it’s true, because that’s just where people get their information and they’re also looking for it, which I thought was really interesting. I started doing a TikTok live, not thinking that anyone was gonna care, but there is a surprisingly large amount of people out there who are actively looking for new music and are open to listening to new music and want to find you before you’re famous.
Would you ever sign onto a record label?
Chris: That’s the 1-million-dollar question, literally. I’m gonna go with yes, but it would just need to be the right thing. And, I guess I should say that the right thing may not be like a multi-million-dollar deal with Warner records or something. The right thing might be just signing a record deal where you give a portion of your royalties to an indie label, but they can do things like print your vinyl and book you a tour, you know. If I was going to sign with a record label. It would need to be something where I wasn’t signing my life away just for a dollar sign, it would need to be something that I really believed in and felt was betterment for me as an artist and nothing else. I’ve been in this situation before, where I was relying on my art to make money. That sucks. That’s not fun. And it completely changes how you make art. It’s just not the same. And I don’t know, I feel like a lot of people don’t have the opportunity to have that happen to them and realize that. And then someone waves, however much money in front of their faces, and then they hate what they do. I mean, that’s the downfall of so many rock stars.
Would you ever consider hiring a talent manager, social media manager, or pr specialist to help promote your band?
Chris: Yeah, but they would need to be really, really, really good and they would need to be like just so undeniably worth the money, because I’ve done more for myself by posting stupid, like 30 second videos on TikTok than I think any promoter has done for any one of my friends who have ever gone that route. I don’t know. The thing about people doing your promotion for you is, there’s stuff that does work, and there’s stuff that doesn’t require you to be a face. But a lot of times people get into your music, not because they even like the music as much as they do you. They like you as the person, and then they listen to your music as a result, and no promoter is gonna replicate me on the Internet. They could post my music, and that’s awesome. That’s really good, but I don’t know, it kinda depends. They would need to be like insane and absolutely unbelievable at their job.
Has anything ever happened to bring you bad publicity?
Chris: Not that I know of and I’m hoping that that doesn’t happen. You never know, but knock on wood. It hasn’t happened yet.
Would you know what to do in response, if that happened?
Chris: Yeah. I think to an extent. I mean, it depends on what’s happening. People get accused of stuff on the Internet all the time and I think it just kinda depends on how deeply you let yourself get involved in that kind of thing. I’m not one of those people who overshares on the Internet or in public, because I definitely believe in keeping the art separate from my private life, you know? But I guess yeah, you would just need to own up to whatever happened and then just roll with the punches.
What do you think of the music industry in Eugene and the Pacific Northwest? Do you think we have a certain style that’s more prevalent here?
Chris: I’m gonna say, yeah. I definitely think there are like 3 sides of a triangle to the west coast. And I think the West Coast is like a triangle that has one extraordinarily large side, and then 2 little, tiny sides, right? The really large side is like Indie rock, and I mean, like chorus, pedal, surf Indie rock. When that like exploded in 2018, that has not gone away and that has been the main genre. And for a long time in Eugene, if you didn’t fit into the Indie Rock genre people are like go away. They did not want to hear what you had to say. That has changed in the last couple of years, which brings me to the other little side which is alt music. There are so many unbelievably good alt, emo, grunge, metal, hardcore bands in the Pacific Northwest and on the West coast, and for a really long time they did not get any love, any attention. And it was like, oh, you play that? And it’s cool because I’ve seen that change in the last couple of years and I’ve seen that get a lot more love. The other side of the triangle is folk music and that’s kind of just come in and out of popularity for a long time. We’re definitely having a moment again right now. There’s a lot of folk artists blowing up.
As far as the industry and Eugene goes, there’s just so much turnover. It’s so hard for it to be consistent, because the portion that consumes music and makes music the most is people who go to U of O and that changes every 4 years. Which is why you see so many bands come in, and then they’re like, oh my god! This new thing! And then they’re just gone, and you don’t know what happened to them. But it’s just strange. It’s a lot different in Portland or Seattle, or like in California, where there’s not a college, and it’s just kind of like a melting pot. Maybe something is predominant at the time, but it’s kind of random.
Are you gonna play at any music festivals this summer or attend any?
Chris: I’m about to put myself here, but I got tickets to Bakar, Young the Giant and Cage the Elephant in Bend. I’m really excited because I, like everyone else when it was 2013, was the biggest Cage the Elephant fan, right? But anyways, super stoked for that. I also got tickets to one of my favorite bands of all time, Mount Joy, and I am seeing them in August. I’ve seen them a couple of times. They’re incredible!
I might play at one music festival this summer. I live in a house called the Lighthouse, with like 5 other roommates and we’re all in bands, we’re all musicians, and we just kind of make music. And we’re all moving out of the house in July, and I think we’re gonna do Lighthouse Fest, and it’s gonna be like every musical project we’ve ever had. Which is like 12 to 15 bands. It’s a lot of music, so we’ll probably do that, but I’m hoping next year to get on Treefort Fest. Who knows if that’s going to happen? But that would be really cool.
What song would you recommend from the Pacific Northwest?
Chris: I’ve gotta throw out Desolation Horse. That band deserves to be infinitely famous. Heavy Rain by Desolation Horse is like the best song I’ve ever heard. And they were in Astoria for a really long time, and they just now moved to Moscow, Idaho, which is kind of still part of the PNW. But they are Pacific Northwest legends. They are incredible. Heavy rain. Desolation Horse. Best band on the western half of the United States, if you ask me.
Is there anything else you would like to share with the public?
Chris: Go follow my TikTok, and check out my Spotify if you like, but if anyone reads this, thanks for checking it out.
Instagram: @Cowboydchris
TikTok: @Cowboydchris
Spotify: Cowboyd
YouTube: @Cowboydchris
Apple Music: Cowboyd
PNW music recommendation of the week:
Emma Wright-Cloutier 
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