Premiere: Argot – “Cowboy”

Today, Charleston indie rockers Argot return with their first taste of new music since 2019, a new single called “Cowboy” that we are happy to debut here on Extra Chill. The track was recorded and produced by Corey Campbell of Babe Club and shows the band preparing to come out of this pandemic stronger than ever. This marks the first time that Argot has worked with a producer outside the band, and is one of a collection of songs that they’ve written over the past year and a half.

“Cowboy” brings a hopeful, yet fatalistic energy that shows Argot’s John Brooker’s continued development as a self-deprecating songwriter (as always, inspired by Matt Berninger of The National). According to the band, this song is somewhat of a rallying cry as we approach warmer weather and the end of the “final years of 2020”. The recording itself features a welcome clarity thanks in no small part to Corey’s prowess behind the boards, with a thick bass line leading into an optimistic, yet restrained guitar melody and John’s vocals rising triumphantly above it all as he sings on the hook, “It’s our time in the light!”.

I’ve said this in the past with their last single “Bar in the Sky”, but this song is the strongest I’ve heard from Argot to date and it’s a sign of even more good things to come from this band.

Listen to “Cowboy” by Argot below, and learn more about the track and Argot’s future plans in the Q&A below that.

How did you / the band spend your time, creatively, during quarantine? 

We didn’t really practice as a band until sometime in the summer. I wrote this song early on in the pandemic just recording on my computer. I think we all did different things creatively during quarantine. I started playing drums a little bit but beyond that and coming up with the bones to this song I wasn’t super creative. It was a weird time where you think – well now that I have all the time in the world I can finally work on all these creative projects, but too much free time can almost be stifling to me. I don’t think the existential terror of global catastrophe helped much either.  Grady, our bassist, recorded and released a solo acoustic EP titled Shoot the Messenger. I think Chris funneled his creative energy into growing cucumbers and mastering the alchemy of fermentation.

Is the single from an album, or standalone? 

We’re planning to release an EP or maybe an album. We have a lot of new songs, but haven’t recorded all of them or decided whether to do an EP or LP. 

How did you link up with Corey?

From listening to Babe Club and some of the Susto tunes we thought that Corey was a great musician and producer. Also as a band of three guitarists (everyone’s primary instrument) we thought the producer might as well be a guitarist as well – kidding. We were definitely interested in someone that could produce more than just hit the record button. I think each of us in Argot are fairly proficient in recording and we were used to DIY-ing a lot However we thought it would be good to get someone involved who could really step back and try to conduct the big picture of the song. Corey was really helpful with that and had a lot of great ideas to really make the song shine. 

Anything else you want to mention? 

Get vaccinated.