Galactic Cowboys: Where Are They Now?

After their successful 2000 launch into the outer realms of space, to disappear and retire to their Ranch on Mars, I heard The Buzz that the individual members had indeed returned from traveling past the Red Sun and made it Through the entire Sea of Tranquility to settle in the lower parts of the US. So I sought out to face The Struggle and overcome the Stress of making contact with the extra-terrestrial spacemen of this once great band. Now, while I’m Not Amused by the minor difficulty I had in reaching them In This Life, I was Bound and determined by my Young Man’s Dream to push forward, and finally get to ask them “Where Are You Now?” Unfortunately, I never did get a chance to ask About Mrs. Leslie, but Fear Not, I covered other territory of interest for your Idle Minds. To some of my questions, they had Nothing to Say, but At the End of the Day I did get them to Speak to Me about other issues. I won’t print the responses that you’d Never Understand, but I hope that you can all Breakthrough the rest that we print here, and Just Like Me, grasp a better understanding of The Shape of things now, and how musically It’s Not Over for some of them individually. So the Future may hold Bright Horizons for them in A Different Way than that which they had with the Galactic Cowboys, and that is what I set out to discover. So sit back In a Lonely Room, grab a Bucket of Chicken, and try to Internalize the current Life and Times of a band who was anything but Ordinary, and who made music that was Easy to Love. For me, I Can’t Wait to see what Tomorrow may bring from these four talented musicians. SPACE IN YOUR FACE!

I was able to catch up with all five members related to the band: Ben Huggins (voice), Monty Colvin (bass), Alan Doss (drums), Wally Farkas (guitars) and original guitarist Dane Sonnier (recorded on the first two albums).

Jeff McCormack: So, start us off by going back and telling us about the reasons behind the timing of the disbanding in 2000.
Monty: Well, we knew as we were recording “Let It Go” in 2000 that it was going to be the last one, hence the title. We just all agreed that it was going to be the last one, and we’d just go on from there. We been together, the core of me and Ben, had been doing it for like ten years, and at least from me, it was just a lot of frustration of never really getting to where we wanted. Plus, towards the end it was really hard to keep the thing going financially, plus the label was backing out of things, and it got real discouraging. It just seemed like after ten years, it was time for us to move on and try other things.

Wally: The band had been around for many years, and everything was great, but we were tired, and wanted a break and just wanted to see what else was happening.

Let me get the obviously question out of the way. Has there been any discussion about a reunion of any kind?
Monty: Well, I get asked about it all the time, and the four of us have talked about doing something, but I am in Missouri and they are down in Houston. I talked to Ben this past summer, and I stay in touch with Wally, and I think we’d really enjoy doing something again someday, so who knows.

Ben: It is hard, because everybody is doing different things, and motivations have changed. I guess I am still filled with nostalgia for what we did, and I can’t imagine anything better than that. I have hopes we’ll do it again, I enjoyed it and miss it, but you never know.

Dane: I had a great time, and would love to get out there and thrash it out again. I think it would be doable if it was planned correctly, even if for just a couple of shows. It would be hard, but it could be done if everyone wanted it. I would be interested in being a part, and we should do it as a five piece with both Wally and I. It would be great.

Without wasting words, let’s get on to the subject at hand, where have you been? Let’s start with Monty.
Monty: Well, I started the Crunchy thing eight or nine years ago. I put out the first Crunchy album (2001’s All Day Sucker) on another label that went bankrupt. The next album was Clown School Dropout (2003), which I put out on my own. Then I’ve worked the past four years on this new one (2007’s Loserville), and I do all of the instruments myself except for the drums, and they’re just purely solo albums. They have gotten heavier with each release, and the newest is probably the best stuff I have done so far. I still do my art which has been used on various albums and elsewhere.

I have all three releases, and I agree they have gotten better and heavier. I have to ask though, how would you classify the musical style of Crunchy? I had a hard time pin pointing your style in my recent review.
Monty: I don’t know (laughter). It is kind of like Galactic in kind of being a cross between Metallica and the Beatles and Cheap Trick, and mine leans a little more into punk at time. Very melodic, harmony vocals, with metal riffs and a punk feel to it.

Anything else you’d like to say?
Monty: You can find out about all my releases, my current happenings and my art at MontyColvin.com.

OK, so where have you been for the past seven years, Ben?
Ben: Well, for the first three years I was just working and paying bills, and ignoring the musical side of life (laughter). Then Len Sonnier, our original guitarist Dane’s brother, met us at a Dream Theater show when they came through in 2002, and they wanted us to come on stage and sing back ups on Take the Time.

Hold it! How is there this connection with Dream Theater, that they would ask you to come sing?
Ben: They knew we lived in Houston, and they said they’d love to have the Cowboy’s come up and sing, because we used to do that every night when we toured with them in 1993.

So, I called the guys and said let’s do it. So we went over in the afternoon, sat around during sound check, and we did the song with them that night. So it was me and Wally and Alan and Dane, and it was just a rush to be back on stage again. After that, it was like “Wow! Just like old times.” So I started getting the hankering to do something again.

So Len and I decided to get together and do some writing. We both had songs we were working on, so we through them together and did a show a couple months later. We need a name, and I threw out Gristle, and it stuck. So we’re more or less a band, and have played out a handful of times each year for the past four years or so. We have about ten songs recorded, and Alan (Doss) is mixing them. But it is just slow going, because it is hard when everyone has families and everything; it is just hard when music is no longer your primary focus, to follow through with the little inklings that you have to be back on stage or record again. It is hard to get everyone’s schedule to overlap enough to practice and put on a good show. Back in the days with Galactic Cowboys, when we started out, we were rehearsing like it was a job, for hours a day, for like five days a week.

For now, we play out occasionally, and you can hear some stuff at myspace.com/gristlemusic

It is just hard to do that when it is not your primary focus any longer, and you are trying to pay bills and own things like houses and cars (laughter). We have no Mr. Moneybags, and no one has walked up and offered to financially back your next project, and here is a bunch of money (laughter). Maybe someone will read this go, “I’m going to give those guys some money” (laughter).

I can relate, as I play in a band, and it is not our primary focus, and it is really hard to get five guys to overlap in schedules to just practice regularly.
Ben: The biggest problem is with my job. I work at night for a theatrical company, and so when there is a show running, every night I am there. It is hard because most of the others have daytime jobs, and their time is usually at night, so I am the odd man out. It just gets hard with the struggles, so it eventually never happens. It goes through spurts, I get all hyped up, and say I’m not going to back down this time, we’re going to do it; that lasts a while, then goes away (laughter).

It is so hard to sustain as one person too. I am all into band dynamics. I never felt a song of mine was finished until everybody else had the chance to get their hands on it. If I brought a song in, and everyone liked it and we decided to do it as is…that didn’t hardly ever happen. Someone would suggest adding this, or doing something here, and then it became a band thing, instead of a me thing, and I just thrived on that; that was the way I felt complete musically and creatively. There is still some insecurity about what I do, so until I get that approval from the rest of the guys, then it becomes a different thing, a group effort. So I miss that. It is a similar thing with Len, but it is just the two of us for the most part.

Okay, let’s move on to Wally – where you been?
Wally: Before I was in the band, I was on the business side of the music business, working for a large national distributor, so I went back to work there after the band ended. That company went under in 2003, so I started me own distribution company, doing CD sales to brick and mortar businesses. With the internet, which is basically taking over, the way things worked in the music industry as little as five years ago, just isn’t working anymore. Now it is turning to downloads, and so many people bypass the brink and mortar businesses. So I sold my interest in the company and started my own company called Molken Music (molkenmusic.com), and do distribution direct to consumer through CDs and downloads, direct from a web site.

Playing wise, I have done a few gigs anonymously playing guitar on some rap records, some independent, some major label. I have a side project with Ty Tabor (King’s X) called Xenuphobe, and we put out an album last year, and we just put out a new one last month called 2.0: Electrolux. I spent the entire summer of this year in L.A. with Doug Pinnick working on his new solo album for Magna Carta Records called Strum Some Up to be released Nov. 20th. I co-produced it and played some of the guitars.

So I have been busy in the music industry since the band ended, but more so behind the scenes. As far as playing, I now feel like this year I have been pulled out of retirement. I’ve been writing and demoing songs, and will start a solo project that I have been threatening for years. You can keep up with me on myspace.com/wallyfarkas.

And how about you, Alan?
Alan: Well, I have been staying busy playing music, some recording and producing. Nothing that is majorly out there. Recently I have been working on doing a country thing, playing bass in it. We’re in the beginning of the recording stage, and then we’ll shop it. I have a lot of roots growing up with country music, so I am pursuing this. I also play in a cover band five nights a week for the money, and other projects kind of work around that. But I am playing music steadily. Not mush else to report, you can keep track of some of his happenings through myspace.com/alandoss.

And lastly, let us move on the he who has been gone the longest. Dane Sonnier, where have you been for the past TWELVE years? (laughter)
Dane: Well, when I left the Cowboys, I was a chef, so I immediately fell into writing songs and performing songs with my brother (Len, formerly of Atomic Opera), and he and I were an acoustic duo for about the first year. After a while we got a band together, and did a demo for Capitol, and they rejected it. A while later we did one for Atlantic, and they rejected it as well, so a few years later we put out a CD ourselves. We recently did a four song EP, and that has been about it. We’ve played shows opening for everyone from the Marshall Tucker Band to the Arc Angels. We’ve done a lot of opening slots and just playing everywhere regionally.

You can find out more about Dane and hear the Sonnier Brother band at sonnierbrothersband.com

There was other talk about the future, the idea of releasing a CD of demo and un-issued material, etc. With all of the guys devoting time to so many other issues, the possibilities of anything from the Cowboy’s camp will surely depend on the interest of the fans. To show support and let the guys know they still have fans, be sure to go to galacticcowboys.com and show the love in the forum.

STORY BY JEFF MCCORMACK

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