Tod Hughes unveils his new single, “Cowtown”
Winnipeg, MB-based singer-songwriter Tod Hughes recently released his new single, “Cowtown,” a cow punk ode to his 27 years living in Calgary. The song itself was recorded and produced by Rusty Robot.
Listen to “Cowtown” below and learn more about Tod Hughes via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
“Cowtown” was inspired as the airplane rose above the City of Calgary on my first flight in a long time, given the pandemic, to say a final goodbye to my lovely, young niece. I was filled with sadness and couldn’t help but think back to the 27 years in Calgary, with such bittersweet feelings of love, joy, loss, sadness, and heartbreak. All the things that make a life.
The words poured out of me onto my iPad, and a poem was borne. When I returned to the city, I put a melody to the words and a simple chord progression and poured my heart out into a somewhat sad country song, which I sang into a phone video. When we played it live with the band, producer Rusty Robot (Waking Eyes, Weakerthans, Sheepdogs) heard it, and he had a different vision. Faster, more upbeat, cowpunk style and really capture the anthemic chorus for a catchy, fun song. He also said, “no, it’s not called Land of Heartbreak, Land of Dreams, it’s called Cowtown!”
Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?
I draw inspiration from everything around me, a drive in the car, a conversation, a newspaper article, a random thought in my head, “when did disco die?”, people walking on the street and my most extreme feelings. And I could surely go on and on. I’m inspired by the life we live to document these stories in song.
Do you have any upcoming shows or festivals you’d like to tell us about?
We’re playing a great outdoor venue in Winnipeg called the Beer Can on Friday, August 19, 22, and then a super cool weekend-long festival called GentleFest on Sunday, August 28, in Teulon, MB. Then it’s back to the Alley in September.
What’s your goal for 2022?
For the balance of ‘22 I would like to get as many eyeballs on the Cowtown video as possible and record and release a few more of the 70% done songs in a similar fashion. My goal with music is to be able to play in great venues with fun people and then share the love that music stirs in our collective hearts as often as possible and as wide as possible.