Getting the Lowdown on the Locash Cowboys

If you have never heard of Locash Cowboys, heard their music, or seen one of their shows you are truly missing out. Locash Cowboys are newly signed to Montage, an independent label. The duo of Chris & Preston have a long career ahead of them and put on one of the best shows I have seen in a long time. They are not only great musicians they are both very down to earth and funny.

Nora: Who have been your greatest influences?
Preston: Probably Baby Face, Boys II Men and my great uncle Albert E Brumley who wrote I'll Fly Away and other great gospel songs. He was the one we always talked about. I grew up in church and always wanted to write songs like that. If I could ever write like that and touch people's lives like that, that would be wonderful. That was always kind of on my mind trying to make my family proud and do something like my great uncle had done.
Chris: Frank Sinatra, Garth Brooks. Garth Brooks is the reason I'm in country music. I like rock, watching 80's rockers; I wanted to be like them. I wanted to be White Snake; I wanted to be all those guys so 80's had a lot to do with it.

Nora: If you could record one cover song what would it be?
Chris: There's two of them can we pick two?
Preston: One of them is Bobbie Sue. The Oak Ridge Boys said they would come in the studio and cut it with us if we ever did it. The whole Boys II Men II album, I Love A Rainy Night. There's so many.
Chris: Purple Rain
Preston: Yeah, we sing the butt out of that one.

Nora: If you could go back in time and see one concert what would it be?
Chris: Michael Jackson
Preston: Elvis

Nora: What advice would you give to someone who wants to get into the music business?
Chris: It's tough; don't let anyone tell you it's not tough. Don't let anyone tell you it's easy and when you think you're going to fall stay strong. Surround yourself with good people and network. It's all about networking.
Preston: I think you've just got to have a tough skin from the beginning. You've got to be ready for people to say no and use it as fuel and motivation. Like Chris said you have to surround yourself with people that will give you really good advice. You have to settle down, learn from your mistakes and have patience. The biggest thing I've seen grow in Chris & Preston is patience. And it's a smart kind of patience. We know how to gauge our patience. If a situation calls for patience we know how to bring it in a very professional way. Nothing called for patience before, we were just shot gun shooting all the way to the sky. Now we know when to shoot and how to shoot and it has one of our strengths.

Nora: With all of the craziness of the whole music industry what keeps you guys grounded?
Chris: We're grounded?
Preston: We're grounded for two weeks is that what you're saying?
Chris: That's the whole meaning of Locash. Locash means remembering where you came from and everything you do. There's so many people we want to pay back money wise and we'll take care of them as soon as we get money. Both of us are going to take care of our parents. They have put up with just about everything. There are friends and others like that who stay by you and keep you grounded. I think that's just the main part of being successful too.
Preston: I think church keeps me grounded. The more we are on the road the tougher it is to get to church because we travel on Sundays a lot but you have to go to your inner strength and your inner beliefs and things like that to stay grounded. Just being true to who we are really and remembering that we are still just Chris & Preston all the time.

Nora: Tell me something not everyone knows about you.
Preston: I have a tattoo on my butt.
Chris: No he doesn't. Nobody really knows our age but I like that and we'll keep it that way. I don't know what people don't know about us. I played baseball for 17 years.
Preston: We'll just say this one of us is 16 and the other is 17. You guess who the older brother is. A lot of people don't know that I'm a hunter. I'm a big outdoorsman and a lot of people are like no way get out of here. I carry guns on the bus and I have a whole bag of camo clothes ready to go. I just love to be outdoors.

Nora: When did you guys sign your record deal with Montage?
Chris: Verbally it happened about 2 months ago before Christmas. We were offered the deal 2 days before Christmas and I put it under the tree for my parents. They were so excited. It's back now at the label we will probably sign it within the next week or two. It's a done deal we just haven't finished all the little stuff in between.
Preston: We've been talking to Montage and Tony Conway since late July early August so we have been dating for a while. We knew in our hearts that's where we wanted to be. We had some other deals on the table, great labels, great guys, great business people but you just know in your gut when you want to do something and be with somebody.
Chris: Everyone over there is just wonderful. It's a really good label and a really good guy Allen Butler, very smart the whole staff over there is awesome and we're just looking forward to it.
Preston: We told Allen thank you and it means so much to us and we accepted the offer. I'll never forget he's like you guys really deserve this, you've worked so hard and we've been watching and you deserve a shot at this. He said I'm going to put a deal together that's fair for everybody and it just felt really good to hear. Allen has been one of those guys like Tony Conway and Montage is going to be our record label for the rest of our lives. We don't want to go anywhere; we don't have plans on leaving. This is where we want to be. We want to be part of the team and help the label, help Locash, help Buddy Lee, and everybody become a powerhouse together.