Rodeo Terrorists are “imaginary musical friends,” a group for late-night post-party jams, torn between a teenage dream of global fame and the harsh understanding that they will remain in obscurity forever. Behind this image stands Richard – an independent DIY artist, a person accustomed to looking at the industry from behind the scenes and only now allowing himself to speak in the first person. His “Saltire (Tartan Army)” was created in 30 minutes during a work break. Inspired by the atmosphere of the legendary Tartan Army fans, he delivered an explosive DIY track where Celtic folk collides with the energy of electronic pop-rock in the spirit of New Order. In the interview, Richard talks about musical dreams that have survived decades, the backstage side of the industry, Scottish identity, the role of artificial intelligence in music, and why even the most absurd ideas sometimes deserve to become a song.
Hi Richard – glad you managed to step away from your work computer, at least for a little while. From what we know about you, you’re someone who can juggle several things at once – IT, music, websites for global stars, and a love for Scotland. Before we dive headfirst into all of that – tell us briefly: who are Rodeo Terrorists?
Its complicated! The Rodeo Terrorists are my imainary musical friends, who generally only exist at the end of the week on Friday into the early hours of Saturday morning. They are the band that would party & jam together after a night out on the town, they are the dreams a teenage wanabees with aspirations of global superstar but the crushing realisation that how ever hard they might try they are most likely to be ignored and remain obscure!
The Rodeo Terrorists name is sort of a homage to two of my favorite artists Steve Earle & The KLF. One of the first CD’s I ever bought was ‘Guitar Town’ by Steve Earle, and the title track, is all about a guy in a dead-end truck stop dreaming of being able to go to Nashvile to find fame and fortune. Where as the KLF (& Extreme Noise Terror) where all about who gives a fuck DIY and if the BBC wouldn’t play it then all the better.
I like to think of thier music as being like a pile of ancient stones or rocks that you might come across on a deserted highway or moorland walk, in that someone put the effort into putting the stones in that particular place, for no discernable reason other than to be a thing. The Rodeo Terrorists can be polictical and would best be described as anti-war & violence (or all kinds) and anti-fascist, and we often write about such things as a cathartic release, but mainly they make tunes that I (Richard) like listening to when I commute to work in the ‘real’ world.
You spent many years on the other side of the industry – building websites for pop giants. When you move from the digital backstage into your own creative work, does your perspective on music change? Or on the contrary – have you always looked at it from the “inside”?
What I did in the music biz was pretty unremarkable, there’s hundreds of people doing all manner of jobs to make succesful music (and the United Kingdom as it goes is pretty damn good at making pop music). I never got the chance to A&R music, but I think with my eclectic tastes and musical background (choral singer etc) I would have probably shaped a catalogue of artists and music very similarly to the music I have written.
I don’t think my perspective has necessarily changed, as a musical artist we’ve always wanted to be on the outside occasionally knocking on doors. Primarily I wanted to make music that I liked listening to, if someone else hears a tune and likes it then thats satisfaction enough. Even though I’ve been self releasing music for well over a three decades, over the years I’ve written lots of musical ideas and snipets of lyrics and its only now with the advent of AI that I been able to bring some of them together.
In the past recorded music was often controlled by the big ‘Major Label’ gatekeepers, and it was almost a lottery for acts to get discovered and ultimate sucess. Even today there are new titans i.e. the behemoth streaming & social media platforms and the imense pay-olla playlisting black market that operates in conjunction with it, means that most artists (unless they have the resource of time & money) work remains unknown & under appreciated.
Because I had experience in the music industry I sort of know what you’re supposed to do, and actually it isn’t that hard to make & release a record, just don’t get your hopes up that it will be a mega-hit!
The DIY approach is, of course, freedom – but on the other hand, it can be lonely. You write, produce, and promote everything yourself. What in this process gives you energy, and what drains it the fastest?
In simple terms what gives us energy is that I like making things, the simple joy of having an idea and then being able to ‘convert’ it into music, be it a lyric or a video idea or the thought of someone saying yes, I listened to your tune and I liked it. What drains us the most is actually the promotion, I’m lucky because I’ve got a good job and if my music isn’t successful its not the end of the world, no one got hurt making it. I really feel for younger acts trying to make it today as it is an almost impossible task, and if you don’t have the life experience to take a knock then its doubly damaging.
Scotland clearly holds a special place in your life – you studied there, call it a second home, and describe yourself as having an “outside perspective” on it. It’s an honest position – not pretending to be Scottish, but loving the country sincerely while remaining English. How did that even happen? Was there a specific moment when you realized: “That’s it, this country has taken hold of me”?
My scottish roots do go back generations with my grandparents from Glasgow & Perth Scotland, but as child we (family holidays visiting relatives) would go to the highlands around Ulapool in the summer to fish and get bitten by midges, so going to Scotland was always a massive adventure, but also a bit of a homecoming. My father wore a kilt and the family tartan at Christmas and I would regularly go ‘Highland dancing’ in the local church hall so its sort of never been a question. In someways though I’ve always just been British (even though I was born in Jamaica), I love the fierce independence of the Scots but also thier humour and pracatical no-noncence way of getting on with life. I also have the terrible habit of falling into a ‘cod’ Scottish accent as soon as I cross the border, which means the Police probably put out an APB alert for public safety.
A 55-year-old English IT manager writing a Scottish football anthem, “Saltire (Tartan Army).” Sounds like the setup to a joke. Has anyone ever told you, “Listen, this isn’t your lane”? Or did the Scots take the whole story with a sense of humor?
I think knowing the scots as I do, they would take it in the way it was intended and yes its intended to be ironic! I want the scots to say, for fucks sake why is some wee sassanack writing this? We’re still waiting for the brick bats to fly, if they do then in someway thats a good thing, because it means we got some attention.
There’s a clear stadium energy in the track – as if it was written not for headphones, but for a crowd. Football anthems are a genre with very defined clichés. Did you feel the urge to break them, or play by the rules – just with a slight twist?
We have to be clear about the use of AI in this track, it would not have been possible for me to make / record it any other way. I did write all the lyrics and basic melodic structure as well as the prompting ideas of the production and arrangement. I prompted the AI to use all the Celtic and folk idioms, with the kind of epic nature that Simple Minds, Big Country, Runrig or early U2 might use.
But importantly I wanted the lyrics to stand out, and by making it with AI I thought well that’s breaking the mold for football novelty singles! AI is really divisive and causing a lot of problems with musicians and the industry as a whole, but I feel that with careful curation it can be a useful tool in music.
The track has been described as a collision between The Waterboys and New Order’s “World In Motion.” Did you come up with that comparison yourself – or did someone else hear it first and hit the nail on the head?
Yes its my comparison, I’ve got a hugly eclectic music collection and I tried to work out an easy and accesible way of describing the track.
You wrote “Saltire (Tartan Army)” in 30 minutes during a work break. What exactly happened during that break?
Well as a smoker (don’t do it kids!) I was on a break and l’d written a tune called ‘Something Right’ only a few days before (which is about the irony of writing a song) and I was talking to my friend in Scotland about promoting it and then had the lightbulb moment of doing a World Cup song.
The first verse ‘I may be proud and english, but that means sod all, as the lads with the haggis show Jules Remmy the hallowed hall’ just popped into my head and then it just sort of flowed from there.
Beyond the humor, the release carries a personal meaning – you want to raise awareness of motor neurone disease and support MND Scotland in memory of a close friend. Did that intention come together with the idea for the track, or did it come later?
The MND thing came a little later, I thought well if the song were to be successful it would be really shameful that the reward didn’t go to a good cause. I do really hope that Dave (where ever he is these days), wouldn’t mind me using the connection, I would like to think he would have told me it was an absolutly fucking terrible record and under no circumstances should I ever release it! The Tartan Army fandom have a really good track record for raising money for charities so I don’t want to muddy that association with English averice!
And finally – if “Saltire (Tartan Army)” is your first loud statement after returning, how do you see your next step: even louder, or quieter and more personal?
I think we’re going to carry on making music occasionally, we’re not good at planning anything. We do have a country song called ‘Christmas in Orbit’, that we’ll push later in the year, and perhaps some idiotic idea will pop into my head! I am going to try and step back from using AI and try and write a little more oganically again. I am a bloke with many hobbies including photography, lego, growing stuff on my allotment as well as learning to fly (gliders), so fitting everything in is a real challenge sometimes!
Voxwave Magazine: Music, Culture, Interview, Fashion 