Musical Commune Cowboy Cowabunga Creates Cassette Label

Just outside of Denver, tucked into the rolling hills of Evergreen, is a band of musical misfits that calls Cowboy Cowabunga Ranch home. The artists here enjoy doing things a little differently than their contemporaries in the music biz. Cowboy Cowabunga is a singer-songwriter commune in that sense, says resident and co-founder Mark Anderson.

Over the years, the homestead has hosted an annual Fourth of July festival and housed a variety of musicians. Anderson, a music producer and multi-instrumentalist who was a drummer for former folk band Paper Bird, recently decided to form a label under the Cowboy Cowabunga moniker that will focus on cassette-only releases. Creating a grassroots label at the ranch just made sense, he says, even if the blueprint of how it’s all going to work is still being finalized.

“I don’t think this label is going to be functioning like a label, per se, or representing the bands or anything like that. It’s kind of going to function more like a collective, which is sort of a platform for a community of artists to start putting out their own stuff and bring back this DIY ethos,” he says. “I think the idea is that there’s this community of friends that are in Denver trying to make this impetus to release music that feels a little more special than dumping it on a streaming platform.”

Anderson settled in at the fifteen-acre ranch in 2010, after he and his Paper Bird bandmates agreed to take a much-needed break from the hustle and grind of the music industry. What started as a respite and temporary retreat for a group of ten friends has blossomed into a DIY outlet and home base for Anderson’s Cowboy Cowabunga studio.

Through his work with other artists, Anderson found that the record-making process can cause even the most ambitious creatives to feel indifferent about releasing new music into such a saturated soundscape. He aims to change that and give musicians more creative control.

“That’s what my job is, making records. I’ve just endlessly been working with people for months on these projects, and then they’re like, ‘What do I do with this now?’ [They] release it on Spotify, and it feels like you’re dumping this belabored piece of art into a void,” says the producer, who has worked with the likes of Nathaniel Rateliff and John Oates.

Anderson, who also manages Rateliff’s private studios, remembers when he and his friends came up with the idea of making a Cowboy Cowabunga label. “There’s just something about the music-releasing system right now that feels creatively dull. We were like, ‘What if we record something this week and put it out next week? Oh, wait, we can just do that...’” he says. “That thought started to branch out, like, ‘[What] if we started making physical copies of something?’ I love the physical aspect of it. I love the sound of tape. I think [the idea] is just having this small pressing label that’s focused on promoting people to just make things, not get too wrapped up into what it’s going to be, and have this special product that can be the result.”

For now, the label will stick to cassette tapes. "Tapes are so easy to make, and cheap," Anderson notes. "And the whole idea is, how cool is it that, in this space, you could hypothetically record a song and reproduce it all in the same room?"

A member of the Cowboy Cowabunga community, Denver musician Miles Eichner has played with Anderson on many projects, but he’s never released any solo material. Anderson has changed that. During the pandemic, Eichner started working on an ambient Americana album to help him deal with the anxiety of the times while caring for his newborn daughter. He'd recorded You be good. I love you. on his own, and had previously made it available on SoundCloud. Eichner then asked Anderson if he would help mix the record, and the duo decided to give it a proper release on cassette. Eichner’s You be good. I love you. comes out on Friday, October 21. Mark Shusterman (of Rateliff's Night Sweats) will drop Electric Eyes, the debut EP from his Amlamas project, the same day. The two tapes are the first official releases under the Cowboy Cowabunga umbrella.

“[Anderson and I have] worked together a bunch before. … We’ve done lots of performing and recording together in a bunch of different bands,” Eichner says. “We have this family, group of friends and circle of musicians, and we all help each other out with each other’s projects. This record that I’m doing is the first one that I’ve done under my name. It’s the first time I’ve worked with [Anderson] for my own music. To me, it was a no-brainer to have him help me out a little bit with my own record because we have a deep history. We have this very easy and productive connection.”

He never imagined that what started as an attempt to “maintain sanity” while he was getting “very little sleep” as a new dad would then be released into the world on a one-of-a-kind cassette with artwork by his friend Sarah Michaels.

“It was cool. I totally just fumbled my way through it. I made this record last fall and winter. … I definitely taught myself quite a bit,” Eichner recalls. “The end product definitely sounds very homespun and DIY, but I kind of like that, because it was true to the experience.”

Once the music made its way to Anderson’s Cowboy Cowabunga studio, the process went smoothly as always, he adds. “We have this little community. … There’s just a lot of trust. When people create something, it’s like their baby, and people get very protective of it, but it’s just really great to have people in your circle that you can really trust and don’t mind saying, like, ‘Hey, can you take this and make it a little bit better?’” Eichner explains. “There’s just a creative trust that just makes it easy. There really is very little artistic or creative tension or friction between any of us. It just makes it easy and fun. That’s the biggest thing, that we all have fun making stuff together, and that’s not always the case with some [music] scenes.”

Eichner and Anderson remember a recent birthday party for Denver singer-songwriter Jess Parsons at the ranch, when the revelers in attendance started playing some of her songs. Anderson decided to record it just for fun, because that’s what Cowboy Cowabunga is all about. “We recorded this song, and there were like eight or nine of us who contributed," Eichner says. "But it didn’t feel like too many cooks in the kitchen, because we were all just trusting each other and having fun."

A “lifer” in the local folk world, Anderson fondly remembers how he used to burn CDs and make slip cases out of construction paper to sell at locally organized DIY shows growing up.

“That’s where I came from: DIY ethos and shows. The first records I made were burning CDs and cutting construction paper and making stamps or screen prints — just making stuff yourself, then playing DIY shows and selling them there,” he says.

“The main thing is that I have this amazingly talented group of friends, and some of us have been making music together for fifteen years. We’ve just gone through so many cycles of releasing things that have been rewarding and some discouraging,” he adds. “Now this environment is amazing. We have shows here. We have a practice space. We have a recording studio. And I’m producing a lot of the music that will be released here. ... We should make this a creative stable in Denver and the larger world.”

This month's Cowboy Cowabunga releases will be followed up by albums from Clayton Dexter’s Country Backwash and Paul DeHaven; a debut solo EP by Mrak (one of Anderson’s projects); an EP by Allison Lorenzen; and an EP by Patrick Dethlefs, among “many more,” Anderson says.

“I’m hoping it’s going to be a catalyst to just make more stuff, and probably, most importantly, to make the making less precious,” he says. “Like, let’s just make it, then we can release it. Then the good thing is, we can make more of it.”

For more information, find Cowboy Cowabunga on Instagram (@cowboy_cowabunga_recordings).