Disko Cowboy Q+A

FORMAT Festival 2022 // words by Liz Watts // Photos by emma watts

You’ve probably seen a Vinyl Ranch meme shared while tapping through IG stories, (and maybe Vinyl Raunch on the Close Friends List) but did you know that DJ Disko Cowboy was the brains behind it all? We sat down with Dave Wrangler after his set in the Drag Me to The Disco Barn at FORMAT Festival (very on brand) to chat about early morning live streams, Kate Bush, and why cowboys like him get nervous.

HPM: What was the change like moving from Texas to Tulsa and back to Texas?

DC: I try and live everywhere at the same time. Even though my belongings were there, I was gone half the time. So I'm always kind of floating. It doesn't matter where my mail goes. But it was more like a change back to going back to work. In Tulsa, I wasn't really working at all. I did one or two events in Tulsa just out of boredom. But even in Austin, I don't really do any events in Austin except ACL. I just don't like working where I live. I've kept them separate. Even when I lived in Houston, I didn't do DJing there.

Is that intentional?

I think that's what my heart needs.

How was that whenever you were doing your morning live streaming during the start of the pandemic?

That was out of boredom! Also, just to continue playing music and not let the gears rust. But I felt like the people that connected with that needed it as much as I needed it. So it's transactional. Did you watch any of those?
Of course! Smoking a J 7am with a mimosa! 

Yeah, I feel like they were way better when I was in Houston, more raw. They were never supposed to go as long as they did, so I very quietly closed the door on it. It was only supposed to be really for the lockdown part of the pandemic, not go beyond that. And it just kind of lingered. I was doing it every day for seven days a week. It was also weird because I was making so much money!
So much money from the stream?
Yeah! I was just soliciting people to tip. “Send me a Venmo if you want a song or a shout-out". And then it would end up being some days like $500 in an hour.
Cam Cowboy!
Does anyone even watch live streams anymore?
Maybe if you got into the Twitch business? But, you might have to take off your clothes when you DJ…

It was kind of that way in the beginning, lots of little robes.

Would you say that Disko Cowboy is more kind of just an overall brand rather than just a DJ act?

No, it’s my DJ name. But it's also like the flip-flop of Vinyl Ranch. Disko Cowboy is the same thing in my brain. It's not even a flip side, it's like a parallel. But when Vinyl Ranch was just a party that became like a brand, that sounds stupid, but it accidentally became that. People still try to book me at Vinyl Ranch, and I kinda lean on that. Even like ACL has me booked as “Disko Cowboy (Vinyl Ranch).” It's like double exposure, almost.
Love that. Obviously, Vinyl Ranch as a meme page means you are pretty up-to-date with social media and current trends. When we popped in during your set at the Disco Barn we heard everything from ‘Cotton Eyed Joe’ to the popular Kate Bush song that recently became super popular on TikTok-
I’ve actually been playing that since like 2009/2010! I was playing it in clubs because the people I hung out with were Kate Bush fans! So I was actually just playing it for my girlfriends who come to dance. Yeah, they were all, like, art girls who loved Kate Bush.
How often are you putting new music into your mixes and where do you go to find new music?
All the time! It's kind of like a mixture of what my brand showcases, like the Vinyl Ranch stuff. I even noticed today, I was looking in the crowd and there's a mix of the “Yee Haw” people, that might be slightly derogatory and kind of a jab, but it's like the people that are just kind of getting into the country stuff. They're not necessarily country people at all.
Are you a country person?

I grew up in the country, I lived there most of my life. 

So you’re a credible cowboy?
I have a little credit, yeah, a little bit of credit, it's not just a costume. But it's kind of a mixture of what I do in nightclubs, which is the disco dance stuff mixed with what Vinyl Ranch showcases and just like whatever's surface level, pop culture. Sometimes it doesn't make a lot of sense. Like, I have some DJ friends tonight from Houston who are here and I was just kind of watching them looking for nods of approval or disapproval because they're used to a very specific style of DJing and I was kind of just going in and out of genres. Not even very well all the time, but well enough to where it was still high energy and fun. Sometimes my key mixes are a little off and it's not absolutely perfect, but it's fine.
Do you feel like you have to stick to some sort of “this is how Disko Cowboy DJs” guidelines or does your DJ style evolve?
If you DJ festivals versus a nightclub versus a private event versus something else, it's all different styles. It's like being a chef- you have a different way of preparing the meal. It's kind of the same way. Tonight, I thought I was playing a 1 hour, but that turned into two hours. I didn’t prepare for one “wow” and definitely not for two!
At that point whenever you're like, “okay, I didn't prepare,” do you even worry? Also, do any of us even know if you don’t prepare? We're just like “it's a DJ!”
I think if you go see DeadMau5 or like one of those production performers, they're not really DJs at all. They're just pressing play on the sequence that runs the light show, that runs the cannons that go off, all that kind of shit. It's totally different from actually DJing, where you're just feeding off of the energy of what's happening in the room. If something's not working, you can change it. If it's working, you kind of drill into it harder, and then you get to control kind of the pulse of what's happening and the energy and the emotion rather than being stuck. I don't prepare too much.., but I don't prepare so much to where I feel that if I go off the path for a little while that it's going to be detrimental to the whole experience.
How much energy and effort do you have to put into preparation? I know you've been doing it for a really long time, but do you feel like you're working? Thinking about the next thing? Or it really just flows for you?

No, it's constant. I think if I didn't get nervous-
You get nervous?

Yeah! And if you're not getting nervous, then you really shouldn’t be doing it. If you're too prepared or if you're not having to use any sort of instinct or anything. So yeah, I think you should absolutely be nervous. Nervous excitement, not nervous anxiety. Like, anxiety goes both ways, which is how you perceive it. I think you have to have some anxiety. Every artist that is playing here tonight, I guarantee you, if they love what they do, they feel some anxiety and excitement before they go on.

Even if you go see a big-name DJ like Diplo, there's probably a mix of soft preparation, and some structure, but also maybe that doesn't work. Maybe the crowd doesn't want to deal with what you're kind of projecting on and you need to make changes.

Do you feel like that's where a lot of creativity and individualism comes from, is when an artist was put in a situation where they're having to think on their feet and not be so prepared?

Yeah, I think it's better.