Q&A: COWZ Represent the Messy, Angry Girls with Their New Single “Ur No Rockstar”
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY ALEJANDRA MEDINA ☆
UNAPOLOGETICALLY LOUD, BOLD AND CHAOTIC – COWZ are taking the world by storm, one alternative pop track at a time. Their newest single “Ur No Rockstar” perfectly blends upbeat, catchy pop melodies with a steely punk attitude, and delivers a clear message to all of the pretentious male musicians out there: “You will never be a rockstar.”
Comprised of Brighton-based best friends Saga Wahlström and Tasha Bloom, COWZ has kept busy rising to the top of alternative music. In just three years of existence, the duo headlined the Loud Women festival in 2023, played the Y Not festival in 2024, and released their debut EP “That’s Cute! Baby,” which received over 100,000 streams in under three months. This year, COWZ were crowned the winners of the Band App 2025 competition, securing them a spot at the Truck Festival in Oxfordshire, one of the biggest music festivals showcasing emerging artists across the UK.
With more performances to come and new music on the way, we sat down with Tasha and Saga to talk about their songwriting process, friendships, and the future of COWZ.
LUNA: It’s so lovely to meet you two. Tasha and Saga, I’m so happy I came across your music because now here you are, another band I can obsess over. You two are incredible and so is “Ur No Rockstar.” Congratulations on releasing it this month. What was the songwriting process like for this track?
SAGA WAHLSTRӦM: When we first got together it was a lot of like, “What are you two even doing?” Especially from male instrumentalists being like, “It's just pop music. There’s no guitars on it. What are you doing? That's not real music.” So that’s how it started. And Tasha has dated a lot of musicians. So this is straight from the heart, straight from the soul. This is truly from a personal experience, every detail is true.
TASHA BLOOM: That’s what makes this so beautiful.
WAHLSTRӦM: Absolutely. So honestly, it was quite quick for us to get to the point of it. Then the production took a lot longer, especially because of the way the song is built up. It very much takes the piss of a pop punk/indie track. So, I do the production mostly, and this one has guitars, it has really simple but heavy rock drums, and I’ve never done that before because I do more alternative pop music. So it was very much out of my comfort zone.
BLOOM: I feel like the lyrics were a very fast process. I think Saga came up with the initial idea and then I came around. Usually, what I do is I lie on the sofa in Saga’s house, I sit there and eventually something comes to me and I’m like, “Yes.”
WAHLSTRӦM: And then we merge our ideas together and we’ll have a song.
BLOOM: To be honest it sounds kind of boring but for us, I like to think it’s efficient. The songwriting process is basically the same every time in terms of how we start. Saga is very good at the main ideas.
WAHLSTRӦM: I’m good at concept and finishing things and Tasha is good at the middle bit.
BLOOM: Yeah, I like the pretentious details of lyricism. Anyway, that’s how we wrote that song.
LUNA: Would you say that writing songs has brought you two closer together?
BLOOM: I think so. Doing something creative with anyone you like is good for a relationship.
WAHLSTRӦM: Yeah, I think it strengthens your bond. I think it helps if you share the experience you’re writing about because if you do, there’s mutual understanding and empathy.
LUNA: You two have stated that every COWZ song is essentially a diss track.
WAHLSTRӦM: Yeah, we didn’t even intend it to be that way, there’s just too many people doing things they shouldn’t be. Some of our songs are diss track towards ourselves as well, keeping us humble. “Psychos” which is another song we have and “ur fave song (miss the fun)” are definitely self disses.
BLOOM: Not self hate. Just us owning our flaws.
LUNA: And that’s a good thing. I guess my question would be then, is music a way for you two to make sense of the world and relieve anger?
WAHLSTRӦM: I think, especially in our friendship, we just talk a lot of shit. And it’s not even in an inherently negative way. I think it's in a healthy way. We’ll have a conversation about something and we’ll be like, “Yeah this would probably make a good song. We should probably write about this.” Because it’s a healthy way for us to process things that are going on in the world around us that are causing us pain or some kind of suffering. I would say all of our songs are quite easy to listen to and we always want to say something. As pretentious as it sounds, all of [our songs] have a fun meaning behind them.
BLOOM: The thing is though, even if it is pretentious, it’ll never be as pretentious as what any man who is playing guitar would say.
WAHLSTRӦM: Yeah, 100 percent.
LUNA: I just want to say, thank you for representing all of us angry girlies out there.
WAHLSTRӦM: The angry, messy girls! We deserve it!
BLOOM: You’re so welcome and I’m glad that there are so many artists similar to us who are also messy girls angry at the world around them because it’s important and representation is important. There’s enough men making music.
WAHLSTRӦM: What more do they have to say? We talk about this a lot and it’s not even in a hateful way, but what more do pop men have left to say at this point? We’ve had enough, you know what I mean?
BLOOM: It’s time for the girls, gays, and theys.
LUNA: Who are some musical artists that you look up to?
WAHLSTRӦM: A pivotal moment for us was Tumblr 2014. Halsey, Paramore, that group of people. And also when Miley Cyrus stopped being Hannah Montana and released the “Can’t Be Tamed” album, I think that was a big part of our childhoods. So that kind of super dramatic, slightly edgy pop music was super influential for both of us.
LUNA: What’s it like to write a song from the comfort of your own home or the studio and then going out there to perform in front of a large crowd?
BLOOM: Most of the work we do in terms of writing and producing songs is done from home. Unless I’m in the studio with specific people and a specific vibe, I really struggle to have successful sessions in a big fancy studio. It feels a bit unnatural to me. But going from Saga’s living room with her kitty cat to then singing in front of lots of people, and they’re singing back to you, it’s just crazy. That’s the dream though, isn’t it?
WAHLSTRӦM: It feels fantastic when people like my songs. I’m like, “Ha, cool! I like that one too.”
LUNA: What’s it like being in a band with your best friend?
WAHLSTRӦM: It’s fun! I don’t think that people should be in a band with people that they aren’t besties with. That sounds like an absolute nightmare.
BLOOM: I feel like if you’re going to commit to a project like this, you need to be around people you like. I’ve done various different projects, nothing as extensive as this. But like, there’s just no point in working with people that you don’t get on with or that you don’t vibe with. You’re just going to keep hitting those blocks, emotionally and creatively, so what’s the point?
WAHLSTRӦM: Yeah, you need to be with someone you can disagree with without it escalating. We have a weird sibling dynamic at this point, so when we write songs if she does something I don’t like I just go, “No, that’s really bad.”
BLOOM: I do the same thing. We are both on the spectrum so I think bluntness is kind of appreciated and I think that the fact that we’re both neurodivergent does us quite well. It’s quite easy for us to say, “I don’t like this.” And we move on with our lives.
LUNA: I have to ask, where did the name COWZ come from?
WAHLSTRӦM: My dead hamster. R.I.P. I loved him so much. He was alive at the time.
LUNA: Oh, no. I’m so sorry.
WAHLSTRӦM: We also just liked the sound of it. Cow, cows, cowzzz… It’s kind of like the Bratz dolls. And then there’s people who call women cows.
BLOOM: They mean to be derogatory. Like, “You’re a herd animal because you’re disgusting.” It’s kind of like a reclamation.
LUNA: Does “Ur No Rockstar” mean there’s another, bigger project coming our way? Maybe?
WAHLSTRӦM: We do have more songs. I mean, there’s going to be an EP at the end of the year so there will be more singles coming.
BLOOM: There’s a single that we wrote with a couple people from bands that will not be named right now because it’s a surprise, but I grew up listening to them and being an actual fan girl of them. These are people who wrote songs that I listen to on repeat everyday, so that’s pretty cool.
LUNA: What do you two dream the future of COWZ will look like, besides obviously world domination?
WAHLSTRӦM: I’m just impressed with us, Tash. Because we’ve done so much work. We don’t have a manager or a label or anyone but each other. When we have more people on board that believe in us and support us, we’re just going to be able to do so much.
BLOOM: I want to get on the misfits 2.0 playlist on spotify. Playlisting doesn’t mean that much but to me that would be the coolest thing ever. I would also like to play Reading and Leeds. Very cool and fun. And I’d love to get a song on a reality TV show like “Love Island.” I’d also love to go and play some European shows and some shows in the U.S.
WAHLSTRӦM: I feel like the world’s our oyster really. I want to be able to just do this and earn enough money for this to be what I do.
