In collaboration with
- Words Cal McIntyre
- Photography Phoebe J Cowley
- Fashion Sophie Casha
- Grooming Sophie King using M.A.C Cosmetics
- Production Studio Notion
Say hello to Cousn, the Bristol-born relatives that will be the soundtrack to your warm Summer nights and early morning after-parties with their latest EP Brain Ticker. We sit down with them ahead of their Hideout Festival 2019 performance in July...
Alfie and Billy Goffey, the duo behind Cousn, are the latest bright young things to break through the underground scene since forming Cousn in 2016. With their eclectic tastes and technical ability to waver in between genres with ease has rightfully earned them to be ‘Rising Stars’ by Pete Tong. After first listening to Cousn it’s clear to see the boys are not ones to be put into a musical box – each track crafted by the Goffey’s is an array of past subcultures. From the 90s techno rave scene, the DIY approach of the punks, and the eccentricity of acid – Cousn have successfully created a boiling pot of these legendary genres and more together to form almost a new genre yet to be named.
Growing up together with highly musical families can be an explanation behind Cousn’s vast wealth of inspirations and references. However, it’s the freedom that comes with escaping to the dancefloor that continues to push Cousn’s endless journey to never be pigeonholed. With that in mind, it’s clear to see that it’s working from them and those who take to the dancefloor to get lost in Cousn’s sets. Their first ever live set was performed at Glastonbury (no big deal) which has catapulted the duo to legendary club nights and festivals like Warehouse Project, Motion, Wilderness, and Secret Garden Party. Fat Boy Slim noticed the duo’s signature unnamed ‘sound’ and had them open on all of his UK arena tours.
After six years spent honing their craft and over 70 original tracks in their back pocket ready to be set free to the dancefloor, Cousn are off to an insane start to 2019 kicking off their festival season playing at Glastonbury weekend. We caught up with the boys to talk about the importance of doing it for yourself, the rebirth of punk, and the inspiration behind their latest EP Brain Ticker…
- Jumper Ambush @ Mr Porter
- Top James Perse @ Mr Porter
- Hat Uniqlo
- Shirt Muji
- Jacket Penfield
- Top Censi Vintage
You have both come from musical families and have a strong musical background, how did this impact the formation of Cousn?
Definitely growing up the music that our parents were playing to us from a young age definitely had an affect on us. Also, just being apart of families that were doing music for a living made it seem like a normal and viable career for us so we’re really lucky.
How would you best describe your sound?
We’re still trying to work that out to be honest. It’s just a mix – it’s everything we’re into, everything we’re inspired by. Generally, a lot of it would be quite 90s based. The Chemical Brothers constantly inspire us. We’re into quite high energy punk, we started calling it ‘discopunk’ at one point. It’s always been a bit of a struggle for us to specifically define the style of music we make. But, it’s something we’re constantly being told by people ‘you guys have really got a sound’ but I don’t know what the name of that ‘sound’ is yet…
Do you think being cousins helps you understand each other’s creative process better?
We’ve definitely got the same taste, we’re both Goffey’s, we’re both the same age with similar upbringings with our families. I think creatively as well it definitely does help as we have a stronger bond than friends would have. And it also means we can have a go at each other and know that we do still love each other in the end.
- Shirt Human Made @ Mr Porter
- Trousers Levi’s
- Top Billy’s Own
- Jacket Levi’s @ Contemporary Wardrobe
- Trousers Needles @ Mr Porter
Are there any particular DJs or producers out there at the minute making work that excites you guys?
Definitely Demi Riquismo – he’s been putting out these really cool disco remixes that have a cool sound to them. That style of music really suits our sets as a bridge between the heavier tracks and bringing it back down. Elliot Adamson also is just nailing it at the moment. We met him a couple of years ago, but he has just taken it to another level releasing three albums in three months. The sheer output of it is just so impressive. So we’ve been playing out a lot of his stuff.
Is there anyone that you would love to collaborate with?
Oh there’s loads of people. It would be amazing to collaborate with any of our idols. Gonna have to go with The Chemical Brothers.
What’s the rest of your Summer plans sounding like?
Glastonbury kicks it off, then Hideout Festival in Croatia, Wilderness, Little People, but it’s exciting to have loads of good stuff coming up. Got the Summer Ball next week!
- Alfie's Shirt Needles @ Mr Porter
- Top Censi Vintage
- Trousers Blackmeans
- Jewellery Alfie’s Own
- Billy's Kimono Muji
- Jumper Remi Relief
- Trousers Neighbourhood
How did it feel to have Pete Tong name you one of his ‘Rising Stars’ of 2019?
It was really surreal just because we had only released one EP at the time. It was a really unexpected series of events – our debut EP ‘Juggle’ he made an essential new tune so it was absolutely insane hearing him say that on the radio. Obviously, you hear that every week but suddenly you hear your name and it’s surreal.
Talk to us about how the Elder Island remix came about?
They’re a Bristol band so they got in touch with management asking for a few artists to do a remix. We ended up doing ours quite quickly as the vocal parts we got given we’re so good – so it was pretty natural to build the track around it. It was really fun to make as we’ve had a couple of other remixes which were dance records already. So, this was the first remix we’ve done of a live band, and we figured out we definitely prefer that process of working with live sounds and instruments.
What’s the process like behind the creation of your visuals?
We’ve both got an eye for visuals, so we try to find old archived footage online that has expired copyright. Then it’s just really simple putting it together in terms of editing. We cut all the old footage up and slow things down so it’s in speed with the track and create this vague storyline. We’re pretty much a ‘do it yourself’ type of creator, and it helps being in a good friendship group that almost shares the same artistic brain. We want to create a visual language to go with each track. We are doing the Brain Ticker one at the moment, but we have a direct vision for how everything comes together.
Cousn’s ‘Brain Ticker’ was released 30th May on FAMLY Records.
