Photo by Chad Mow
UK based singer-songwriter and producer Will Rhead has just released his EP i’m the cowboy on October 27th. Following the success of his duo with collaborator Ed Fisher, asianblonde, Rhead is diving into the realm of solo work. For fans of Dominic Fike, Steve Lacy, and Malcolm Todd, Rhead has an interesting production style that emphasizes unique vocal styling and intricate guitar solos. I got the honor of getting to interview him just off the heels of the EP’s release on Tuesday.
First off, I want to congratulate you on your EP release! That’s really really cool! How have you been feeling about this release specifically?
I mean it’s been a long time coming. I wrote all these demos back in 2025, beginning of 2025, and finished the last one like August of 2025, so I’ve been sitting on them for a hot minute. Having them all finally out and it not just my really close circle being like ‘Oh this is a good one. This is a good one.’ and instead actually getting the feedback on them has been a lot to take in, to be honest. I’ve never seen this amount of love shown to my music before. So, it’s a lovely feeling. It’s a very lovely feeling. I feel great about it.
That’s great! What has been your favorite part of the writing process for this EP? I know you were saying that it’s been a year in the making basically, so what has been your favorite part of the writing process?
To be honest, just finally having the time to just sit down and do it all properly. I went to college for music and I did a bit there then released my own stuff, and then took it down because it was all really bad. And then I started doing music with my mate Ed in a duo called asianblonde. We did that for a while and we saw a little bit of success there, but for i’m the cowboy in particular, like just the project, it was really nice coming back home from university and just giving it my all. I feel like I haven’t done that with my songs until now. Proper locking in and just really writing about myself, you know? Like writing about how I feel and getting it out there, and putting my words behind some chords and drums. Something that is very much my own, because I never really stuck to doing a solo project until now.
Yeah! So that was actually one of my questions, what kind of opportunities has working solo created for you? What have you found in the process that’s been really interesting for you to work through?
I learned a lot about myself. I am so used to collaborative work. Before I started doing the ‘Will Rhead Project’ –even though it’s just my name– I always used to be the type of person in the studio or music work environment where I would just contribute and people could either take it or leave it, or just add a helping hand to a production. I would be the guy in the seat and just listen to what people are throwing at me. From working on my own, I have learned it has a lot to do with how I want the track to come across. I’m not just trying to please someone else. I can be as finicky as I want and I can take stuff away, or take however long I want to finish it. There’s no kind of time constraint or someone behind me saying ‘No change this’ or ‘Do that’. I can really pursue exactly what’s up here and put it into chords.
Photo by Chad Mow
Alright, so my next question is kind of a weird one just because it’s personal for me. I have synesthesia so one of my favorite questions to ask every artist that I meet is what kind of colors do you see with your music, or what do you think you would see? Because I know I have my own–what I can see from every artist–but I love hearing from the artist’s perspective, what your guys’ favorite colors are when you are writing?
First of all, that’s sick that you have that. That’s what Pharrell has right?
Yeah it is, yeah.
Hmm, what color do I see? I don’t know, I tend to- because I am very involved start to finish, from the beginning of the track to when the cover art’s being made, to helping with music videos and stuff like that because it was just a two-man team, me and my best mate Sosa. I think maybe i’m the cowboy seems like a lot of orange, a lot of green, maybe hints of blue for something in there–maybe like “INCHES”. I feel like “INCHES” is a very green song. The rest of it I feel like is pretty orange or blue.
I have to agree with you. I know the cover art has a lot to do with it. It influences what I see, which is why sometimes I like going through the songs without seeing the cover art so that it doesn’t, you know, fill my brain, but for this one when I was listening I felt a lot of those, almost like burnt orange a little bit like an orange sort of color. It’s kind of like that scene from Ratatouille where it’s the little circles. That’s kind of what it looks like.
Yeah, yeah. That’s awesome! That’s so cool! I’ve never met anyone that had that. That’s super super cool.
Really? That’s awesome. Alright so, on this EP I’ve noticed when going through your social media that you’ve been producing it on your own– like you said it’s a one person show. What are some of the pros and cons of producing your own music?
I would say the pros are you don’t have anyone in your ear just telling you what to do. Or saying ‘that doesn’t sound good’ or ‘That sounds good’ or ‘Are you using splice/ Are you not using splice?’, you know? There’s so many things in the producer world where people can be really pretentious and you don’t really want to be listening to what they’re saying. So it’s nice just being in my own world making my own stuff and having full control basically. I’m not a control freak, but it is nice to be able to change anything I want without anyone batting an eyelid.
I’d say that the biggest struggle is definitely– when I wrote cowboy I was unemployed, just finished university, had plenty of writing material. Now on the flip side, after cowboy’s release I still have stuff ready to go, but I am getting to that stage where I am doing everything on my own and it changes your mentality a little bit where it feels like you have to scale this mountain now. If you want to write more music, you have to be fully self-sufficient. Sometimes it’s hard to juggle ideas, as well as working, as well as living life.
Another more nuanced thing that I noticed is that specifically for me, as a producer and a writer then an artist, a lot of my ideas are written in like a day. So, like COWBOY was written in a day, FAREWELL(!) was written in a day, INCHES was written in like a day and a half, and I can’t do that any more because I have to do everything myself. I find it really hard to just start a song and then finish it the next day, or finish a demo the next day, because the inspiration is gone–the feeling of wanting to do it is gone. It’s kind of balancing that, I guess, with the negative side of doing it all on your own. And it is also very much a case of: I wish I could do that but I can’t because I don’t know how to do it.
What have been some of your favorite parts of the production style specifically with these songs. Is there any instrument that you’ve been really loving working with, especially if it's online? What are some apps that you use that you’ve been really loving?
Well, i’m the cowboy is actually split across two doors, so I think “CTRL ME”, “INCHES” and “SPARE CHANGE” were all made on FL Studios, but then I used “COWBOY” and “FAREWELL(!)” as an opportunity to work on Ableton. I wanted to move to that door for a really, really long time because everyone says it’s the ‘industry standard’ saying, ‘you should get to know it’ and everything like that. I heard all these great things about Ableton, so I moved over to Ableton. I learned how to use that just through learning what I learned from FL and translating the skills. But, I think the best part about writing i’m the cowboy, was just being able to shred. If I wanted to put a guitar solo in, I could, so I snuck two guitar solos into the project. It really helped me hone my skills with playing the guitar though, like writing the project on my own. I’m so used to having such a big network of people that I could tap into often, kind of like–I wouldn’t say cheating, but take the easy way out and saying ‘Hey, you’re a way better guitarist than me so you should play this instead’. But I didn’t do that and I really pushed myself to not do that for my project. So, definitely being able to play my guitar better now and also getting to fit in the production easter eggs that other producers that I really like use. Kennybeats does this guitar panning thing where he hard tracks left and right. Everyone does it but I finally started doing it. I learned a lot about producing in general, especially for myself. I’ve always sat in the seat for someone else, but now I’m doing it for myself. I learned a lot about what I like.
Alright are we going to see any sort of music video situation for any of these songs perhaps?
“INCHES” has a music video, but I just haven’t pushed it, to be honest. If you want the honest truth, I haven’t had time to push it. The “INCHES” music video was really cool though, it was shot in Miami but it wasn’t in downtown Miami, it was in a super suburban area called Kendall. It was all indie studios that helped out with it. Shoutout Jay, shoutout Alexa, Muse Studios. They did a lot for me with the budget that I had, and that was great. In terms of future music videos, I think we’re saving it for the later releases. My manager, he’s got a lot of big things planned ahead for the newer singles that are coming out and I think we’re gonna give those a really good push.
Good, in that same vein, is there any sort of tour that we can look out for, perhaps?
Oh, I’m desperate. I really, really, really want to do a tour. Even if it’s just a small one in the UK, or even just an LA show and a New York show just to get out there, I think the best case scenario is probably next year, not to promise anything. But next year there might be a few more shows popping up and whatnot. We’ll see if I can get my mate Zack to rehearse with me. That’s the next hurdle to climb.
Alright well, I believe. If you want to plug anything specific, I know you have your EP out, but if there is anything specific or if there’s anywhere you want people to go please plug! Feel free!
Just @will_rhead on Instagram. But more so just thank you to you and thank you to Cece for setting this up. It’s very lovely to talk about my music and not have someone just roll their eyes. But other than that just will_rhead on instragram.
I believe that was all of my questions. Thank you so much for meeting with me!
No, thank you, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me. It’s an honor and it’s really cool.