There’s nothing more punk than being yourself, and Winona Fighter wear that sentiment proudly on their chest.
In the three years that they have been active, they have never let anything life has thrown at them get in the way of writing a song about it. Honesty is the best policy, and by leaving nothing off the table, the band have cultivated quite the community for themselves.
It all comes to a head on their debut album ‘My Apologies To The Chef’, being released on Valentine’s Day via Rise Records. A frantic and fantastically fun blend of punk-rock spirit, pop-punk heft and emo brightness, it showcases everything that makes the band such a formidably welcome part of the modern scene, warts and all. Serving as a reminder to bare your soul if it feels right, because there’s always going to be someone listening, they are ready to take on the world, one embarrassing moment at a time.
To dive deeper into the cracks of their journey so far, and what it has meant to them, Rock Sound got on the phone with vocalist Coco Kinnon…
ROCK SOUND: What are the overarching feelings going through your mind right now as you prepare for a moment that every band dreams of reaching?
COCO KINNON: “It’s super surreal to be here but super cool at the same time. The biggest thing is that from day one, we have always said that we need one person to believe in us. If we can get that one person on board, we will work harder than anyone to keep them. Now, we are surrounded by the best team an up-and-coming punk band could ask for. We have such as supportive fanbase. There are so many people that believe in us now. It makes me feel super emotional. It’s awesome and the best feeling in the world. And it’s because we did the work. We played the rooms where one person turned up, we hopped in the van and played in as many random cities as would have us. So now to be here, releasing our debut record, it’s exactly what we worked for, but still so, ‘How the hell did we get here?'”
RS: Much of that comes down to just how honest you are in the sentiments you put into Winona Fighter. From the bizarre break-ups to the heart-breaking realisations, it’s all here, and in presenting it all the reward is likeminded people finding you…
COCO: “Since day one, it’s been about how can we approach this as honestly as possible. That comes with the decisions of what I choose to write about, which is anything and everything. On top of that, it’s how we approach what our brand is, which is just us. We’re a group of nerds who love rock music. I’m wearing a J. Crew sweater right now; I won’t put on a spiked belt just because it fits the vibe. We’re everyday people who have this passion, and there are lots of everyday people who don’t play it but also have the same passion. Meeting people on that level it’s nice for them, but it’s just as nice for us. We’re all on the same page. It paints the perfect picture of the punk community that I grew up in and it makes me so happy that we can go a way to replicating that.”
RS: You mention the scene that you grew up in. What about your introduction to this music made you fall in love with it so much? What were your outlets?
COCO: “I’ve been a drummer my entire life. From my first day, I was like, ‘Give me something to hit’. So, I was extremely involved in the music scene where I grew up. That was on the border of Massachusetts, so I was heavily in the Boston punk scene as a kid. It was a parent’s worst nightmare, but also such a respectful and fun community. As I played more and more drums, I got more into songwriting and taught myself guitar. Then I moved to Nashville because my parents said, ‘You can do the music thing, but you still need to go to college’. That’s where I met Dan [Fuson, Guitarist]. We answered a Craigslist ad for another band, where I would have played drums, and he would have played guitar. We hit it off and didn’t hit it off with anyone else. That’s when I said to him, ‘I notice there isn’t much of a punk scene here; I’d love to start something’.
From there, we started building this thing that we weren’t sure what it was yet. We tried different things, and even if the songs we ended up with weren’t totally punk, every show we would play would sound like a punk show. We were playing all country honky-tonk bills, and there would always be at least one person in the audience saying, ‘Wasn’t expecting that, but I liked it’. It was a leap, dude. It was uncomfortable like we didn’t belong. And it wasn’t until 2021 when Nashville gained more of a rock scene, more pop-punk and emo. So, luckily, it’s a pretty strong scene now with some great bands like Snooper and Diarrhea Planet. It’s much more comfortable now, but we were holding on for dear life before. But we were looking for something we couldn’t find, so we made it ourselves.”
RS: When you aren’t setting out with any agenda rather than having something to cling to or catering to anyone but yourself, everything else comes naturally. That’s especially true with the things that you end up singing about. And then, when people start to gravitate towards you, you’ve already made some of the biggest steps. Everything else that comes after is a lovely little bonus because you’ve already won…
COCO: “I’m so fortunate to have Dan and Austin [Luther, Bassist/Producer]. They are huge parts of this. The three of us have been through the most uncomfortable parts of this together: when we try something new in a song or the live show, the question is, ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’ We do give a fuck, but we also don’t give a fuck. Our mission is that we love this genre, so how do we make it more accessible to people who love music, not just those who love punk? We’re building a career for ourselves whilst trying to do that as well, and in knowing that it matters to someone and matters to us, that is everything.”
RS: So, when it comes to the debut album, it is a true culmination of that mission statement until now. There are songs from the very start of the band that you have carried through and placed on. But in terms of every other aspect, what came to mind when you were working out what you wanted to represent with the record?
COCO: “We know exactly where we are in our career, and we know that we are still the littlest fish in the pond. So, with ‘Subaru’, ‘You Look Like A Drunk Phoebe Bridgers’, and ‘Wlbrn St Tvrn’ being added to the record, three songs that not only our fans believe in but we believe in, we are introducing more people to these songs for the first time, and that feels really special for us. This collection of work is a collection of different stories. It’s not one concept. If there is a concept, that concept is the human experience, whether that’s surface level of, ‘I hate myself today’ or something serious like politics or substance abuse. These are real-life things that we feel and have been through, and that’s going to attract new listeners. I will be listening to something but not really listening, and a lyric will hit, and I’ll go, ‘Oh shit, is this about me?’ This is an album full of, ‘Is this about me?'”
RS: You mention the serious moments, and there is one song that is as deeply personal as it gets for you. ‘IM IN THE MARKET TO PLEASE NO ONE’ is directly about dating abuse, and came from a letter that you wrote for therapy, that instead of chucking away and forgetting about you kept. The bravery it takes to take a situation as raw as that and put it into something that will live forever is one thing, but it must be another to have people know that this is a band where they can get support for those sorts of things is even more powerful…
COCO: “I can remember this one time specifically when an attorney for domestic violence victims came up to me after a show and said, ‘I just want you to know that I send that song to all of the clients’. I was like, ‘Woah’. I think the longer that song has been out, the more freeing it has felt. My experience with domestic violence is something that I never talked about. Ever, ever, ever. Even when we made the song, I wouldn’t even show Austin, who is also my husband, the lyrics until it was completely done, and it was time to record vocals. Now, people are having open conversations about domestic violence because of this song, and they are feeling comfortable enough to share with us how it has impacted them. It’s honestly all I could have ever dreamed of when it came to writing about true stories. People say that these songs help them, but what they don’t know is that it helps them more. It’s great to know you’re not alone in these things.”
RS: When you’ve been so intertwined with a scene from such a young age, you can forget how difficult it is for others to find their way. But Winona Fighter is their musical and emotional introduction to this and knowing there is somewhere for them must be an unbelievable feeling, albeit quite overwhelming. But knowing that you can provide the sort of joy that this community has given you all your life to others is everything you need to keep doing what you’re doing…
COCO: “That’s all we ever have ever worked for. Dan and I cry on stage all the time because of this, we are such big babies. But it’s because we are thinking, ‘Holy shit, I can’t believe this is happening’. We are building a community, and it is so nice. With the headlining tour that we are about to do as well, we chose all local supports for every day in hopes that it introduces our fans to what is happening. Letting them know that they have this and these are the bands that are a part of it. We want to pay our respects to the scenes that are all around us, and it is still crazy that we are at a place where we can do that and pay it forward. Showing that this is one of the greatest communities you can be a part of. I grew up where it was blue collar workers doing it for the love of it on weekends, and we’re doing it for the same love of it.”
RS: The love of this champions everything else. Through the hardships and the down moments, it always comes out on top. And as you look to the next stage, wherever that takes you, the fact that you are doing this because it is everything you have will always bring you out on top. That must instil such a permanent sense of joy within all of you…
COCO: “The best example is how I talk to my parents every other day and hear their excitement about the band. Like, Any updates’ or ‘Any news’. Like, yeah, this thing did happen that I thought wasn’t fun enough to share, but it is actually really exciting. It shows we are moving in the right direction. I keep on saying about this record is that all we can hope for is that it achieves a level of success where we can start writing for the next one and continue doing this and continue having an impact. Again, it’s about paying it forward. We were the kids who had nobody believing in us. So, I welcome the work that is to come.”
‘My Apologies To The Chef’ is out now via Rise Records.
