Post-Cowboy Indian Bear, C.J. Calhoun dives into his solo work

Last October, Cowboy Indian Bear, one of the area’s most beloved and most promising local acts, called it quits. There was no drama to report or cause of death given other than the five members’ desire to follow different paths. For frontman C.J. Calhoun, that meant the pursuit of his solo musical project, Bonzo Madrid.

There has been scarce audible activity from Bonzo Madrid so far, save one haunting track on Calhoun’s SoundCloud page (“Mausoleum”), so buzz is high ahead of Calhoun’s set Thursday at Lawrence Field Day Fest. Just don’t tell him that.

The Pitch: Which came first: Bonzo Madrid or the end of Cowboy Indian Bear?

Calhoun: I’ve been kind of kicking around this [Bonzo Madrid] album for a couple years, but I was obviously really focused on Cowboy Indian Bear and I didn’t have time to focus on them [my own songs]. As Cowboy Indian Bear was kind of coming to an end, we talked about if we wanted to keep playing together. I wanted to play on my own for a while, and I thought that would be helpful for me, to learn how to carry the show dynamically on my own.

I’ve just always played in bands since I was 14. I’ve never really attempted to write songs from the standpoint of “I need to carry this set on my own.” It’s just something different that I hadn’t done, and that kind of excited me.

And how is that for you, playing solo, without the support of a full band?

[Laughs.] I get so, so nervous. It’s kind of ridiculous. We played so many shows together that I wasn’t getting nervous at all for the last two years. It’s something I was just really comfortable with. But playing on your own, it’s just like, “Well, here I go.”

There’s not a lot of places for musicians to play outside of bars, and it’s loud, which makes it hard for someone to play solo because you get talked over and drowned out. It’s easier with a band because you can look at your friends and go, “We’re going to out-volume them.” Having to do that on your own, it’s nerve-racking, and I get a little shaky.

It’s like when baseball players retire. They never talk about missing the games. They talk about missing the team, the camaraderie they have with their teammates. I think just having to figure out how to present your music the way you want without that built-in support behind you, that’s a different mindset.

Tell me about the sound you’re going for with Bonzo Madrid and how it differs from Cowboy Indian Bear.

On a few different songs that are going to be on the record, I was really enjoying the idea of taking one instrument and trying to create a soundscape with just that instrument, as opposed to the way I wrote for Cowboy Indian Bear, which was a lot of sonic layering. I have one that I built out of just pianos, and I have one that’s all a cappella vocals. Honestly, most of the songs came out of doing, like, songwriter exercises, for lack of a better term. That’s where it came from musically. And lyrically it came from different places, obviously.

What’s the plan for the album?

I recorded about 15 songs, and I’m hoping to cut it down to nine or 10 because it’s going to be pretty dense. But we should be done mixing by the end of the month, and I think I’m going to have it out in the fall. I’m really proud of it, and I think everybody [from Cowboy Indian Bear] is going to be on the record, too. It’s not like we broke up because there were issues. It was just kind of the next phase for us.

Cowboy Indian Bear was such a huge part of your musical life. What’s been the most important thing you’ve learned since that band ended?

I think, once you’re out and you’re working and releasing music and touring and stuff — I feel like the way a lot of music is released anymore, there’s kind of a push for what’s next. It took Cowboy Indian Bear a couple years to make our last record, and the promotional cycle of that was just a couple months, and then it was like, “What’s next? What’s the next album? What now?” The luxury of starting fresh is that I can take my time finishing this record, and no one is necessarily waiting for when it’s going to come out. That’s kind of nice, to be just completely on my own schedule with it and completely relaxed.