The Chronic Cowboys, aka Donald Leary, Rufus White and Trevor O’Neil, are a long way from their childhood career aspirations but once you’ve heard this triple-threat DJ partnership cause a stampede onto the dancefloor you’ll swear they made the right choice.

Formed in the early Naughties in a tiny pub in Ibiza, the original Cowboys were Donald and Rufus, a couple of cold-weather refugees using their mixing skills to scrape rent. Despite hailing from opposite sides of a fiercely contested border, Yorkshire-born, Northern Soul fan Rufus and Glaswegian techno fiend Donald discovered a common theme in their contrasting backgrounds. “We love the possibilities of dance music,” says Rufus. “It brought us to Ibiza and gave us a life neither of us imagined. Now, every time we step into the DJ booth, we can take the crowd some place they’ve never dreamed of going.” Given their open-minded approach it’s not surprising that third member Trev is a Bristolian junglist whose first musical memory is listening to his mum’s Bryan Adams tapes.

Their sound is a product of these disparate influences, put through a Balearic filter to produce a unique strain of sunshiny house music shot through with irreverent samples, dark techno licks, and rumbling West Country basslines. This sounds like a tall order but the Cowboys would no more consider merely mixing two records than their namesake would contemplate riding a bike to work. Rufus, as Native Instruments’ product specialist for Ibiza, ensures the trio is always armed with the best and latest in hardware and software. And they’re happy to press into service whatever decks, effects, gadgets or gewgaws are in arms’ reach. But for them, technology is only a tool. The cutting, sampling, looping, spinning has one simple goal: To pump up the party till it goes ‘pop’!

Drawing inspiration from crowd-pleasing jocks like Fatboy Slim, Andy C and Mauro Picotto, the Cowboys have cultivated the art of taking music seriously, but not themselves.

“If I were a cowboy,” Donald says, “I’d be John Wayne and have a gay horse.”

Trev, straight-faced, reveals that his hidden talent is clapping with one hand.

Ask Rufus what his philosophy is and he’ll tell you: “Never play leapfrog with a unicorn.”

This irrepressible sense of mischief, combined with some 40 years collective DJ experience and a staunch belief in transformative power of good music and good times makes the Chronic Cowboys the most exciting trio of tune slingers you’re likely to meet.
