With $50 mics and a garage full of dreams, Nashville’s newest punk heroes are rewriting the rulebook with their debut album ‘My Apologies To The Chef’. Read the latest Upset cover feature now.
Words: Dan Harrison.
Photos: Lindsey Byrnes.
Most artists record their debut albums in proper studios. Winona Fighter recorded theirs next to a lawnmower, and somehow that feels exactly right. It’s the kind of beautiful chaos that happens when determination meets desperation in a Nashville garage, and the result, ‘My Apologies To The Chef’ (arriving in February via Rise Records), is fourteen tracks of pure, unfiltered ambition with added power tool ambience.
The journey from bedroom demos to garage anthems reads like a punk rock property ladder. They started in what frontwoman Coco Kinnon describes as their guest-room-turned-audio-laboratory before ascending to what she calls “the lap of luxury” – their garage studio, complete with “a full drum kit, upright piano, ten thousand guitars, basses, and all of Austin’s production gear.” Picture the world’s most musical garage sale, except nothing’s for sale, and everything’s getting turned up to eleven.
Producer-bassist Austin Luther’s approach to recording gear is properly punk: mix $50 microphones with $500 ones because “it doesn’t matter if you have nice gear or a pro studio; what matters is that the songs are actually good.”
“When the going got tough, I could cry in the comfort of my own home”
This isn’t just budget recording, though: it’s a declaration of independence wrapped in cable ties and determination. “I don’t think we will do it on our own forever, but this way of doing it is all we’ve ever known,” Kinnon explains. “If we’re going to enter a new way with LP 2, then why not close this chapter how we started it? DIY, raw, and on our terms.”
The band’s recent history reads pure punk rock fairytale. Fresh from demolishing America alongside Bayside in May 2024, they conquered the nation with zero safety net, doing it all “without a TM [tour manager] or FOH [front of house] or merch person or driver or anything, just the three of us, a drummer, and a lot of Nickleback during late-night drives.” Nothing says dedication quite like surviving on a diet of energy drinks and Chad Kroeger.
Their latest single, ‘HAMMS IN A GLASS’, was born from that most relatable of disasters – getting pulled over by a motorcycle cop while rushing to meet your managers. “So that on top of just a typical week from hell, I immediately went home and wrote ‘HAMMS’,” Kinnon recalls. “I walked in and thought, ‘If I were having a bad week, and put a song on to thrash my frustrations out to, what would that song sound like?’” The answer? Three minutes of glorious fury that’ll make any traffic violation worth it.
The album itself stands as a carefully curated museum of their evolution, featuring everything from ‘Father Figure’ EP favourites to fresh cuts forged in tour van purgatory. The recording process became an endurance test, particularly post-tour. “Really living up to our DIY reputation,” Kinnon notes. “So going from doing that all on our own to making our biggest release to date all on our own, burnout happened quickly.” The silver lining? As Kinnon puts it, “When the going got tough, I could cry in the comfort of my own home.” Never underestimate the therapeutic value of sobbing next to your own amplifiers.
Each track on the record tells its own story of growth and reinvention. Take the reimagined versions of ‘Subaru’ and ‘Wlbrn St Tvrn’: proof that sometimes the best way forward is to go back and do it right. “The original versions are not my drumming, and they were triggered,” Kinnon explains. “It never sat right with us. Everything after ‘Father Figure’ is my drumming and raw (no triggers), so we decided to take the time to re-record it all.”
Politics get their moment in the spotlight, too, with ‘ATTENTION’ marking Kinnon’s first proper state-of-the-nation address. “As I’m sure you all know, we just had a big election. To me, no matter who won, there will always be a reason to write. It’s so much deeper than just who is president.” And to the pearl-clutchers wringing their hands about TikTok references in punk lyrics? “I will write about what’s going on in real-time and release it and keep that cycle going until I’m dead. No regrets.”
The album serves up punk in every possible flavour, a fourteen-course tasting menu of amplifier abuse. “The whole album is under this ‘punk-rock’ umbrella,” Kinnon explains. “So you have songs like ‘Swear To God That I’m (FINE)’, which leans a little more punk-pop, ‘ATTENTION’ which is straight up radio punk rock, and then ‘HAMMS IN A GLASS’ which is just completely punk inspired.” It’s not genre-bending; it’s genre-celebrating: a love letter to every shade of punk that’s ever graced a garage.
“We write songs with our show in mind. All we want to do is play”
The DIY approach extends beyond just the recording process, it’s embedded in every aspect of their DNA. From handling their own touring logistics to maintaining creative control over every noise that emerges from that garage, Winona Fighter aren’t just making music – they’re building an empire from the ground up, one power chord at a time.
Next up? The Yes, Chef Tour kicks off in February, bringing their garage-bred brilliance to stages across America. Then comes the big one: a debut UK invasion at Slam Dunk. For a band who consider themselves “a live act before anything”, these aren’t just tour dates, they’re destiny calling. “We write songs with our show in mind. All we want to do is play. If this album is the start to us being able to ‘comfortably’ play shows the rest of our lives, then that would be something spectacular.”
“We are just so grateful for what we’ve been able to achieve so far,” Kinnon reflects. “We are so lucky for the opportunities both the industry and fans have given us. We don’t take any of this for granted.” Neither should we. In 2024, when so many bands are chasing Spotify algorithms and TikTok trends, Winona Fighter have pulled off something properly radical – they’ve made punk rock that remembers why we fell in love with it in the first place. Raw, real, and absolutely refusing to play by anyone else’s rulebook. The industry might not be ready for what’s coming, but that’s entirely the point.
Winona Fighter’s album debut album ‘My Apologies To The Chef’ is out 14th February. Their single ‘HAMMS IN A GLASS’ is out now. Follow Upset’s Spotify playlist here.
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