Photo courtesy of Simone Niamani Thompson

Tucked away in the same Los Angeles neighborhood, Rock and Luca had no idea that someone with the same love for Western cinema and potent women was within walking distance. After a couple of chance meetings and some mutual friends, the duo became Trophy Wives.

“We started sharing different music ideas and a lot of our very strange, weird concepts were similar and aligned,” Luca said.

“That’s not something you really bond with people over, that kind of music,” Rock added. “Every time we hung out, every time we’d do anything, there would be music on and music playing. I think that we just bonded over the overall premise of enjoying the vibe music brings when we’re together.”

They bonded over artists like Dolly Parton, Hank Williams and Tammy Wynette. They learned they both had family ties to the South, and that representation was few and far between for them.

“Something that’s interesting, just as two queer people, is that sometimes that doesn’t always feel like the South and Western culture country music,” Luca said. “It doesn’t always feel like it lends itself, like there’s an intersection with that, and so I think just venturing into that world and playing that from our perspective in a modern approach was really intriguing as well.”

Although Rock was originally writing music intended for a solo project, they were the one that asked Luca about making music together. It turned out that a lot of the pre-written material spoke to Luca as well, and any of their combined influences showed up organically as they delved into the process as a duo.

Understanding each other musically is how their friendship blossomed. It was how they decided to release “Cowboy Mama” as their debut single. The single is the right amount of calm before being introduced to their storm, and really touches on the variety of sounds that play into their genre-bending tone.

“I think ‘Cowboy Mama’ is a beautiful representation or first impression of where we pulled all of our influences from,” Luca said.

They hope that the takeaway from the song is both a sense of familiarity and originality. The song is meant to be a good time while also surprising the listener with a sound they might not have heard before.

They learned a lot about themselves as they wrote and recorded the song. For Rock, it was about having another collaborator to bounce ideas off of. For Luca, it was about trusting the creative process. This was a time for them to discover themselves as individuals and as musicians, and be in the moment as the song took shape.

They also learned a lot from collaborators Dan Reynolds and Wayne Sermon. With the success of their Grammy® Award-winning band, Imagine Dragons, they were able to share their own experiences.

“They’ve just been so incredibly generous to us,” Luca said. “They saw a talent in both of us that they wanted to develop, and Rock and I feel like we won the lottery. For whatever reason, this is the position we landed in. We both feel really grateful and super overwhelmed in the right ways, but it feels really special to be in close proximity to people that are just so good at what they do and care so much and are just so generous with their time and their skills.”

The dynamic duo of Trophy Wives has just begun. They want nothing more than for their audience to embrace their individuality and dance their asses off, and “Cowboy Mama” is the perfect song to get them started.