Every month, Consequence highlights a rising artist with our recurring feature series CoSign. For February 2025, we’re jamming out to Nashville punks Winona Fighter and their new album, My Apologies to the Chef.
If you’re in the Brooklyn area, make sure to check out our CoSigns Sessions showcase with BODEGA and THICK on February 21st. Get tickets here!
The notion of the “sellout” might seem a tad outdated in the age of streaming, like an insult that hasn’t been all that relevant since punk purists lobbed the term at Green Day’s Dookie. And yet, the idea of “selling out” still weighed upon Winona Fighter frontwoman Coco Kinnon as the band geared up for My Apologies to the Chef, the band’s new album and debut full-length release out today via Rise Records.
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“A big thing for us was, as a DIY punk band, how do we sign to a label and not seem like sellouts?,” Kinnon tells Consequence.
With each band member — Kinnon, lead guitarist Dan Fuson, and bassist and in-band producer Austin Lutherhaving — having been a part of various local scenes around the country, the commitment they feel towards the independent community has only strengthened as their profile continues to rise. So, how does a band like Winona Fighter retain their ideals as they enter the next stage of their career? Well, by listening to the acronym and doing it themselves.
“For the debut LP, you know, you only have one,” Luther explains. “We have some huge producer connections that we could have jumped into the studio and done a bunch of stuff with, but I think we just wanted [the album] to be 100% us.”
Despite productive and enjoyable meetings with folks like Neal Avron (a well-known producer who has worked with everyone from Weezer to Fall Out Boy to Linkin Park), the trio ultimately opted to forgo having a big name behind the boards or spending hours tracking in some expensive, fancy studio. Instead, they strolled down to Lutherhaving’s place and rocked the hell out, just as they’ve always done.