“We play every show like we’re the headliner… give it a million percent every time,” says Coco Kinnon, frontwoman, multi-instrumentalist, and co-producer of Winona Fighter, which is rounded out by Kinnon’s best friend (Dan Fuson) on lead guitar and husband (Austin Luther) on bass and production duties. Lucky for us, we’ll get a chance to see an actual headlining show from the Nashville punk trio next Saturday, July 12th, when they appear at The Foundry at The Fillmore as part of the Yes, Chef Tour. The band have been on the road since February, both in the US and UK, playing a plethora of headlining shows, in addition to a handful of festival performances and few dates supporting Simple Plan and The Used, respectively. And, according to Coco, there has definitely been a milestone or two: “We played at Concerts in The Park in Sacramento, which was put on by a radio station, and they do it every Friday, and we were like the smallest headlining band playing it. We were definitely nervous, but we filled up that whole park, and it was just eye opening for us. I mean, maybe 80% weren’t familiar with us, but they cared enough to stay and engage and get in the mosh pit!”
Winona Fighter kicked off these dates on Valentine’s Day, the same day they released their debut LP, My Apologies To The Chef, which includes, in addition to brand-new music, re-recordings of three tracks from 2022 debut EP Father Figure, along with a number of singles that have dropped in-between. “I think it felt like a long time coming for us. For our debut EP, we just dropped it, without any singles, and then we only released singles,” Coco tells me of finally putting out a full-length, going on to say, “We’ve been at this a long time. We’ve been DIY for a long, long, long time, and we signed with Rise Records in 2024.” She tells me that Rise Records – who released My Apologies To The Chef – seemed to be the perfect fit from day one: “They were really supportive of how much of a DIY band we are… We’re doing our first full-length, and we were like, ‘We want to make it in our garage!’ and they were like, ‘Let us know when it’s done!’”
And Coco tells me that fans have been picking up on their approach to music: “I think it’s been cool that people who don’t know anything about us or our influences have expressed that it sounded like the ‘90s. It was recorded in a garage and so influenced by things of the ‘90s and just a very authentic sound.” I ask Kinnon if she has any favorite debut LPs of her own music library and she cites a staple of the mid-late ‘90s: “Third Eye Blind’s debut is just legendary!” Apparently, Winona Fighter even recently got a chance to share a stage with Third Eye Blind at Let’s Go! Music Festival in Crownsville, MD, which Coco says left quite an impression on the trio: “We stayed for that whole show! And we never stay for a whole show, because we usually want to get out and get on the road,” (I recently chatted with Charlotte Sands, who played the same festival and told me Third Eye Blind’s set was one of the best shows she’s ever seen. Keep checking PHILTHY for our chat.) Coco tells me that a Winona Fighter live show also borrows sentiments from the alt rockers of that particular era: “It’s literally just us and our instruments. We don’t have a click track or a light show or an LED screen.”
Nine of the 14 tracks of My Apologies To The Chef have gotten Official Music Video treatment over the course of the past year+, something that Kinnon says allows Winona Fighter to tap into a different side of their identity: “We take our job very seriously, we take the music very seriously, but we don’t take ourselves seriously.” She goes on to joke, “We’ve got three nerds onscreen, we’re not gonna get an Oscar-winning performance [laughs]… It’s all about getting out of our comfort zone and having a laugh.” She even mentions another group of ‘90s legends who have seemed to always take a similar approach: “I’ve always loved the music videos of the Foo Fighters. The music’s serious, and the music videos are important, but they have fun with them!”
Last week Winona Fighter dropped “You Look Like A Drunk Phoebe Bridgers (Acoustic),” a stripped down take on a previous single from My Apologies To The Chef, and the Yes, Chef Tour wraps late July, prior to a September date opening a Nashville show for Cartel and a November appearance at the third and final edition of Vans Warped Tour 2025, in Orlando, which will also feature Charlotte Sands. However, Coco says that there are some unannounced dates coming up as well, and that the band are still plenty excited for the remaining dates of the headlining jaunt, which takes a special approach to selecting support bands, with our show featuring hometown pop punk heroes Goalkeeper: “We did FEST with them. I love them! As a nod to my roots as a hardcore punk, instead of having one act come out for an extended period, we’re asking for local openers.” She also tells me that there’s something that Winona Fighter fans should look out for in the very near future: “Next week we do have something big that we’re really excited about!”
*Get your tickets here.
