Armed with nail-biting riffs and an electric stage presence, Good Cop have a glowing reputation in the UK hardcore scene. After a striking Halloween show at the Luna Leytonstone in London, Tightrope sat down for a conversation with the queer anarchist band from Hertfordshire- and trust me, with their high profile and a personal love for their music, I was excited to hear what they had to say.
The five-piece formed in 2020, through "pure happenstance", the vocalist, Vic, explains.
"I went to the Red Lion in Stevenage, (rest in peace) to watch Chinned. My fiancé dragged me to the show and I didn't really want to go, but I went and had a great time. I saw Chinned play, and I just thought, oh fuck, I want to do that. And then I put up a post on joinmyband.com. And then Tom, our bassist, replied to it. Then El replied, who now plays rhythm guitar and does our backing vocals."
Jared, the lead guitarist, picks the story up from his side: "Me and Gabriel, our drummer, have been playing together for around 10 years in various bands. We have another band that played with Good Cop when they were a three-piece with a drum machine."
The two bands loved playing together so much that, eventually, the pair joined Good Cop and "assimilated into the project".
As a fellow musician, I was keen to know about Good Cop's creative process, and they did not disappoint. The band agree that their process has developed over time, but now they "all sit down and we write songs together. That's how the last stuff had been written. Same for the EP that's coming out, and hopefully an LP soon."
Creating music is a unique experience for any musician, and the passion Good Cop have for it is truly admirable, with El telling us "It's my favour- it's our favourite part. When you hear a song having come to fruition after working on it for ages, it's so rewarding."
When crafting their music, Good Cop draws inspiration from a wide array of unlikely places. Each musician brings a unique element and a new perspective, which creates a truly original sound.
Vic, the founder of the band, expresses his original desire to write grindcore, and this plays an obvious role in shaping Good Cop's music. Gabe tells us that the band has "kept very consistent with two-for-ones", (riffs consisting of two chords) as a result, a standout feature of the genre. Vic cites bands such as Pupil Slicer and Insect Warfare as an influence for this element of Good Cop’s sound.
Jared brings the chaos of mathcore to the band, or the “weird, goofy, jazzy shit”, in Gabe’s words. Jared loves “anything whammy with horrible discords”.
El expresses their love for anything that falls into nu-metal or punk and tells us that “all the Deftones-y shit is all me.” By this, they mean octave chords and dissonance, which ties in perfectly with Jared’s mathcore style, evoking a sound similar to that of Vein.FM or Converge, but one that is still authentically Good Cop.
Gabe, however, describes himself as “the hardcore kid who just wants to listen to Trapped Under Ice and hit people”, and this very much reflects in his drumming.
Gabe also goes on to describe Tom as “wild as fuck and will do the most gnarly shredding… and then will never use it, because it’s too complicated.”
Jared: “Vic’s lyrics are some of the best I’ve ever worked with. [talking to Vic] I’ve never said that to you, really, but, love you.”
Moving away from the creation of music and to its performance, Good Cop has a lot to say. As a band in a genre that demands chaos, they strongly value the balance of high-energy, engaging performance and high-quality music.
This leads onto asking the band their favourite part of performing, to which Tom responded: “jumping around shit.”, which achieves a laugh all-round.
El elaborates by expressing how much they love the “pure chaos” and “just… the joy of the hardcore show.” In a genre built from anger and revolution, Good Cop are a band that fiercely love what they do and have fun doing it, which is something to be incredibly admired.
“No dickheads” and “when people get involved and move” are two factors that define a show as a success for Good Cop, highlighting the importance of audience reaction to them as a band.
“We’ve played to some very odd crowds before.” says Vic, “Where they didn’t really know what to expect, or where there’s, maybe, ten people in a room who are expecting some sort of “dad rock” band.”
“We have been on some very bizarre lineups” adds Jared.
“I think it all comes down to the crowd’s reaction. If everyone stands still, I’ll be very sad.” says El.
[At this point, the interview was briefly interrupted by a torrent of rain, forcing us to take shelter under the nearest tree. Maybe outside the venue on a rainy night was not the best place to conduct an interview, in hindsight!]
Good Cop are a band that defines themselves as “extreme anarchist noise” on Spotify, and play hardcore: a genre that is best known for being vastly political. Therefore, their values as a band are incredibly important to them and shape everything they do inside and outside of the music world. Naturally, I was curious as to what these might entail.
Vic describes the band as “aggressively left-wing”. El agrees that they are “a bunch of anarcho-socialists, and I think that comes through in our music. We have a very confusing name considering our beliefs. But I think it works. In terms of specific shit”, they elaborate, “we're a queer band as well, so we're always trying to fight for trans rights. Especially with the amount of influence that TERFs seem to have on our government now. It's awful. But yeah, we've been playing shows for different causes- we did Punks for Palestine earlier this year.”
“We love to get involved with that kind of thing. See, music is direct action.”
Music can mean anything to anyone, and for those who choose to pursue it, many have been impacted greatly by the power of the music they love and the community surrounding it. This, of course, applies to Good Cop. “What does hardcore really mean to you?, I asked the band.
For Vic, hardcore music opened doors to new friends and opportunities, and helped him escape from a dark place in his life. “This is where I found my friends. I was going through a period where I didn’t really go out, see anyone or talk to anyone. It was only since I started going to shows that I met people that I now call my closest friends. I wouldn’t have met them if it wasn't for local hardcore shows.”
El finds a similar sense of community in the genre, finding friends and a feeling of belonging in the genre. “It’s about finding somewhere we all fit in, it’s like, suddenly I’m not the weird one in this group, we’re all weird together in the hardcore scene.”
Community is so integral to any genre of music, it is a catalyst for so much love and a place for anyone to belong. For decades, music has captured the minds of the misunderstood, the troubled, the outcasts, but it is so beautiful when the same people find their home in it, and even make music for themselves.
Good Cop has advice for anyone in the same position, musicians young or old looking to make music.
Gabe: “Play shows. Fucking play shows. Play a lot of shows and then you’ll get more shows from there. And don't be disheartened if those shows suck and there's no one there. Every band, even your favourite band has played a million empty fucking shows to no one.”
Vic: “The only advice I can really give is that you’ve just got to fucking do it. If you can string together three power chords on a guitar, if you can knock out a 4/4 beat on the drums, if you can just yell into a microphone, you could be in a hardcore band.”
“But with music like hardcore, a lot of it comes from the energy. So if you’re going to play these fucking horrible beatdown riffs about how shit the world is, but you’re standing still and not moving around, the energy doesn’t carry through and it falls flat.”
“Also, do what you want musically. There's a million bands that sound like Trapped Under Ice. There's a million bands that sound like Terror. Do something different, be interesting, and most importantly, just fucking move.”
Thank you so much to Good Cop for talking to me. I have endless appreciation for what they stand for and contribute to hardcore and music in general. I cannot recommend this band enough, listen to Good Cop on Spotify and follow their Instagram @goodcop_hxc. Full, unedited interview on YouTube and transcript available, both of which are available at: https://thetightrope.wixsite.com/my-site
In the true spirit of ‘sharing the scene’, I also asked Good Cop if they would like to share their favourite up-and-coming bands, to give them the attention they really deserve. Here’s what they said.
GOOD COP’S RECOMMENDATIONS:
VIC- “Necrodomia. They’re a two-piece grind-sludge band. They’ve got a drummer and a bassist with a distortion pedal. And they're both 15! They're really, really good.”
Instagram- @necrodomia.band
VIC- “Caution Elderly People. Another queer punk band from Hertfordshire, they're great.”
Instagram- @cautionelderlypeople
EL- “Then there’s loads of our mates in Hour of Reprisal and Negative Frame. Both are amazing.”
Instagram- @xhourofreprisalx
Instagram- @negativeframeldn
VIC- A shout-out to Gender Warfare, as well.”
Instagram- @genderwarfare
JARED- “If you want the most niche music ever, it’s only on Bandcamp. It was released about six years ago, and they only play gigs when one of them is back from Ireland. They’re called Ghostman’s Torch. They’re a two-piece, drums, bass, weird stuff, similar to our weirdness in some respects.”
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