Article By: Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway
Canadian duo Cope has recently released their self-titled début EP through Norwegian Blue Records. With the rise of two-man bands being a prevalent item these days, Cope‘s Mickey Hayward (drums) and Tyson Wiebe (guitars/vocals) are poised to make an impact with this effort.
With a loud garage rock-like approach, the pair excel at electrically charged music with abundant punk rock excesses.
Wiebe comments: “The (Cope) EP is made up of the first three songs we wrote as a band, and these tracks are the way we usually open (‘Cryptid/Mother Russia’) and close (‘Tropic of Capricorn’) a set. These songs showcase the many faces of this band flipping through instrumental, punk, metal, and noise rock, but it always sounds like us. This is partly because of our band motto: tune down, turn up. We hope these three songs tide people over until we record our full length this summer.”
Meanwhile, Mickey Hayward describes Cope as, “loud, thoughtful, noisy, calm, unpredictable.”
The tasty contents of Cope’s creativity are now available on vinyl, cassette, and digital download via their indie label Norwegian Blue Records, as well as Bandcamp. The EP was engineered live off the floor at Norwegian Blue Studio in Lethbridge, Alberta under the watchful eye of Chris Lipinski (Atomicos, Lustre Creame) and Q (Supervoid, Stellar Radio Choir). The EP was mixed by Jesse Northey (The Betrayers, Diamond Mind) and mastered by KRAMER (Gwar, Galaxie 500).
In Cope related news, the pair are currently out and performing some live dates and have the following ones remaining:
May 4 – Saskatoon, SK – Underground Café (w/ Supervoid, The Moon Runners)
May 5 – Regina, SK – O’Hanlons (w/ Supervoid, The Moon Runners)
May 6 – Swift Current, SK – Ashley Park Community Hall (w/ Supervoid, The Moon Runners) ALL AGES