| Band: | Copse |
| Release: | MMXXIV |
| Genre: | Post-Black Metal |
| Country: | England |
| Release Date: | 30th of August, 2024 |
| Released via | Church Road Records |
On August 20th Copse will release the Discography Vinyl MMXXIV via Church Road Records. Since we love Copse and Church Road Records, it was only a question of time when we were gonna ask some questions about this awesome combination. Copse guitarist Phil Vernon gave us a little insight:
TMB: First of all, we would like to thank you for taking the time for our small interview. A lot has happened since the inception of Copse and there is certainly more to come in the near future. 2 years have passed since your first output Mara | Mondrem saw the light of day. How would you describe the 5 tracks on this album for those who haven’t been around the first time.
Copse: I think Mara and Mondrem have quite a hopeful feel to them. They’re fast and abrasive as you’d expect but the melodies give them a sense of yearning. One of my favourite ways I’ve heard the songs described by someone was “like climbing a mountain and then finally seeing the view”. They both close with a big sense of release and light at the end of the tunnel energy.
TMB: How did the contact to the fine people at Church Road Records came into existence and who had the idea of releasing this discography vinyl?
Copse: We had an interaction with Sammy via Instagram which resulted in us sending a link for Mara | Mondrem to him. I think he forgot for a bit haha, but i’m good friends with Nate and Alex from Going Off and they mentioned us to him too and it reminded him that we were sat in his inbox! Him and Justine gave it a listen and enjoyed it enough to get in touch with us saying they’d love to work with us which we were really excited about. When we started the band we always talked about wanting to put something out through the label so for that to happen early on was obviously amazing.
We already had pretty complete demos for Old Belief | New Despair which we sent over and luckily they liked those enough too! They’ve been so supportive and encouraging ever since and when they approached us with the opportunity to release the discography vinyl we bit their hands clean off as we always wanted to eventually put those songs out on a record. Basically Sammy and Justine continually keep turning our dreams into reality! We couldn’t imagine working with anyone better.
TMB: The cover somehow reminds me of Botch’s Anthology of dead ends. It is certainly a departure from the artwork of the EPs. Can you tell us some more about the creation process and the reason why you chose it?
Copse: Yeah I guess it does a bit! Sick record to be fair!
The original EP artworks were both photos taken by our guitarist Phil and then worked into cover art by our drummer Ryan. We originally though about the concept of trying to combine the two in someway for the discography release but decided to go with something unique.
We’ve stuck to the nature theme with the snowy mountains and trees and stuff so theres definitely a tie in to the originals. The concept was just something Ryan had been playing around with and out to the rest of us and we were all super into it, and that was it really!
TMB: How do “Nice Shorts” and “Deans Dishwasher” come along? What can be expected from the next Copse release comparing it to your previous work?
Copse: Hahaha! Forgot we posted those! Those are (obviously) working titles for what will, all going well, become the album next year. Those songs and the others we posted the titles for are all earmarked for that. They have a slightly more sad, discordant vibe to the EP tracks but there is till plenty of trademark Copse in there. Probably more along the vibes of some of the sections in New Despair.
We will, however, be releasing something new that is non album related before the end of this year which kind of bridges old and new quite nicely (we think!). So keep you’re ears out for that ;).
TMB: Looking back on your journey so far, what would you say were your personal highlights?
Copse: The band even coming into existence is a huge one. It was never meant to get to where it has but it’s been amazing and I wouldn’t change a thing about it.
Working with Church Road and playing Arctangent festival were the two big boxes we hoped to tick at some point so to have already had the opportunity to do both of those has been huge for us.
Lastly, we’re playing our first proper headline show later this year and we’ve sold it out over 2 months in advance, which was a hugely proud moment for us. So we can’t wait to get to October to play that show!
TMB: A really burning question for us is, are there any plans on touring mainland Europe some time soon?
Copse: It’s obviously something we would absolutely love to do at some point. With us all being a little older with careers and families and stuff it is harder for us to get out on the road and commit to bigger tours. But all going well and opportunity will come along at some point that works for us and we can come over. I need Mezzo Mix in my life!
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