Camp Cope Triumphantly Weather The Storm
By Matt Mitchell Six years after ascending beyond Victoria, Australia’s Footscray Station scene and releasing their fearless, eponymous debut, Camp Cope members Georgia Maq, Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich, and Sarah “Thomo” Thompson are watching the world give them the long-overdue respect they deserve. A week before I met with the Melbourne rock trio over Zoom, they released their second collaboration with local radio station Triple J. It fared much better among audiences, especially on social media, than their previous effort in late 2016; YouTube viewers, often men, rushed to the comments to disavow the then relatively new band’s performance and artistry. “It was our first year of being a band and people were so brutal,” Hellmrich says on our video call. “I feel like, if we were boys and were a punk band and just had a couple of chords and were rocking out, it would have been like, ‘Wow, this is so cool.’” Instead, the band was met with critiques about their unabashed playing style and their appearances, including direct jabs at Hellmrich’s bass skills and Maq’s facial hair. “We were just young and starting out. It felt like people were much more critical of us,” Hellmrich adds. But in 2022,… Read More →
