The Meffs Lily Hopkins Interview 26.11.24

Add in the sheer quantity of live dates this band are notching up and they are building both live proficiency and a solid fan base from the ground up. The Meffs are on the rise.

The Meffs are Lily Hopkins on guitar and vocals and who writes the songs and Lewis Copsey on drums and backing vocals. For a two piece, each member is obviously vital and there’s a chemistry between them that works. Lily who’s from Clacton sings with that Essex twang and there’s some great call and responses with Lewis. For a two-piece they use everything at their disposal musically from picked riffs/intros to heavy punk, harmonies, and pace changes so that the songs are varied and all underpinned by the tight drumming. Some of the songs are complex, but seem effortlessly simple and with space to breathe. The song’s subjects are weighty but not preachy and offer hope. They are short sharp punk rock!

I caught up with Lily after yet another whirlwiind tour around Europe where she was a bit shell-shocked and wasn’t sure what day it was lol.

Punk77: The most unlikely pairing – American rock legend Alice Cooper with a band of 3 guitarists (including the talented guitar shredder Nita Strauss), bassist and drummer playing arena tours and a two piece punk band from Essex travelling with their gear in a van and no roadies. How the frick did this happen?

We were in Berlin playing a 150 capacity venue and it’s sold out. So it’s a small, sweaty gig where we belong. Well, first of all, we had loads of missed calls from the agent saying “Answer your phone! What are you playing at!” Blah blah blah. So we ring back thinking what have we done wrong and he says “You got Alice.” And we were like, what does that mean? We were like, we didn’t even know that we had been submitted for consideration. I think we were put forward for London because of being so close to London and Glen Matlock was on the bill. Then it just got extended from there and they just said do you fancy doing the whole thing and we said “Yeah. Alright.” So it’s bizarre but it happened.

I checked out the previous tour featuring The Cult & Creeper to see how they went down; it was all really positive. So I thought, yeah! It’s Shock Rock, isn’t it?  But Alice draws an eclectic crowd and it isn’t just the stereotypical rockers that you might expect, which is great for us.

The Meffs & Alice Cooper band

Punk77: How were you treated

Oh, it was amazing. It was an arena tour so there were crews everywhere. We don’t have a crew, so we just turned up in our Transit van and the rest is done for you, which was completely alien to us. But we were treated really well which was great. They were lovely people, you know; really hospitable to a fairly new band. We bumped into the bands and meeting Alice as well was surreal.

Punk77: Nita Strauss is incredibly accomplished, but I find that though there’s a lot of technical skill what’s missing is the emotion. A track like Only Human has the simplest of solos but just works so effectively in the context of the song with the lyrics and riff. It’s my favourite song off the album.

Do you know that’s funny. We had a rehearsal yesterday getting ready for the next tour. So we’re doing all the new stuff and that is one song that we both love on the record. Like it’s been one of our favourites since we recorded it.

I don’t do solos live. You know, there’s only so much running around and shouting you can do to keep the audience interested and my take is that I choose not to do guitar solos. It’s not that I can’t do them. So when we came to rehearsing Only Human Lewis said “Obviously you’ve got the solo bit coming up. What are we gonna do with that?” And I said, “I think that’s one we can do because it’s not really a solo.”

Punk77: Recording – Songs change much in the studio?

With this record, we did have a lot of it set in stone. We’d been rehearsing a lot of it for a while because bear in mind it had been two years since we recorded Broken Britain. We held onto that record for like a good year before we put it out. So for us, we were already rehearsing the new stuff for What A Life when that came out. Only Human was one of the first ones that we were rehearsing. We’ve had that for a while and so yeah, a lot of it, especially with that song was set in stone because I think it’s quite difficult to change something that you’ve been playing for so long.

There were certain bits in songs that were changed. I’ll let you into a secret which is some of the solos on the records are not me playing. On Broken Britain, for example, there are a couple of proper, like rock’n’roll guitar solos and that’s Frank who’s credited for those. On Think Big it’s his guitar solo. [Punk77: I think Lily makes too much of this. I never noticed any difference )

But I think we’ve tried to sort of keep that to a minimum if you like, because they’re not things that are going to be replicated on stage. So on songs like Only Human, they might sound soloey but they’re very short,  quite riffy or single note solos.

My view on it is that as a two-piece unless you’ve got a backing track, having guitar solos is going to leave it sounding empty like it would just be drums and a guitar solo. There would be nothing else. If I’m listening to a song, I’d much rather listen to a 3 minute, you know classic punk song than I would maybe a 5 minute punk song with a minute-long guitar solo in the middle. It doesn’t keep my attention.

Punk77: As you’re touring you’re becoming more proficient at your instrument and writing. How long a two piece?

I think staying a two piece is really important. I think you need to be able to grab the attention of the audience quicker because there’s there’s less for them to see potentially than if you have a five piece band on stage. You know, they’re not gonna be looking at different members. So for me, it’s about capturing the attention and keeping it.

Punk77: X Ray Spex & influences

You know what they weren’t one of my earliest influences. I think they’re a band that I came across as I was looking for more music.

And they’re just a band that stands out more than anything for the energy in the music. I mean, the energy on stage is insane. When you watch those old videos she looks like she’s gonna bite someone’s head off. And it’s great; Like, it’s such a good energy to have.

But Joan Jett was a big influence from before I got into punk and as much now. Suzie Quatro, obviously in the old glam videos. Just seeing those women on stage and thinking, wow, they looked like so powerful and, you know, people love them and people really are listening to what they’re saying. So people like that I think were my probably earliest inspirations to get in a band.

My dad loves Deep Purple, Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and all that sort of stuff, but not necessarily my cup of tea. Mum loves Motown and that which I really like as well. I’m also very much into the Ska and reggae side of things.

Punk77: You’re starting to sound like a guitar pro! You’ll be having people tuning the guitars by the stage ready for you and throwing them at you.

Laughs – We had a friend come along to the Alice shows with us because we had no crew. Second or third night, he said “Do you want me to restring your guitar for you?” And I was like I don’t know how I feel about that. He did it one night and it still felt weird not knowing that you’ve done it yourself.

Punk77: Things start to fall into place for The Meffs when Big Mike signs them to his new label Bottles To The Ground.

It’s been great. We recorded the Broken Britain EP with Frank Turner and then we got to the end of that process fairly quickly and said “Ok what do we do now?” Like we’ve only ever put our own stuff online. We’ve never had any press or distribution; nothing.

I had this really bizarre midnight phone call where I set an alarm to get out of bed to have this meeting with him. Meanwhile, he was having his Subway or something delivered to his door and that was literally it, he was like “Sorry, my sandwich is here. See you later” and I was, like, “right” and we were on his label.

It was a bit of a right place right time moment because he was starting that label at the time and he only had Codefendants which is his band. So there was just the two of us on the label and it just worked.

We then started doing a few tours and shows with them when they came over this way and it went from there. They took on the new album as well and put it out. They support us on recording costs and the such like but gigs and tours etc is all down to us.

Punk77: Giving up the security of jobs and going professional

We both are now doing this for a living. That was a decision that came because of the amount of touring we were doing. We were being offered gigs and having to turn them down because we couldn’t get the time off. So we made that decision last year because we knew we had 100 to 200 gigs. I think that in this year 2024, which is impossible to do.

Punk77: How do you find like your audience has it? Has it changed over the last kind of four or so years as you have you steadily built up?

Our fanbase has definitely changed. It’s not conscious, but we sort of fit into multiple genres if you like. We found this out by playing different things like Download Festival which is a rock/metal audience or 2000 Trees, which is a completely different audience – more laid back.

Then you have Rebellion with your old school punks and then we play some of the proper crusty punk festivals in like Germany for example, where people just go mad from the first song, even if they don’t know you. So yeah, our fan base has changed and it’s extended. Not just in numbers, but in the types of people that listen. We get kids coming with their parents now and we had someone who was 80 at the front of one of our gigs, who loved it because it reminded him of even older stuff than the 70s punk movement. So yeah, it’s cool. It’s definitely expanded and it’s nice to have a variety of people as  well.

Punk77: Gigs and venues – since the day dot people have been saying you can’t make money from touring and music is dying. How have The Meffs seen the changes?

But then in terms of like venues, venues are dying, Two of the venues we played on our last headline tour, are shut now because they just can’t sustain the bills. There’s no arts funding in the UK really; it’s non-existent compared to other countries.

Hopefully that’s changing. Obviously with these massive artists giving a pound per for every ticket and hopefully that will that will help venues be saved and just put a bit more money into it.

I think since we started my mindset is when you first start, for example, sometimes you’re offered like no fee and no expenses, and my view is that’s completely wrong. There are other people who say, “Oh yeah, but you gotta work, you gotta earn your stripes, you gotta work your way out.” No, no, no. Like you wouldn’t ask anyone else to do a job for nothing, not even your. Loss there or whatever.

So I think that’s one of the one of the areas where it’s wrong for emerging bands because bands will play for nothing if they think it’s going to get them somewhere and it might not. So it’s a big risk. You know you’re spending your own money to do it.

When you’re starting out because you can play to five people and it can feel a bit disheartening, I guess, but you just gotta keep doing it, I think.

For us, when we started, we were working full time and trying to do this as much as possible. So it was like all of our free time was on gigging. So as long as we weren’t losing money and as long as we could get ourselves around and grow our fanbase that was good for us to start with. Then it just goes from there really and never stops.

You never lose that internal pressure, to sell tickets and to grow your fan base because there’s so many bands out there trying to do the same, but it gets easier because you can see it growing without you having to do as much. Now because we’re doing this full-time, it’s pleasure and work together. We wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t great. We love what we do!

On the other side, there’s risk. Not working full time, you don’t have that reliability and stability and it could all go wrong at any minute and some tours don’t pay off the way you hope they would.

But you’ve just got to not give up and be disheartened. I think it’s also good to look up to other people. Bob, Villain is a band we’ve played with and it’s nice to see that they have made the progress they’ve made through their own record label as they’re not signed to a label. They’ve got messages to share and whether people like it or not, they’re important messages that need to get out there and fans like them.

I think, Oh yeah, I reckon we could give that a shot. You gotta have positivity. You gotta you gotta have that hope.

The Meffs – Breathe (The Bodega, Nottingham – 19th November 2023) – plus a lot of people with cameras at the front

Punk77: Why Breathe by The Prodigy?

So they are Essex-based, just up the road and we actually both really love The Prodigy. So I saw them some years ago at a festival somewhere when Keith was still around. I always really liked Liam’s writing in the band and think he’s underrated with those earworms he creates in their songs.

This is the thing with punk, isn’t it? You know, what is punk? There’s always that argument, isn’t there? Obviously you got your different genres, you got your skinhead or your classic 70’s/80’s punk and I think you’ve also got this whole subculture and I think The Prodigy sort of fit into that subculture.

They went against the grain with what they looked like with some of the stuff he was singing about. Then there was the sort of shock factor on stage, and I always liked that as well. I always liked that with Keith. I always felt that when you watch the music videos, they’re filthy, like dirty and like. Yeah! you just wanna get in there and join in. So. Yeah, one day I just played the riff of Breather in the rehearsal studio to Lewis. I said “We gotta do this cover” and he was like, “Yeah, but it’s The Prodigy. I don’t know how that’s gonna go down?” I said “It’s gonna go down great. Trust me!” And it does!

Post interview – The band have announced on their Facebook page if they sell out one of the venues on their upcoming tour they will record Breathe

Punk77: New songs

I consciously stopped writing for about 6 months probably this year because we were out so much and I feel sometimes it can be quite repetitive if you’re just constantly writing; you are almost rewriting your own ideas that you’ve already written. So for me, I made that conscious decision that if something didn’t stay in my head, then it wasn’t good enough.

Over the last month or so I’ve started writing again, but just slower this time. I think for the next record, we’re definitely gonna have it less polished and allow room for change. When we did Broken Britain, Dead In The City and No weren’t even meant to be on those EP’s. They came after, we recorded most of those songs and through being in the studio and just bouncing ideas. So yeah, I think we’re going to keep it a bit looser when we go in, but definitely starting to write now. I think it’s never too soon when you’re sat in your house with time on your hands.

Punk 77: OK, so look, I’m done, so you’ll be glad to know and get yourself a subway and a cup of tea.

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