A brief chat with Bad Cop/Bad Cop

Yellow Scene: When did the band form and what was the mission?

Jennie Cotterill: We started about four years ago, and it was an experiment. We all kind of knew each other from being girls in bands locally, and we had a different bass player originally and she got everyone together just to see what it was about. It was super-fun. Then she left, and we got out bass player a year after that. So we’ve been this version of us for three-plus years.

YS: When did you sign to Fat Wreck Chords, and how does it feel to be part of that family?

JC: It was last year. Stacey Dee is also in this band and she has been singing on the record for Home Street Home, which is Fat Mike’s musical. They’ve been working on that for a couple of years. We were like, “If you’re seeing this guy, give him our record.” She didn’t want to be uncouth, rude or pushy. She convinced him to come to a show when we were in San Francisco. He liked it and we had this 7” that became “Boss Lady.” We had just finished everything, we had mastered it and everything, but we didn’t have the money to put it out. He was like, “I’d like to hear it.” We sent it to him and we didn’t expect anything to happen at all, but he was like, “We’ll put it out, and you guys should do a full-length record.” We were so excited.

YS: Do you like playing Colorado?

JC: I’ve never been there. I’m really excited. I think maybe one of us has been there before, but we’re all really looking forward to this tour and seeing places we’ve never seen, and playing with some of our favorite bands.

YS: Well then, for the newbies here that have never seen you, how do you describe your sound?

JC: Well, our drummer is super-into AC/DC and I think you can hear that. There’s a three-part harmony thing going on and some kind of Pixies influence and well as a lot of Fat Wreck Chords influences. Our record is produced by Fat Mike and I think you can hear that. Palatable, harmonies, pop-sensibilities, but not superficial.

YS: When this tour’s done, what’s next?

JC: We’re touring for a while, and we might be doing something at the end of the year. But this will be our third big trip in six months so we might chill out and not hang out for a couple of months. Or maybe not. Maybe we’ll keep doing things.