Welcome to our music series featuring the best in fresh, exciting Irish music.

Every month, we'll profile a new (or relatively new) Irish band or artist, give you a flavour of what they're all about, let you know what they're up to lately - and most importantly, let you hear their music.

The ninth act in the series is Hot Cops.

Pic: Colm Laverty

WHO ARE THEY? They're a rather brillant Belfast trio who formed in 2013 and have been compared to Weezer, Pavement and Nirvana. Members are Carl Eccles (guitar and vocals), Conor Ellison (Drums) and Nathan Rodgers (bass and occasional backup vocals). They caught our ear at last year's Hard Working Class Heroes festival with an excellent set at Hangar, and in our humble opinion are one of the best new bands in Ireland right now.

HOW DID THEY FORM? "Conor and I were in a band with Nathan’s younger brother," explains Carl. "Nathan recorded our first EP for us and then his brother left the band to study medicine. Nathan saw this as an opportunity to weasel his way in to the band and ride on my coattails and we haven’t looked back."

WHAT'S WITH THE NAME? You've seen Arrested Development, right?

WHO ARE THEIR INFLUENCES – MUSICAL OR OTHERWISE? They're certainly varied. Carl lists Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox and the 1991 film 'Point Break' as influences; Conor pinpoints Black Sabbath's 'War Pigs' album and 'wrestling' as his motivating forces, while Nathan lists bands like "Queens of the Stone Age, Mini Mansions, Lana Del Rey and whatever Carl or Conor tell him to listen to".

WHAT GENRE DO THEY FALL INTO? To us, it's a mix of slacker alt-rock and energetic punk; to them, "it’s just good old rock and/or roll music."

WHAT'S THE MOST BIZARRE COMPARISON THEY'VE HAD? "Someone said we reminded them of The Strypes once and I didn’t get out of bed for a week," says Carl. "That might have been unrelated, though."

HOW DOES THE SONGWRITING WORK? According to frontman Carl, "I usually have around a dozen ideas for different songs at varying degrees of completion. I save lyrics and fragments of guitar parts to my phone. When the mood strikes I'll record a demo and send it to the band. Nathan and Conor will think about what they will play and then we just try it all out in practice."

WHO WOULD THEY MOST LIKE TO WORK WITH? "Patrick Swayze. Annie Clark. Trish Keenan. Panda Bear. Charli XCX. Alex G."

IS AN ALBUM ON THE CARDS? "We’re releasing a new 7” with Paper Trail in August," Carl explains. "We have the material for an album but think it would be pointless for a band at our level to put so much time, effort and money in to a project as monumental as an album. We mostly just want to play shows and hopefully some people will like us."

WHERE CAN I HEAR MORE? Check out their latest single 'Passive Passive' below, and see here for more.
 

 

Read our previous installments in the New Irish Music series: #1: Sunday School Sessions,  #2: Darling, #3: Elastic Sleep,  #4: Binaries,  #5: Best Boy Grip, #6: Ben Carrigan, #7: Columbia Mills  #8: CC Brez and #9: Little Hours.