By “Jay Rollins”
CO-OP obviously has a close link to Alice Cooper through Dash, and you guys take Alice Cooper tracks, such as “Run Down the Devil” and “Billion Dollar Babies”, and give them a grittier CO-OP twist. Have you felt pressured in any way to come out of his shadow and distance yourself or do you embrace your rock royalty roots?
As a matter of fact, I feel like we are our own entity. We love playing with Alice and jamming whenever he needs us to back him up locally here in Phoenix. However, we as CO-OP are a band apart from Alice writing some pretty killer Hard Rock songs of our own.
Obviously, I’m super proud of my father for the career he built and the millions of fans he touched with his music. I’m proud to be his son, rock royalty or not.
The songs “Never Whisper the Truth” and “Low” show off CO-OP’s grimier influences, as in Corrosion of Conformity and Red Fang, while your live set often includes rock classics. Do you feel the key to your sound is walking the line between classic rock and sludgy metal?
I feel like it is. Everyone in the band has a different musical taste which I think only benefits us because we won’t limit ourselves. We have influences ranging from AC/DC to Rage Against The Machine to Queens of the Stoneage to Tesseract… The list could go on and on but we as a band embrace this because we feel it gives us an edge to create a hybrid of all of our musical tastes, and so far, people are loving it.
Even though CO-OP and Alice Cooper both have strong lyrics they seem to be different stylistically and content-wise. Do you ever go to Alice Cooper for writing advice?
Alice and I have definitely worked together collaborating. He is a word genius and writes great content faster than I can think sometimes! Because he’s been in the business so long and written, heaven only knows how many songs, he understands better than anyone the formula for a great song. He knows how to make it catchy, effective and powerful lyrically. I wouldn’t trade those writing sessions for the world. I’ve learned so much and been able to take it into CO-OP as an advantage.
Since your recent signing with EMP Label Group you have been busier than ever. Any upcoming plans you would like to elaborate on?
Let me first start by saying how incredibly blessed we are to be able to say we are signed to a label as awesome as EMP and have their support and belief in us as musicians. We have been relentlessly busy playing shows, writing, and being in the studio. Currently, we are very close to releasing an EP that will be out very soon with a full length album to follow in 2017. We also just picked up a New Year’s Eve show in Phoenix opening up for Steel Panther! Life is good for CO-OP right now.
JAY ROLLINS / Metalheads Forever Magazine
