How Camp Cope Found Stillness In The Chaos On Their New Album

Camp Cope’s third studio album Running With The Hurricane comes with a surprising sense of calm that sits that clashes with the ferocity of its title.

This is the sonic equivalent of a deep breath; a record that feels both cohesive and effortlessly cathartic all at once.

The ten-track journey showcases a softer side to the group’s emotional range that their previous albums didn’t. Not necessarily because they didn’t want to, but because circumstances didn’t really let them.

Those first two Camp Cope records, delivered with intensity, fury and urgency, established the Melbourne trio as an important new presence in Australian music. Quickly, they found themselves on the receiving end of the enduring misogyny of the Australian music industry. If anything, the polarising reaction to Camp Cope’s music up to this point simply amplified the defiance and resistance strewn throughout each track.

“It’s Never Intentional, It’s Whatever Comes Out”

The development of Running With The Hurricane began in 2019, before ‘COVID’ became part of our everyday vernacular. Ideas were coming together, and songwriter Georgia Maq’s vision for what a third Camp Cope record could be was materialising. And then, everything shifted.

As with most of us, the pandemic forced Camp Cope to re-evaluate their priorities and their lives: both for Georgia and drummer Sarah Thompson in Melbourne, and bassist Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich in Sydney. For Georgia, this meant exploring a career path outside of music — working as a nurse to assist with Victoria’s vaccination roll-out.

But the band’s time spent in lockdown didn’t necessarily pause the creative process — by the time Camp Cope began recording Running With The Hurricane in 2021, the three musicians found themselves in the studio and more than ready to get back into it.

“It’s scary, putting out a body of work, it feels vulnerable,” Georgia tells me. “It’s out there though, art is subjective and if people don’t like it, people don’t like it. It doesn’t matter. I like it, so I’m fine.”

“If people don’t like it, people don’t like it. It doesn’t matter. I like it, so I’m fine.”

It’s Running Through The Hurricane’s release day when we chat, and she’s driving out to see her grandparents. She speaks with warm confidence about the record, albeit with a spirited wryness.

Speaking on the country and pop influences within Running With The Hurricane, a shift away from their DIY, punk beginnings, Georgia describes the incorporation of these newer reference points as being quite natural.

“I’ve been embracing country music,” she enthuses. “Country music and pop music, but still making that sound on the instruments that we’ve been playing with since we started. I’m easily influenced by the music I listen to and I don’t think I realise it when I’m writing the songs. It’s never intentional, it’s whatever comes out. I’m never like, ‘I want to write a country song, I want to write a pop song,’ I just write a song. Camp Cope turns it into whatever Camp Cope turns it into.”

The addition of guitarist and instrumentalist Jennifer Aslett to Camp Cope’s live line-up gives the band the ability to realise Running With The Hurricane and its nuances live in more expansive ways. It also opens up the possibilities of Camp Cope’s earlier catalogue being revitalised in new ways.

And after spending so long away from performing, the hunger for that unpredictability on stage is one that Camp Cope are relishing. For Georgia, in particular, the addition of a new member frees her up to develop other elements of her own musicality. Speaking on how her dynamic with Thomo and Kelly has changed over the course of the last two years, Georgia admits that it’s one of the only things that has remained steadfast and consistent.

“Because we’ve now been playing together for so long, we understand each other a lot,” she says. “I can tell Thomo what I want, which is good. When I write a song, I have a very clear vision of exactly how I want it and the exact vibe. I can hear the drums in my head for a lot of songs; trying to communicate that to Thomo, and then Kelly just does what she does on top. It comes together. I feel like we’re over the hump, you know?”

“I was thinking about how we were going to recreate it live,” Georgia continues. “The biggest thing I don’t want to do is play keyboard. I really don’t like playing keyboard. I’m excited for the prospect of maybe at one of the shows, we can do a Gang Of Youths — and get a fucking baby grand [piano]. That would be fucking sick. That’s exciting to think about, what the live shows can now become with all these new parts that I’ve written. It’s nice having Jennifer Aslett in the band, who is now our guitarist/keyboard player. She’s the best.”

A New Era

The conversation turns to Running With The Hurricane’s place in Camp Cope’s discography. Georgia acknowledges that this record was born from a different mindset to 2016’s self-titled debut Camp Cope and 2018’s How To Socialise & Make Friends. But to be fair, it would be strange if it wasn’t.

Sure, some themes do match up: anecdotes on loneliness, emotional turmoil, and finding oneself provide an excellent foundation for some of Running With The Hurricane’s best lyrical moments.

What sets Running With The Hurricane apart, though, is a refreshing sense of self-awareness that — for the listener — signals that even through all of the darkness, Camp Cope are very much still here; their optimism and resilience ringing out louder than ever.

A new phase for the band awaits amid the new record’s release: Georgia continues to work as a nurse, Thomo helms Poison City Records out of their Melbourne base, while Kelly prepares for the arrival of her first child. All adding to this exciting new energy driving the band forward.

“I remember when I was a teenager, watching YouTube clips of Lady Gaga playing some big rock opera song live.” Georgia muses. “She’s playing a grand piano covered in hands or diamonds or mirrors, fucking whatever. I’ve just been getting so excited like, I could do that. I want to do that.”

The new record, she says, is about feeling free. “It’s not necessarily running with a literal hurricane, it’s more about being in that space where you feel that the chaos of the world doesn’t hit you as hard as it did. You just go with it.”

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Running With The Hurricane is out now through Poison City Records.

Sosefina Fuamoli is a Samoan-Australian music writer and content producer living on Wurundjeri land. You can find her on socials @sosefuamoli.

Photo Credit: Nick Mckk