KOPPS, a Rochester-based trio, have made a name for themselves by fusing various genres, concocting a unique sound that they describe as “candy metal.” Their 2015 single “Dumb” has racked up over 6 million streams on Spotify, and had a viral moment on TikTok as well. Led by vocalist and songwriter Patricia Patrón, KOPPS are currently gearing up to head out on the second half of their Planet Bitch Tour and release new singles. It’s definitely a new and exciting era for the group.
I got to catch up with Patricia Patrón on a quick phone call to discuss all the exciting upcoming projects in KOPPS’ future.
Brigid: Thank you for taking the time to chat with me! Before we talk about all the cool stuff going on with KOPPS right now, I would love to hear a bit about your musical background and how you got involved with the industry!
Patricia: Sure, yeah! It’s kind of been a thing for my whole life. Both of my parents are musicians, so for as long as I can remember, I’ve gone to their shows, and music has been a big part of my upbringing and environment. From the time I was very small, I was very drawn to music and knew that I had singing abilities. I was terribly shy when I was little, though, not at all like I am as an adult. I’m pretty extroverted as an adult. I hid all of my musical ability until I was a teenager when my mom found a tape I had made of myself singing, and freaked out! Up until then, they knew that I liked music, but they didn’t know I had the capabilities. From there, I had to overcome my stage fright, which was pretty paralyzing. By the time I was 18, I was pretty much over that hump and doing live performances. I would say I didn’t start finding my niche until I was around 21. Around 22 is when KOPPS became a project in 2012.
Brigid: That’s really cool that you come from a musical family; I feel that a lot of musicians come from a similar environment.
Patricia: For some people, I really believe that genetics play a role in musical talent. Some families are just crazy, and everyone’s good at it.
Brigid: Yeah, totally. I wanted to ask you about your most recent single, “Planet Bitch”, which came out in July. Can you tell me a bit about the creative process and everything that went into it?
Patricia: Yeah! So the whole theme of “Planet Bitch” just popped into my mind, and I knew I wanted to call the whole EP “Planet Bitch”, and I knew I wanted to do a title track for it. I spoke to our longtime producer Daniel Armburster, who’s in the band Joywave, and a very close friend of mine, as I knew he would be the best person to create a single with me. He was our first producer ever, and has been involved in our most experimental stuff, and I think it’s an outlet for him as well. He pushes the boundaries that he can’t push in his other band. I knew that he would be into it; he likes things that are tongue in cheek & funny. Of course, he was. It was at the tail end of the pandemic that we were in the studio, we finished this up, and I couldn’t have asked for the song to come out more perfectly. It’s exactly what I had hoped. I wrote a lot of the melodies on my own during the pandemic, and he did a lot of the production and tracking. We collectively came up with the chorus. It was a quick recording process, and it came together easily.
Brigid: Totally. It’s always awesome when things come together naturally like that.
Patricia: It’s interesting because not all songs come together that way. Sometimes it’s a labor of love, and it’s worth it, and we can hammer out a single. It’s always really nice when things happen quickly and turn out well, a pleasant surprise.
Brigid: Definitely. I wanted to ask you about the accompanying music video for that track. Can you tell me a bit about it? The concept is so cool, and I love the part where you’re all decked out as a green alien!
Patricia: It was directed, and all of the effects were done by a gentleman that goes by Josiah. He actually lives in my city of Rochester, and he works with a lot of national acts. It was really cool that he gave this project a chance, as we are currently indie. I was really excited to work with him and knew that he would do an amazing job. We’ve done a lot of videos that are heavily conceptual; they’re kind of a crazy undertaking. I’d say this video, in particular, most of the work was on Josiah’s end, just creating Planet Bitch. I gave him the idea of what I wanted, and I knew that his creativity was going to come into play, so I let him just create the planet. There were a few things I definitely wanted to happen, injecting some humor. But as far as being in the world, everything was shot on a tiny green screen in one room. I just couldn’t believe what he did with that footage. It was pretty incredible.
Brigid: It was very atmospheric, very high concept. I think it was really well executed, too.
Patricia: Thank you! It was a one-day thing, and it was just a lot of planning. Choreography, wardrobe… just making sure all of those elements were there. Josiah just took it and ran with it.
Brigid: So the next single from the EP is coming out on November 11th, I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about that track?
Patricia: So, it’s called “There’s No Such Thing As Love.” Everything we do is sort of tongue-in-cheek, which is rather obvious. This song was written a while ago, like when I compare it to Planet Bitch. It was pre-pandemic, and we finished up some of the recording for it. We paused because I didn’t think that it would fit well with the last EP. I knew that it had potential, but it wasn’t originally going to be a standalone single for this EP. We finally got back out on the road, and people have really been reacting to the song live the first time that they heard it. I was originally going to release this EP in the summer but decided that I wanted to take a moment for this upcoming single because people have had such strong reactions to it. When you release a body of work, the non-singles don’t always get their moment in the sun. This song really came at the end of a long relationship, and I had been in the band with the person who the relationship ended with. That was actually written by all of us! It’s a bit of an emotional song for me; it’s really close to my heart. This one has some real meaning to it for me. Of course, everything is tongue-in-cheek. I do believe love ultimately exists. I do think that it’s complicated, and the song is just pointing that out in a humorous way. The song is pretty epic sounding, and very sweeping in the instrumentation. I’m actually using a lower vocal register compared to what I usually use in our music, which also sets it apart. The message of the song is that we are chemically blinded by our bodies when we’re falling in love, and sometimes it ends up working against us in the long run.
Brigid: It’s really cool that you were able to gauge the reaction to the song by playing it live, then decide to end up releasing it as a single.
Patricia: It’s the best experimentation. We always play unreleased music to live audiences. During the pandemic, we weren’t able to do that, so as soon as we got back out there, I realized that people really liked it [the song]. I decided it needed to be a standalone single.
Brigid: Yeah, it had to have its moment for sure. You’re in the middle of your current tour, about to head out on the second leg, right?
Patricia: Yeah, the second leg is a bit more spread out than the first leg. The first one was in the summer, so it was all back-to-back. We now have shows coming up in mid-November and early December. Those will be the last shows of the year.
Brigid: Gotcha. How has it been being back on the road?
Patricia: It has been such a joy! I can’t even articulate how dark it was during the pandemic, not being able to perform. It took the spice out of my life, I felt like. We’re a live band, and it’s such a big part of who we are. We are our live show. If you’ve listened to our music, you haven’t gotten the full breadth of our project until you’ve seen us perform live. It’s so high energy and such a spectacle. It’s a fully choreographed show. It all compliments the music. Not being able to do that and not being able to see people react to music… I was feeling pretty uninspired in terms of releasing music. Our last EP came out just when the pandemic was dropping on us, and then I didn’t release anything else. I did one performance online, and it was fine, but it was weird performing to a phone. More power to artists who did that and could do virtual performances, but for me, I wasn’t feeling inspired.
Brigid: Totally. It’s great that you’re able to be back in your element now and feed off of the audience’s energy.
Patricia: I also feel like performing virtually does a disservice to the audience. For them at home, they don’t even get to see the full picture. So we just waited until we could do it for real instead of people seeing a half-baked version of it on their phone.
Brigid: Yeah, I totally get it. So with your upcoming EP release, what aspect of the release are you most excited for?
Patricia: Right now, I feel like we’re at the tail end of things. This is going to be the last single on the EP, before it comes out a week later. I’ve been really pleased with how everything has come together, especially after such a long break. It was hard to get my mind back into the release mentality and content mentality. So I’ve just been really proud and pleased with how everything has rolled out thus far. I’m most excited for this last single because it’s my favorite song on this upcoming EP. I think people are going to really love it.
Listen to “There’s No Such Thing As Love” here!
