Band Of The Week #318 - YAKKIE
This week's Band of the Week is DIY supergroup YAKKIE - who have just released their new album 'Kill The Cop Inside Your Head' - an explosive collection of songs that makes a big statement within the music industry. Highly considered to be one of the most important punk releases of the year.
'Kill The Cop Inside Your Head' makes unflinchingly bold political statements and was recorded using completely analogue methods in a mere four days, giving a raw and urgent sense of immediacy to the music. YAKKIE will punch you in the face and kiss you on the cheek after. They began as a political outlet for veteran DIY punk Starling, KERRANG! award winner and founding frontwoman of Dream Nails, who took a break from making music to focus on full-time anti-prisons activism and is now back on the mic with a vengeance. She enlisted Robin Gatt, the iconoclast behind Personal Best and bassist of Petrol Girls, to propel her lyrics in Smashing Pumpkins-style shredding and downtuned Helmet-style riffage. Laura Ankles of Colour Me Wednesday and Maeve Westall of Jasmine.4.T and Itoldyouiwouldeatyou drive the hulking rhythm section, filling out every frequency left to produce a scorching wall of sound.
They took a moment to talk to use about how the album came together.
Hey there YAKKIE, how are you? So your album is out now – how does it feel to have it out there?
We’re great thank you! It’s been a long gestation period - we made it back in April 2025, so it feels both exciting and kind of a relief to have it exist in the world.
It is called 'Kill The Cop Inside Your Head' – what is the meaning behind that?
It’s named for the title track, which itself is inspired by the concept of the “cop in the head” by Brazilian theatre director Augusto Boal. It’s a theatre game where you give a name and voice to your own internalised oppressions in order to overcome and defeat them.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories you are willing to share with us?
We made it with Peter Miles down at Middle Farm Studios in Devon. Pete is an incredible producer and human and we did the whole thing in four days - recording, mixing and mastering! The first thing that happened when we got there was that Janey got lost and ended up on a goat farm and we found her surrounded by various farming tools, which felt like it could have ended in a very rural horror way but was absolutely fine.
What are the key influences behind the album?
So there’s a bunch going on, but I think we were all leaning into our teenage influences a lot and there’s loads of 90s rock/alternative/metal influences. Smashing Pumpkins, Rage Against The Machine, Soundgarden are some big ones, but I think you can also hear the evidence of our time in the DIY punk scene throughout.
If the album could be a soundtrack to any film – which one and why?
Obviously it would be the greatest film of all time, Wayne’s World 2.
Do you have a favourite lyric on the album? If so, which one and why?
We actually love our lyrics so much that we had literally all of them on the album printed as a back print on a T-shirt haha!
Now the album is out there – what next for you?
We’re on tour with the incredible Dead Pioneers at the end of the month, we’ve got a bunch of festival shows and an album launch party and getting writing album 2 I guess!
PHOTO CREDIT: Jessie Morgan
