With the release of Lighten Up, their first album in five years, Bad Cop Bad Cop step into a new era. We caught up with vocalist and guitarist Stacey Dee, who opened up about the personal weight behind the record, the changes within the band, and why she believes kindness has become her ultimate form of punk rock.
The band’s reputation has long rested on their sharp edged political anthems, think tracks like ‘Womanarchist’ and ‘Pursuit of Liberty’. This time, Dee chose a different path. “I’ve been through a lot in my life… For this record, I was finally ready to go back and look at some of the reasons why we’ve had to be so strong in our songs in the past,” she explained.
Stacey Dee (Bad Cop Bad Cop) Interview
The departure of co founder Jennie Cotterill in 2022 meant reshaping the line-up, with Alex Windsor stepping in as guitarist. It also marked a turning point for Dee personally. Working alongside producer (and partner) Antoine Arvizu, she began crafting the most vulnerable material of her career, including the heart rending ‘Dead Friends’.
“‘Dead Friends’ just poured out of me, because those were little snippets of true stories of real people I’ve lost,” Dee reflected. “They’ve been immortalised, and that makes me feel good.”
For Dee, the shift from anger to compassion feels just as rebellious as their earlier fight songs. “My activism is spreading kindness and compassion and trying to help folks find their way out of desperate mental health issues or desperate living situations,” she said. That ethos also fuels her ongoing work with The Sidewalk Project, a non-profit supporting unhoused communities.
Released 19 September via Fat Wreck Chords / Hopeless Records, Lighten Up is less about softening their message than broadening it, a testament to survival, resilience, and the radical act of choosing optimism.
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