You Need To Dig A Little Deeper Than 'You Broke My Heart Baby' If You Want To Rock'N'Roll

Bad Cop/Bad Cop are a riotous pop-punk band from Los Angeles who are coming out in late March for Australia's first ever Download Festival, playing alongside the likes of Korn, Gojira, Arch Enemy, heaps of great Aussie acts and many, many more. However, as one looks down the line-up, it's almost wall to wall men: women are few and far between and Bad Cop/Bad Cop are certainly the only all-female band on the bill. Vocalist and guitarist Stacey Dee is more than proud to be flying the flag for women who play loud rock'n'roll.

"There's not enough of us in the world, that's for sure," she opines. "More women need to not be scared to try, and if they want to do this, go figure out a way to do it. Because life's too short and life's just a weird thing anyways, so why not get out there and just try to fuckin' do exactly what you want to do in life.

"Unless you're murdering and raping, go and do what you're supposed to do in life and you'll be happy."

Dee expresses the need for more women writing and recording music and hitting the touring circuit, for many different reasons, although for her one reason stands out above the rest. "Lots of people don't seem to know that women are fantastic songwriters," she goes on, "we are emotional creatures and that helps make us fantastic songwriters. To say that only one gender [has] good songwriters is just wrong. Is it hard for men to buy into women, just because maybe they're not in touch with their masculinity, and they've gotta just be so goddamn hard all the time or they're not a man?

"I say give everyone a chance because some of the best songs ever written came from women. So yeah, I wish there were more of us doing it."

She takes it further, believing that the lack of women in rock'n'roll is also indicative of the lack of female empowerment in broader society. "I wish more women were brave enough to take a chance on themselves, and not just getting tied into getting married, having kids, having a job that they hate, a partner that they're stuck with and all that kind of stuff. That's not what life is all about."

Some people espouse a belief, on social media and elsewhere, that artists should keep such 'feminist' or other political messages out of their music, but Dee calls bullshit. She feels that rock'n'roll always has been and always will be one of the great mediums for expressing yourself and exercising your freedom of speech. "I think rock'n'roll is the loud, crazy voice of music. In fact, I feel that if you're too afraid to be talking about some important, honest shit, then maybe you shouldn't be in it," she laughs.

Dee has a great many influences inspiring her bold and forthright music, but one rather illustrious individual clearly stands out in her mind. "Fat Mike from NOFX is a really great friend of mine," she says, "I've been working with him, he's got to be the best lyricist in punk rock. To be his friend and show him a song, your lyrics better be good or he's going to be like, 'Fuck that, everybody's heard that. What's good and creative in this? I've heard you write better songs than this.'

"But basically anyone who digs a little deeper than 'you broke my heart baby, I love you' gets me excited."

This will be the band's first ever trip to our shores in any capacity, and Aussie audiences can expect strong messages of this kind to come across in their live show. "What we are is four women who exude positivity and happiness and we're just built to be rocking out. It's always honest, we say what we're thinking, and it's super fun."