Cutting her teeth as a busker playing heartrending emo slow-burners on a weathered acoustic guitar, it was magical to see Georgia Maq blossom into the headstrong bandleader she was destined to become with Camp Cope. Their self-titled debut was a solid introduction, beefing up Maq’s lowkey crooners with bold, scene-stealing basslines (courtesy of Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich) and punchy drums (via Sarah ‘Thomo’ Thompson). Its follow-up, 2018’s How To Socialise And Make Friends, galvanised the group as a force to be reckoned with, melding their venomous riot grrrl ethos with searing indie-rock motifs.
Though the band have kept quiet over the last four years, their artistry’s only continued to grow. Hellmrich launched her own project, Kelso, exploring a different corner of the indie bubble with her 2019 EP . That same year, Maq broke out into bubblegum pop with her shimmery, synth-driven solo record . That experience, making such a startling detour from the style she’d spent over half her years establishing, led the frontwoman to wildly reconsider what’s possible with Camp Cope.
