American pop punk band
The Copyrights are a pop punk band from Carbondale, Illinois, made up of Adam Fletcher (lead vocals, bass), Brett Hunter (vocals, guitar), Kevin Rotter (vocals, guitar), and Luke McNeill (drums). They are currently signed to Fat Wreck Chords. They are known for what Alternative Press calls "both the sloppy, slacker pop-punk of, say, early Green Day with the slightly more polished sheen of Teenage Bottlerocket or recent Bouncing Souls".[1]
History
The Copyrights were formed in 2002 in Carbondale, Illinois. Before long, the punk scene was "buzzing about these kids from southern Illinois redefining pop punk with fun lyrics, big hooks, and infectious choruses that you couldn't help but sing along with."[2]
In 2003[3] they released their first album, We Didn't Come Here to Die, which was produced by Mass Giorgini.[4] Their next album, Mutiny Pop, was released in 2006. When Make Sound]] was released in 2007, Punknews.org, a respected source for news of all things punk, called them "one of pop-punk's finest bands".[5] Learn the Hard Way followed in 2008. Independent entertainment periodical Verbicide called the band's fifth effort, North Sentinel Island, released in 2011, a "deeper-than-usual slice of power-punk."[6]
Leading up to their next full-length album, the band issued the No Knocks EP on Fat Wreck Chords, a release New Noise Magazine called "a continuation of the same great quality pop punk that The Copyrights have been delivering for over 12 years now."[7] In their review, Alternative Press stated the difficult task of writing catchy music is one "Illinois pop-punk four-piece the Copyrights have mastered throughout the past decade since their humble beginnings."[8] The band's next album, Report, was released August 26, 2014, on Red Scare Industries. Vice imprint Noisey called the album "the stuff that keeps pop punk alive. The good pop punk, anyway."[9]
In 2019, the group released a collaboration with Kepi Ghoulie of the Groovie Ghoulies, an entirely redone version of the classic Ghoulies' album Re-animation Festival. Referencing her personal connection to the original album in her review for Razorcake, Kayla Greet said "this re-imagining of one of my favorite records actually makes me like The Copyrights more."[10]
The band has toured with the likes of Kepi Ghoulie,[11] Masked Intruder,[12] The Falcon[13] and Teenage Bottlerocket.[14] In 2012, the band played the premier Belgium rock festival, Groezrock.[15] Over the years, The Copyrights have had headlining slots at festivals like Baltimore's Insubordination Fest,[16] Bergamo, Italy's Punk Rock Raduno[17] and Gainesville's The Fest.[18]
In August 2021, it was announced the band had signed with Fat Wreck Chords and would be releasing their seventh studio album, Alone In A Dome in October of that year.[19] Punknews.org gave the album four stars out of five.[20]
Other projects
Several other notable punk acts feature members of The Copyrights:
Guitarist Brett Douglas Hunter is also a burgeoning name in the Nashville art scene, where gallery owner Julia Martin told The Tennessean his work "evokes pure joy from everyone that comes in contact with it".[24]
