The Meffs mean business!

The Meffs are Lily Hopkins on vocals and guitar and Lewis Copsey on drums and backing vocals. Having formed in Essex in 2019, their early shows quickly earned a reputation as an unmissable live act blending classic punk grit with modern political messaging, and they’ve since played Download, Glastonbury, supported Alice Cooper, Sex Pistols and NOFX on their farewell run, and hosted their own festival 3 years running, all with half the members of a normal rock band.

In 2022 The Meffs released their debut EPs Broken BritainParts 1 and 2, produced by Frank Turner and released on Fat Mike’s Bottles To The Ground, and by 2023 they were playing Download’s 20th anniversary to chants of “Up The Meffs” from countless crowd-surfing fans. Lily is very much the real deal when it comes to being an excellent punk ally to have in your corner, with a burning passion to use her platform for good wherever possible, and their hugely anticipated debut album What A Life came in September 2024 with sold-out shows all over the UK and Europe.

Beginning as a sold-out evening show at The Wise Monkeys in Colchester, Meff Fest has grown quickly into a full-scale festival with the third edition drawing nearly a thousand people to Charter Hall in May 2026. With a crowd spanning 16-year-olds to 81-year-old Charlie Harper fronting the UK Subs, the bill for Meff Fest included Steve Ignorant Band, The Subways and Random Hand, bringing the bands that Lily and Lewis grew up on to their own celebration of unity.

Set for release on 11th September via LFG, The Meffs second album Business raises the stakes yet again with 11 tracks of their most hard-hitting and politically volatile music to date taking aim at the music industry’s demand for conformity. With a torch for every misfit who doesn’t fit neatly into society’s expectations, The Meffs are making punk rock that’s not a nostalgic throwback but a current and necessary statement, building up a rabid diehard following completely outside of algorithms and industry positioning.

We spoke to Lily and Lewis to find out more:

‘Business’ is both the album and the first single. To us it sounds and feels very personal. Is it? Did you just need to get some stuff off your chests?

Lily: ‘Business’ is the most vulnerable and hard-hitting record we’ve ever recorded. It’s personal but relatable because business is everywhere. It’s work, it’s pleasure, it’s lonely, it’s dirty, it’s everything. This album isn’t just about what is going on around us. At times I felt uncomfortable in a way that I hadn’t let myself feel when writing in the past, and I’m glad.

What makes FLG/Frontiers the right place for The Meffs right now?

Lily: I think you just know when something feels right. A bit like when we were looking at recording the record, Dan Weller from SiKth was mentioned and we just knew he should produce this one. FLG work with some legends in the game and they saw something in us.

The new album is noticeably your heaviest and hardest work yet. How intentional is that shift?

Lily: It is intentional to some degree because of the way I write now. When we were touring ‘WHAT A LIFE’, I made a conscious decision not to write new material. Even if an idea came to mind, I wouldn’t write it down or record it. I was so used to writing 24/7; recording voice notes at 2AM, having to pull the car over to write down lyrics, etc. Torture at times - a good problem to have maybe. By stopping completely, when I came to write again the ideas were fresh and didn’t sound like another ‘WHAT A LIFE’. We both like heavy music too and over the past few years I’ve been well into bands coming out of the new hardcore scene, so that probably played a part too.

How instrumental have other people like Frank Turner and all the bands you have played with been to your development?

Frank has been a key player not only to us but to the scene in general - fight me. He got behind us early doors and to this day reps our shirts. Forever grateful. Then you’ve got people like Fat Mike from NOFX who not only signed us on his imprint label back in 2022 but took us out on NOFX’s final European tour, introducing us to thousands of people who would not have known of us otherwise. Collaboration is vital in this industry - Onto Joan Jett this year!

Was being a two-piece a conscious creative decision or the most viable way to make a living as musicians?

Lewis: Was always Lily’s preference having been in a two-piece prior to this band. I wasn’t opposed to the idea either and we found out from day 1 that we worked really well together musically. We did a rehearsal once with a bassist but within the week was told they couldn’t commit. We knew this would be a recurring situation but also thought that we didn’t need to change anything in the first place, we were doing well enough just the two of us and over the years, the sound has just got bigger so that’s how it’s staying.

Your music is very politically charged and you and others like yourselves are not shy about your ethical positions. Is Britain more broken than ever and can musicians really have a hand in fixing it?

Lily: We based our first two EPs on a ‘Broken Britain’ (as you know - you designed a poster!) but our position has changed over time. We think of Britain as divided rather than broken. Or maybe it is both? Either way, if these current politicians are the best we’ve got, we’ve got problems as a country. Can musicians make a difference? Anyone with a platform can have a hand in fixing it. Punk has never been less about the sound and more about the attitude/ethos as it is now. We’re here to entertain but if we can do that whilst raising awareness and spreading a bit of hope, it’s a no brainer. They go hand in hand. I say it at every show - it’s not about left and right, it’s about right and wrong. And some things just aren’t right.

Few bands have such a friendly fan community as Meff Army. How special is that close relationship for you as a band?

Lewis: We absolutely love the Meff Army, we can’t believe how it has grown over the past few years. A separate group run by the fans which has now shot up to over 4k members, who discuss all things Meffs, arrange meet ups before shows and is filled with the friendliest people, it really does tell us how die hard our fanbase is.

Lily: We’re nothing without the people who get behind this, it’s simple.

You’re MVT patrons and in ’25 you played an entire grass roots tour in small venues you hadn’t played before. Why is this so important and will there be more grass roots tours?

Lily: That was a fun tour! When we started out, grassroots venues were the only venues where we got a look in. When no one wanted to know, they did. The least we can do is to work with MVT to raise awareness and play shows to help keep venues open. Our aim is to keep doing grassroots tours on top of our already-rammed touring schedule. Music is more than just noise for a lot of people. It brings people together, it pulls people out of hard times and it just makes for a proper good time. For working class artists grassroots venues are the only way to start out. If they keep shutting, the scene will be full of manufactured trash. The government needs to show more support for the arts or they’ll die.

Would teenage Lily and Lewis believe you if you told them about Vive Le Rock front covers and Kerrang limited edition cassette collaborations?

Lewis: Teenage Lewis would have asked what a ‘Vive Le Rock’ was at the time but the thought of being on the cover of a rock magazine would have shocked him to his very core. The same goes for Kerrang, which was definitely a big part of my teenage years, watching the video channel most days.

Lily: I collected Kerrang! Magazines for years to rip posters out for my wall. Never did I think people would be doing the same for The Meffs. It’s sick.

Is it true the you’re the friendliest nicest people in punk or do you have a dark side?

Lewis: Get *****ed.

Lily: Hahaha

You’ve had a skateboard on stage with you for as long as we can remember. Are you actually skateboarders?

Lewis: As much as we would love to tell you all about our skating career, unfortunately it’s non-existent as we’re both terrible skaters. Lily dug it out of her shed, wrote The Meffs on it and it was used as our first backdrop whilst we couldn’t afford to buy a proper one... Though to this day, it still comes with us to all the shows.

Isn’t it time the stage show included a giant inflatable peacock?

Lewis: I’m afraid that would just distract me too much from my actual job.

What’s the end goal for The Meffs both musically and personally?

Lily: We learnt early on that what we’re doing doesn’t have an end goal. It’s about progression but without targets. That’s the beauty of this. As time goes on the stages get bigger, the audiences get bigger, we share stages with legends, our sound develops, we go to countries we’d never see without being in The Meffs… It’s a privilege. Long may it continue.