Bloomington-based hardcore band C.O.I. (Conflict of Interest) released their first EP “Demo 2024” on Dec. 13 last year. It’s a tape full of songs from across their discography that charts rebellion and self-determination against a riotous wall of unrelenting, heavy riffs anchored by passionate howling vocals. It has a gnarly, hard edge but with a smooth and confident chrome, hailing the band as a new fixture of Bloomington’s punk and hardcore sound.
C.O.I. was founded by mutual friends who came to IU for school and wanted desperately to play music. Danny Sheffield, who plays bass and Karl Templeton, a guitarist, both juniors, came together and after discovering a shared love of punk and metal, decided to start playing together.
They went in search of a drummer and found Shawnee Brown, who has lived in Bloomington for most of his life. Still needing a vocalist, Sheffield talked to his partner IU junior Abby Hetherington, and after going to see the local hardcore band Velocity, Hetherington felt inspired to give it a try, and ended up being just what the band needed.
“Demo 2024” includes songs from the beginning of the band’s formation, and the process of bringing the tracks together for the demo and even the track order was an organic one. Just like the rest of the band’s creative process, the band says everyone is able to pitch in and collaborate and everything seems to fall into place.
Hetherington, who writes lyrics, added that they found a throughline even though the tracks span the band’s career.
“I didn't even realize until listening to it all sequentially,” Hetherington said. “It feels like it just came together so thematically as a, ‘leave me alone, I'm just tired of the bullshit people expect from me,’ which I thought was interesting. All these songs are really written at different times, and they all came together.”
Sheffield mixed and mastered the EP in their basement, and the honesty and emotion nthat comes through the mix is all in the design.
“There are parts that I know are not perfect, but we’re not a perfect band we’re not perfect people,” they said. “It’s no fun if you’re perfect.”
A key to the band’s creative process and ultimately its success is a foundational trust between each member, and an organic, collaborative energy that permeates everything they put out.
“A big part of the songwriting for me, and just in a band in general, is trust,” Sheffield said. “I trust that whatever you play is going to be the right thing and then usually within a practice will have that and maybe throughout the course of learning the song Abby will start writing some stuff.”
There’s no chief songwriter or creative lead, rather everyone pitches in and the music takes shape through playing together.
“Someone will play something, and they'll be like, ‘That kind of sounds cool on top of it,’” Brown said. “Then we all go from there and build off of each other and the song just comes together in a practice.”
As the punk and hardcore scene in Bloomington grows, the space becomes more creatively potent, so that bands can borrow from each other and the sound of the contemporary Bloomington scene begins to sharpen.
As much as C.O.I. brings in their own distinct musical voices to their work and in practice, so too does the rest of the scene start to get inspired by each other while also looking to the punk scene of the past.
“That’s the weird thing about our band, it’s not one influence, it’s a bunch of different ones for each of us that all come together,” Hetherington said.
Taking inspiration directly from bands and attending shows is all part of the process. Going to a show, hearing something cool, and going home to try and writing something that sounds likes that all contributes to Bloomington’s distinct voice.
C.O.I. has emerged from a rich history of Bloomington hardcore and punk, which Templeton said the band stayed true to.
“We wear our influences, especially local influences, on our sleeve,” they said.
C.O.I. will be playing their first out-of-state shows this weekend during a run with local hardcore band Society’s Waste, stopping Jan. 24 at Dumb Records in Springfield, Illinois, Jan. 25 at Federal Moto in Chicago and Jan. 26 at (DSGN)CLLCTV Art Gallery in Cincinnati. More details can be found on the band’s Instagram.
They also have a benefit show for Operation Olive Branch, a mutual aid organization for families in Gaza, at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 31 at local DIY house show venue The Rotspot.
EDITORS NOTE: Karl Templeton previously published a story with the IDS.
CORRECTION: This article has been updated to correct a detail about an interviewee.
