Mickey Hayward and Tyson Wiebe are learning to “Cope” with making music as a duo.



The local noise rock/ instrumental duo have been playing for many years as part of local alternative rock bands Planet Telex and the Mormon Girls.



“Planet Telex is my songs and Mormon Girls are Mickey’s songs. Cope is more collaborative. It’s more both our songs, ” summarized Cope vocalist/ guitarist Tyson Wiebe. They release their new self titled EP through Wiebe’s record label Norwegian Blue records, on April 21. They have an official CD release party at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, April 22 with local surf band the Atomicos, which also includes Wiebe.



“It’s us jamming in our studio and recording it,” drummer Mickey Hayward observed.



“Mickey’s laptop is the third member of the band,” Wiebe added, adding it is easier to play as a duo than coordinate band members, though Mormon Girls play pretty frequently, while Planet Telex plays relatively rarely.



Cope recorded their EP live off the floor in their studio with Chris Lipinski engineering the project, to reflect the beginning and end of their live show.

“Side A is the first two songs of the set and Side B is the last song in the set. When we play live, we can fill the middle with whatever we want to play,” Hayward said.



“The first two songs are three minutes long and the last song is seven minutes long including a three minute solo,” Wiebe said, adding most of their songs begin as instrumentals with cryptic titles like “Cryptid” or unusual titles and “Capricorn” on the Cd.Wiebe said sometimes the title will inspire a song.

“ We’ve been playing together for so long we know where the other guy is going,” Hayward said, noting they have been playing together for eight years though as they have been playing as Cope since 2015.

“There’s absolutely no ego involved,” Wiebe added.



The duo will be touring in support of the EP beginning with the Lethbridge show, on extended weekends, to accommodate their day jobs.

They will be playing Calgary, Edmonton and Medicine Hat, April 27-29.



And they will be playing several Saskatchewan dates in Saskatoon, Regina and Swift Current, to following weekend, may 4-6.



Regina based progressive rock band the Moon runners will be joining them for the Saskatchewan dates as well as Medicine Hat.



Local alternative rock band the Supervoid will be joining them on most of the tour dates including Lethbridge. A Trozzo and the Electric Few will also be on the bill in Lethbridge.

Cope has shared stages with a variety of bands including War Baby and Diamond Mind plus Calgary based duos HighKicks and Miesha and the Spanks.



A version of this story appears in the April 12, 2017 edition of the Lethbridge Sun Times/Shopper



— By Richard Amery, L.A. beat Editor