YAKKIE – Kill The Cop Inside Your Head (self released)
Metal-loving punk supergroup YAKKIE have debuted with single Kill The Cop Inside Your Head, a ‘song against self-defeat’ that is an absolute powerhouse of riffs and defiance.
Artist: YAKKIE
Track: Kill The Cop Inside Your Head
Label: self-released
Released: 28 October 2025
Find it: Bandcamp
It’s easy to become overwhelmed at the state of everything these days, as late stage capitalism joins hands with fascism to encourage us to punch down as a way of dealing with our despondency and fears. YAKKIE are here to remind us we need to actively rebel against it all, resist believing the lines we’re fed by those who only seek to harm, nurture our individual power and seek out community to amplify it all.
Their debut single Kill The Cop Inside Your Head is that rallying call in a sub-3 minute thrash down. An absolute onslaught of feminist rage, churning riffs and bold, relentless rhythm syncing to your increasing heartbeat. Chanted vocals give us the instructions, a wake up call given in blistering fashion. Heavy, inciting, and very exciting – this is exactly the band and the music we need right now.
And it’s delivered by a supergroup of incredible set of musicians. Beginning as a political outlet for Janey Starling, founding member of Dream Nails who was returning to music after focusing on full-time anti-prisons activism over the last few years. She enlisted Robin Gatt (Personal Best, Petrol Girls), Laura Ankles (Colour Me Wednesday) and Maeve Westall (Jasmine 4.T, itoldyouiwouldeatyou). I’m not sure I’ve seen a line up more empowered, empowering and reflective of both friendship and active resistance.
‘OUR HOPE IS A MUSCLE. IS AN AXE. IS A TONIC. / THAT WE HAVE TO USE EVERY SINGLE DAY / AS WIDEMAN WARNED US: “DO NOT FALL ASLEEP IN YOUR ENEMY’S DREAM”’
Vocalist Janey Starling said: “This is a song against self-defeat. The cop in your head will talk you out of your own power before you’ve had a chance to taste it. He wants your despair to calcify into defeat so you roll over for fascism and tell yourself there is nothing anyone could have done to stop it. He tells you that there’s no practical alternative to this soul-sucking meat grinder that is late stage capitalism. If you don’t kill the cop inside your head, you will become him.
“The concept of the ‘cop in the head’ comes from the anti-fascist Brazilian theatre director Augusto Boal. Boal believed that theatre is a ‘rehearsal for the revolution’ and ‘the cop in the head’ is a theatre game that allows people to identify and give a voice to their internalised oppressions in order to overcome them. If we want a better world, we must first be able to imagine one. To do that, we have to kill the cop inside our head. Go to the protest! Join your union!”
This is music as revolution, not merely as a soundtrack to wishful thinking about a better world. This is a band who are using their platform not only to advocate but to activate powerful change, and they’re going to make sure we’re all dancing and chanting as we tear down the walls those who seek to control us would have us build to imprison us in our own minds.
Kill The Cop Inside Your Head by YAKKIE is out now digitally on Bandcamp. The debut album – also titled Kill The Cop Inside Your Head – is out 13 February 2026.
Find YAKKIE: Bandcamp | Instagram | YouTube
Live dates (with Dead Pioneers):
- 26 February – The Croft, Bristol
- 27 February – Rebellion, Manchester
- 28 February – Key Club, Leeds
- 1 March – Underworld, London
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Sarah Lay
A long-standing music journalist she's also co-founder of independent record label Reckless Yes, an author of novels, and when not messing around with words and music, a digital strategist.
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