Covey

Brooklyn-based and British-born songwriter Tom Freeman, aka COVEY, releases his debut album on Rise Records, Class Of Cardinal Sin, on June 18, 2021. Freeman chose the name Covey after the street on which he grew up in England. There, dealing with fractured family life, he found comfort in a cassette copy of Enema of the State and painting miniature WarCraft figurines.

Class Of Cardinal Sin is that rare, comforting object that smashes the depressing-but-delightful button in the brain that trauma-rock seems always to be pawing at. Manned entirely by Freeman, COVEY courses through brash, bright indie rock, riotous folk-punk, giddy pop-punk, and serene Midwestern emo. It’s a gnarled, endearing, acute patchwork, recalling the best bits of Neutral Milk Hotel, The Mountain Goats, Death Cab For Cutie, AJJ, Elliott Smith, and Blink-182.

Class Of Cardinal Sin is about high school. Well… it’s about a high school. The record’s cover features a diorama depicting what appears to be a simple class graduation photo. Upon inspection though, the classmates are in disrepair. Some are missing limbs; others are casting satanist spells, and most have a human body beneath the head of a creature.

Tom created the scene from top to bottom, and each figurine is a character with a lengthy backstory. “High school was such a shitty time for me and I always saw it as aiding so many parts of what went wrong for me as an adult, problems I have to this day,” says Freeman.