Here’s an odd duck on COP International label: the Fort Worth, Texas based act G.W. Childs IV. This project delivers electro country or synthwave with a disco falsetto actually. Behind the buttons we also notice John Fryer (Depeche Mode/NIN/Yazoo) and Rodney Orpheus (The Cassandra Complex).

The 7-track EP will be out next Friday (7th of April) on Bandcamp Day and features 2 original tracks (“You don’t know” and “Infinitely You”) plus “Tarrrant County” remixed by Rodney Orpheus / Cassandra Complex, DJ Joe Virus / Solemn Assembly, Josh Pyle (Aphorism), Ashes Fallen and one by by G.W. Childs IV itself.

You can already check the title track itself.

Here’s the previous single of the project, the 5-track EP “Tarrant County”.

Christian from COP International comments: “When John Fryer send me the first track I was blown away. We both had discussed the direction we expected COP to go for but this was something else entirely. Or was it? John always finds the emotional core in a track and brings it to the surface. But he also helped GW rediscover his roots and embrace them at the same time – what a beautiful gift. With his new band everything that has shaped GW is coming together. He grew up on a ranch among farmhands and livestock. He joined the Army and they took him all over the globe. His Passion for music brought him to California and gave him the opportunity to work for Lucas Arts as a sound designer. His love for his family brought him back home to Texas. GW Childs IV “Tarrant County” is the sum of all these experiences. GW Childs IV and COP have been working together for 20 years (GW was half of the storied Dark Wave Band Soil and Eclipse). But I feel that his new band is the first time we see the real person behind the music. It combines his early love for 4AD, the great balladeers of historic country music and his love for catchy melodies.”

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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What happens when you mix a Star Wars composer with hybrid country music, and an English producer plus a banjo player annex Sly Cooper game composer? Then you probably get what the duo GW Childs IV and John Fryer came up with.

G.W. Childs IV is one of the founding members of the electro-industrial, synthpop band, Soil and Eclipse. In 1997 they released their debut album, “Necromancy” on COP International Records, followed by “Meridian”, “Archetype”, “Purity”, and “The Mirror”. But more important in this news story of today is that G.W. Childs IV has also worked for LucasArts/LucasFilm, creating games and processing character voices for Star Wars (“Star Wars: Battlefront”, “Star Wars Knight of the Old Republic 2”, and many more).

Comes in notorious English producer John Fryer: “I’ve always been interested in making some country music and working on this track with GW was like a dream come true. I hope you love it as much as I do.”

The third musician in the ploy is Peter McConnell who added a banjo performance. Peter McConnell also known as Peter Mc, is an American video game composer and musician, best known for his work at LucasArts and for composing the soundtracks for every Sly Cooper game.

Here’s the unexpected result.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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