Date Signed: June 30, 2020
Label: COP International
Band Members: Lilith Bathory, Dr. Luna (Doc)
Type of Music: Deathtronica; Black/Bass/Metal
Management: Christian Petke - COP International, [email protected]
Booking: [email protected]
Legal: [email protected]
Publicity: Selena Fragassi, [email protected]
Web: LUNA13.net
A&R: John Fryer - COP International
Sometimes it isn’t sending along a YouTube clip or demo to a label
that can get your band signed, or rubbing elbows with music execs at parties, or going viral on social media. In the case of “deathtronica” band LUNA13, for example, it was reaching out to a like-minded band and letting karma take care of the rest.
The Los Angeles black/bass/metal duo of producer Dr. Luna and visual artist Lilith Bathory were set to tour the West Coast and needed some companions to join them. They reached out to Suicide Queen, an industrial-metal quartet from Oakland who jumped onboard even though LUNA13—formerly on Cleopatra Records—hadn’t offered a buy-in. Word got back to COP International, Suicide Queen’s label, and pieces started falling in place for LUNA13’s next phase.
“Three things excited me about LUNA13,” COP International founder Christian Petke says. “[One,] I could not wrap my head around the fact that everything is synth-based. They are so crazy heavy and I hear/feel the bass and the guitar. [Two,] I like that they have a clear visual identity. [And three,] We had a couple of really great conversations around music, politics and life, and we just clicked.”
Doc, whose affections range from anti-Christian bands to the Prodigy to the Black Lives Matter movement, revealed his own motive for signing to COP: “We have a built-in fanbase, but needed more of a push from a label. We felt like just a little more promotion might be good for us.”
Petke says he is confident his label can deliver on Doc’s wishes.
“COP International is a much smaller organization than Cleopatra is, which allows us to have much more intimate relationships with the bands on the label,” he says. “It’s more of a 'boutique' experience. This can be a very attractive quality when an artist looks not just for a great label, but also for a sense of community."
The parties negotiated for a week in June and, the following month, COP International announced both the signing of LUNA13 and plans for the Nov. 13 release of its new, yet-untitled record. Petke and Doc disclosed that the band and label will split profits equally as part of the deal.
“We’re one of the darkest bass projects on the planet,” Doc says. “We are a very unusual-sounding project ... but COP is in that mindset as well.”
