Beyond the Boys’ Club is a monthly column from journalist and radio host Anne Erickson, focusing on women in the heavy music genres, as they offer their perspectives on the music industry and discuss their personal experiences. Erickson is also a music artist herself and has a new EP and single out, “Last Love,” with Upon Wings. The latest edition of Beyond the Boys’ Club features an interview with Kat Keo and Kim Coffel of Hoaxed.
Hoaxed have just released their debut full-length album, Two Shadows, available via Relapse Records. Bringing together singer-guitarist Kat Keo and drummer Kim Coffel, Hoaxed walk the line between heavy melodic rock and gothic metal, with captivating lyrics, catchy hooks, sharp guitars, and a heavy, pulsating rhythm.
While Two Shadows is Hoaxed’s debut full-length, the duo previously released a four-song EP in February 2021. Moreover, prior to Hoaxed, Keo and Coffel played together in other projects.
Keo and Coffel checked in with Heavy Consequence for the latest edition of “Beyond the Boys’ Club,” discussing the new album, their experience as women in both metal and indie music, and more. Read the interview and stream the full album below.
Congratulations on your new album, Two Shadows. One of the early singles off the release is the brutal, “The Call.” Tell me about the story behind that song and why you wanted it out there as the first taste off the new album.
Kat Keo: “The Call,” when we wrote it, we felt like it had that energy. When we were done writing it, we were like, yeah, that’s the song that’s going to be the first one off the album. It’s about folklore and about tales of things beyond the flames. So, when you’re out at night by the fire, and things call you by name from beyond the flames, if you go to them and respond and go to where they are, it is your doom. They will devour you. There’s a lot of folklore in a lot of different cultures, and we pulled from all those different tales to write that song.
Kim Coffel: It’s so much fun to play that song. Compared to a lot of the other songs on the album, it’s really fast and fun, and it set the tone of both the story that’s being told and the lyrics, but also the theatricality of it. We have that big opening that we wrote at the beginning when we were writing the song, and we were like, of course this has to start the album. It has the big curtain-drawing introduction.