The Meffs second album, Business, has been gathering rave reviews since it’s release last month. PRUK caught up with guitarist/vocalist and primary songwriter, Lily Hopkins, after an intensive run of 14 record-store shows in 9 days, where getting home for a proper cup of tea was a welcome luxury.
“We felt accomplished, but we had a good sleep” she laughs.
It has been a relentless few years for the duo. Since emerging with Broken Britain and subsequently releasing their debut album What A Life, they have built their reputation the old-fashioned way: by constantly touring, playing anywhere and everywhere, and refusing to wait for someone else to give them permission.
Now, with their second album Business out in the world, they are preparing to do it all over again.
If there was any concern about the dreaded second-album syndrome following the success of What A Life, the band approached it in an unusual way. Rather than immediately writing another record, Lily deliberately stopped.
“We toured What A Life for about 18 months, and about halfway through that I said to myself, ‘I'm just not going to write.’ I deliberately wrote down nothing that came to mind for about six months. Just zero.”
The reasoning was simple. After spending so long writing and recording, the danger was falling into a cycle where the same ideas kept coming back.
“I thought if I just keep going on in this cycle, it will be the same stuff that comes out. That's the risk, isn't it? You do album after album, it's the same.”
Taking that break ultimately became one of the most important parts of making Business. When the writing eventually started again, the new direction arrived naturally.
The song Business was one of the first tracks to emerge, and its heavier sound immediately suggested where the record could go.
“It just sort of came out how it came out. And it was heavier. And there was a riff, and it just made us both go, ‘Oh, this is okay, this is the direction for the new album.’”
That heavier approach is one of the things that distinguishes Business from its predecessor, but the band haven't abandoned the sound that got them there. Instead, they've allowed more of their musical influences into the mix.
When they started out, punk and DIY culture were at the centre of everything.
“We were obsessed by it,” they explain. “We wanted to dress like it, everything about that culture we really, really liked, and we do to this day.”
But growing older also meant recognising that there was plenty of other music they loved.
“We love hardcore, we love American skate punk, we love nu metal. There's so much we grew up on that we sort of just passed to the side because we felt like, ‘We're this sort of band, and this is the sort of stuff we write.’”
With Business, they decided to stop worrying about those boundaries.
“We just thought, you know what, let's just let anything come in.”The result is an album where punk, hardcore, heavier rock and the band's earlier influences can coexist. Tracks such as Fight, Love to Lose and Dreamin' retain the speed associated with their earlier work, but the band have discovered that heaviness and pace don't have to be mutually exclusive.
“We can still be heavy and fast. You don't have to be one or the other.”
That sense of freedom is perhaps rooted in the band's beginnings. When they first formed, they had virtually no idea how the music industry worked.
“We literally had no idea how this industry worked. To the point where we didn't know that you applied music to streaming. Like, where do you even start?”
Their first demo was recorded in a single day with a friend for £100. Once they had the recording, they were left with a CD and no real idea what to do next.
“So we made CDs and did all of that ourselves, printing stuff at home. Just basically doing everything ourselves and trying to learn that.”
That DIY approach extended to promotion. The band began emailing anyone who might potentially listen to their music.
“I was emailing thousands and thousands and thousands of people. Anyone I could think of. I'd Google just anyone — radios, DIY magazines — just saying, ‘Can you listen to our stuff? You might like it.’”
One of those emails ended up in the inbox of Frank Turner, who had moved locally to the band.
“I said, ‘Listen, mate, I think you're going to like this album.’”
Turner did, and his support proved hugely important in the band's early development. He invited them on tour and gave them opportunities that included playing Alexandra Palace.
The band describe him as the “anti-gatekeeper” of the music industry.
“There's a lot of gatekeepers in this industry and you don't want to see you sort of succeed above a level. And he's always one of those ones that's like, ‘Oh yeah, just come out on tour with me then. Come and play Alexandra Palace with me.’”
Those experiences reinforced the band's belief in doing things themselves.
“It gave me the confidence to be like, okay, we just got to keep doing this DIY thing that we're doing. Because you can always trust yourself.”
That philosophy has also shaped Business. Unlike some records that contain songs designed primarily for the studio, the band deliberately wanted every track to work on stage.
“We want 11 songs that we can play.”
Their recent record-store tour gave them the perfect opportunity to test that theory. Rather than playing a selection of tracks, they performed Business from beginning to end.
“Let's play it from the start to finish, because that will be a test for us. Like, have we achieved it?”
They clearly have.
“There isn't a single song that we didn't enjoy playing.”
Even when preparing a shorter festival set, the problem wasn't deciding which new songs to play. It was deciding which ones to leave out.
“It was so hard to get rid of songs from the new album. It was so tough.”
For a band who have spent years touring relentlessly, their enthusiasm is significant. There was a point when it seemed as though they were supporting almost every punk band touring the UK.
“We were there. We never said no to anything. We still don't.”
And that attitude isn't changing.
The next stage of the Business campaign will see the duo supporting The Levellers, alongside Ned's Atomic Dustbin, before heading to Germany with Itchy. Their own UK headline tour follows in March, including a show at O2 Academy Islington — the biggest headline show they've played in the UK.
The decision to keep the initial headline run relatively small is partly a response to the sheer amount of touring they've already done.
“We've just done 14 shows in nine days.”
There will also be a return to grassroots venues, European dates and a busy festival season. Rebellion is already confirmed, alongside three other UK festivals.
After taking a step back from the UK festival circuit while writing and recording Business, next year represents a return to the relentless schedule that characterised 2025.
And Scotland will definitely be part of it.
“How could we not? We love Scotland.”
The band's affection for Scotland is more than just a line for the interview. Their Edinburgh record-store appearance was, they say, the best matinee show of the recent run.
“Don't just leave Scotland out.”
It is a sentiment that will be welcomed by Scottish fans, particularly those who have watched American bands announce “UK” tours that barely venture north of Birmingham.
The duo have no intention of making that mistake.
Their festival history already includes memorable appearances at Slam Dunk, where they once managed to inspire a pit despite playing remarkably early in the day. Their first show with NoFX was also at the Slam Dunk site, making their subsequent appearance at the festival particularly special.
But perhaps the most surreal moment came at Brixton, supporting NoFX.
The venue had already been part of their lives long before they played its stage. As teenagers, they had attended shows there, collecting the tiny ticket stubs that would eventually end up in a box at home.
“I've got like a box of ticket stubs upstairs from when I was a kid. It says on there, like, Brixton Academy to see whoever, or The Offspring or someone like doing a Smash reunion.”
To eventually stand on the same stage themselves is still difficult to comprehend.
“It's just crazy to then be on that stage. I still can't ever put it into words when people ask.”
For a band that began with a £100 demo, homemade CDs and thousands of unsolicited emails, those moments represent quite a journey.
But they aren't slowing down.
After years of almost constant touring, December and January will finally provide some much-needed time away from the road — something the band haven't experienced for years.
“We haven't had a couple of months off for three years. Honestly, we get maybe like five days if we're lucky.”
The plan is simple: spend time with family, do normal things, rehearse and prepare for what promises to be another huge year.
And then they'll be back on the road.
For all the bigger venues, festivals and increasingly ambitious tours, the band's core philosophy remains remarkably unchanged. Write the music they want to hear. Make it work live. Do things themselves. And never be afraid to knock on a door that nobody has invited them through.
Business might be a step forward, but it doesn't feel like a departure.
It feels like a band finally giving themselves permission to be everything they have always wanted to be.
