McCafferty is an American rock band from Medina, Ohio. The band's lineup currently consists of Nick Hartkop on guitar and vocals and his wife Emily Hartkop on bass. The band's early releases feature Hartkop performing solo and producing an acoustic dance-punk sound. In later recordings, following the addition of Graham, and subsequently Joecken and Easterly, the band has evolved to encompass a pop-punk and emo sound. Hartkop's wife, Emily, later joined the group as a bassist when Joecken did not return after their 2018 breakup. The band has notoriously gone through several breakups and reformations, most recently in February of 2020 where all remaining members left the band aside from Nick and Emily.
History
McCafferty was formed in 2011 and at the time was mainly a solo acoustic effort from singer-songwriter Nick Hartkop. In the same year, Hartkop self-released the EPMoms+Dads under the name McCafferty. The following year he released Japan and DanceBeats To Hurt Girls. In 2013, he released three EPs – I Hate This Body, It's a Bad Idea, and Forest Life, as well as a collaborative live album, This Will Mean Nothing, which featured tracks from Sam Rockwell and Chris Joecken. In late 2013, the band signed with Monkey Boy Records and released its first full-length LP, Beachboy. In 2015 the band released two further EPs: When The Lightning Hit and Happy Birthday, Dad. In 2016 the band started working on its second full-length LP, which was expected to be named Beachboy 2, but ultimately abandoned the project when Hartkop decided to disband the group and return to full-time work as a special education teacher. In late 2016, the band reformed after a successful fan-led crowdfunding effort to support the production of another EP, with the working title DanceBeats to Hurt Girls. The band signed a single album deal with Take This To Heart Records and released Thanks. Sorry. Sure. on June 30, 2017. On July 22, 2017, Thanks. Sorry. Sure. charted 23rd on Billboards top Independent albums and 5th on Heatseekers Albums and remained there for a week. On February 2, 2018, the band released a split EP alongside Heart Attack Man. On February 13, 2018, the band announced they had signed to Triple Crown Records, and that their second full-length album, Yarn, would be released on March 23, 2018. It was announced on April 1, 2018 that they cancelled their upcoming shows on their tour with Moose Blood. On June 25, 2018, Hartkop announced via the official McCafferty Twitter that he would be releasing a compilation record titled “The Sum of All Fears” that would include all of the tracks from DanceBeats to Hurt Girls, It's a Bad Idea, When the Lightning Hit, I Hate This Body and more. These songs had previously not officially been released onto streaming services. The record was released on Spotify on June 28, 2018. An EP, Clementine, was released on August 11, along with an official announcement from the band regarding their permanent breakup. The band later reformed, without Joecken; Hartkop’s wife Emily Hartkop replaced Joecken on bass. On December 29, 2018, the band released Yarn: Commentary. It contains input from Wes Easterly, Evan Graham, and Nick Harktop about the influences and ideas behind the album. The band released their third album, The House With No Doorbell, on October 20, 2019. They released a single, "Fentanyl," on June 18 ahead of the release of the album. A second single, "Sellout," was released on September 22.
