AFTER months out of the limelight, there is plenty brewing for ground-breaking Essex band Koopa.

The talented trio will be back with a bang soon after a very deliberate six months or so “out of the loop”.

Joe Murphy, vocals, bass, production, said: “We’ve been out of the loop by choice. When you gig for so long, it gets a bit samey, so we finished after the last few tours.”

The break wasn’t wasted, as the band have a slightly new sound, a load of new songs, and are set to grace the front pages of a national newspaper in weeks.

The band, made up of Joe, from Colchester, and Sible Hedingham brothers Oli and Stu Cooper, were the first unsigned band in history to make the UK top 20.

Their debut album as a signed band, Lies Sell Stories, was produced last year in America, by Mark Hoppus, of Blink 182 fame.

But after working and touring solidly for eight years, the lads took six months out of the spotlight and wrote, produced and recorded new material.

“We’ve done a lot of writing for record labels,” said Joe.

“There’s an artist Sony has just signed, a bit like Miley Cyrus, and sometimes they just request songs in a certain style. They don’t say who or what it’s for, but you just write it.”

As well as some prolific writing, the band have made a slight change to their sound.

Joe said instead of simply punk, Koopa’s new material has an indie rock edge.

“It’s a bit more Foo Fighters, or Queens of the Stone Age,” he said.

Joe said the Japanese market is keen on a more rock/indie sound, and the lads are due to tour again and release a third album there soon.

With the change in sound, there could be a possibility the band would look to bring in another guitarist.

That’s all to coincide with a CD that’s set to be on the front page of the Daily Star in the next few weeks.

“The date’s been put back once, but we’ve made an album sampler and they’ve printed a million copies,” said Joe. “It’s six tracks and three dance remixes. It’s set to be on the front of the paper on a Saturday, as a cover mount and it’ll be great.

“The best thing was they came to us, which is quite amazing. It was off the back of the whole Mark Hoppus thing.”