Ocean County's Meteor Police have never seemed particularly interested in choosing between opposites. Their music can be abrasive and danceable, sarcastic and sincere, strange and unexpectedly heartfelt—all at once. With their new album Death Is So Permanent, the post-punk band continues to embrace that tension while drawing from the anything-goes spirit of New Jersey’s underground music scene. Following lineup changes that ultimately brought bassist Bill Pompeo back into the fold, the band has emerged with a renewed sense of purpose and a willingness to simply follow the songs wherever they lead. We spoke with Meteor Police about humor, sincerity, New Jersey, alienation, live performance, and why they hope their new record leaves listeners thoroughly confused.
Meteor Police has always seemed to exist in the space between absurdity and intensity — the name sounds like a cartoon, but the music can feel genuinely confrontational. Is that contrast something you consciously chase, or is that just the natural personality of the band?
Everything the band writes comes very naturally to us. We rarely have a plan in writing sessions outside of just seeing what happens, so our personalities are pretty prominent in the music. Some people have gone so far as to say we are a joke band and while we definitely like to write strange parts and sometimes say outlandish things, humor is never the primary intent of any of our work. The core of what we do is honesty and sincerity and that means usually we are trying to be silly, angry, depressed, and hopeful all at the same time. We are a bit of a mess sometimes but so are most people.
Bill’s departure and eventual return seems like it could have been the end of the band, but instead it became part of the story. Did that period change the way you think about Meteor Police or what you’re trying to build together?
Bill leaving was hard on all of us, including him. From the start we always joked about the band continuing forever and anytime one of us left or got too old we would find a replacement until we had become the band equivalent of the ship of Theseus with generations of new musicians taking the Meteor Police torch and running into the future with it. But when we said all that we didn’t think one of us would end up leaving so soon.
We always planned on continuing and were very lucky to have several people reach out and ask to be our bassist once the news was out. Our friend Matthew Pelli stepped in for Bill rather seamlessly and helped us write and release an EP (Hallowtide Hymns in 2023) and has writing credits on half the songs on this album, so the band continued on without much interruption. Unfortunately Matt also decided to leave in late 2024 as he was drawn to other projects. Losing that second member really put a damper on things and we briefly entertained continuing on as a 3 piece but luckily Bill reached out and said he wanted back in. That shuffling of members definitely helped put into perspective how lucky we are to have a functional group of people that can make a band work with little to no conflict and that naturally write songs we all enjoy. It’s kind of a miracle and none of us want to take that for granted.
A lot of bands talk about wanting to sound “different,” but your songs seem intentionally built around tension — danceable rhythms with abrasive guitars, humor mixed with anger. What contradictions do you think make Meteor Police sound like Meteor Police?
I think many people have the misconception that music either has to be fun or meaningful and there isn’t much in-between. We continuously try to challenge that idea so that might be the primary contradiction people notice about us. We want people to have fun listening to our songs but also for there to be some level of dissonance and discomfort. Yeah some of the music might take a strange turn and some of the lyrics might be snarky, but we always try to have some depth present that people will hopefully notice and grasp onto.
You’re a New Jersey band, but your sound pulls from scenes all over the world. Do you think growing up in Ocean County specifically shaped the band’s personality, humor, or worldview in ways listeners outside NJ might not pick up on?
While we say Ocean County is our homebase (it’s where we currently practice and 3 of us spent the majority of our lives in Toms River, Beachwood, and Brick) it’s also worth noting that our bassist Bill is from Bayonne so he brings a distinctly north Jersey vibe to our otherwise shore town party. New Jersey in general is such a rich musical melting pot that I think our sound being kind of all over the place is a testament to the environment. This might not track for a band hailing from Ocean County which is the most conservative county in NJ and largely rejects any bands that don’t play classic rock or modern country, but even here there is a small and tightly knit punk scene. We were all lucky enough to be born with the contrarian gene that made us want to hunt down music beyond what was on the radio and to live in a place where diverse music scenes are only an hour or two away. I think maybe that is the aspect that people outside of NJ wouldn’t understand: just how much music and art is surrounding us and shaping our tastes at all times. It's a blessing and a curse in many ways.
The album title Death Is So Permanent has a very dramatic statement hidden inside a very funny phrase. Do you think humor is sometimes a better way to process darker subjects than taking them completely seriously?
We think so. At least when you have little other choice but to accept something horrible. Shawn got the name from an informational sign in a national park somewhere. He can't remember where but vaguely recalls it was something to do with a warning to miners from their employers to not be reckless. It was also from an era of zero industrial safety regulations and massive corporate exploitation of workers so the words ring hollow in that context; It makes it sound like the company is preemptively blaming the workers for their possible work related deaths. What else can you do but laugh at that kind of absurdity?
A lot of modern post-punk bands are interested in the idea of alienation — feeling disconnected from the world around you. Do you see Meteor Police as a band documenting the times we’re living in, or escaping from them?
We are inadvertently documenting them in our own sarcastic way. Any art is going to be a representation of its time and I think ours will ultimately reflect an attempt at honesty during an era where that is not particularly valued.
Your songs seem built for a physical live experience — movement, noise, energy. Do you ever write with the image of a room full of people reacting to the song in mind, or does the live identity only reveal itself afterward?
Since we write everything together mostly on the fly in our practice space, the songs do primarily have live performance in mind. That's just a byproduct of having an organic group based writing process. We have definitely tried adding in “hype” parts and group chants and things like that with an audience in mind but those things usually don't play out the way we expect.
You’ve all been making music for years and have gone through different projects that ended for different reasons. What does Meteor Police allow you to do musically that your younger selves probably wouldn’t have understood?
When we were younger we had unrealistic expectations of how much work it takes to maintain a functional and consistent band as well as to gain any measure of success. We let petty squabbles and routine disappointments affect us too much. Now with this group I think we all have realistic goals and know what work we have to put in if we want to achieve anything. We also care a lot less about writing things with a specific genre or influence in mind so that is very liberating. It was always annoying in past projects to jam on something fun only to have someone shoot it down as “too corny” or “not heavy enough” or whatever. Now we just go with whatever comes to mind and see where it takes us.
If someone who had never heard Meteor Police saw only the album artwork, the name, and the song titles, what assumptions would you hope they make about the band — and what assumptions would you hope they get completely wrong?
We would hope they go into the album being completely confused and not knowing what they are getting into at all. The album art and name give kind of black metal vibes but the song titles and band name do not, so that will hopefully cause the kind of confusion we are looking for. That could lead to some people going in looking for a metal album and being disappointed, but it could also be something they end up enjoying that they wouldn't have checked out otherwise. I guess the only assumptions we want people to be wrong about is that the record will be boring or cliche.
There’s a lot of discussion about whether guitar music still has a place in modern culture. Do you think rock bands today are trying to revive something from the past, or do you think there’s still unexplored territory left?
I sure hope there is unexplored territory left or else we are cooked! While it's true that pure rock bands aren't really topping the charts anymore, it feels like there are more active bands now than ever before. At least in our area. Maybe they have fallen out of favor in the current mainstream but we all know trends are cyclical. The current era of mainstream music is so overpolished and plastic sounding that it might as well be made by AI (and might soon be). I think a pivot back to more organic music is almost inevitable. And when that happens, there will be a small army of bands ready and waiting to show off their own unique tweaks to the formula. My only hope is that the next rock revival leans more towards the arty and weird than towards the suburban party punk we got last go ‘round.
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