Stewart Copeland

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Stewart Armstrong Copeland (born July 16, 1952) is a professional American musician. He was the drummer for the band The Police and is an influential drum stylist. Since the band's breakup he has played in other bands and composed soundtracks.

1 Career
2 External links

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Career

Copeland was born in either Alexandria, or South Norfolk, Virginia (although some web sites mistakenly list his birthplace as Alexandria, Egypt). He is the youngest of four children born to father Miles Axe Copeland Jr., a CIA agent and, for many years, the CIA bureau chief in Beirut, Lebanon. Copeland spent his formative years in the Middle East, attending high school at the American Community School in Beirut, where he played drums at school dances. Copeland attended college in California and came to England in 1975, playing drums for the progressive rock band Curved Air.

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Drumming

Copeland is known for a blend of precise, energetic, and creative rock drumming along with a reggae-influenced style (back beat with bass drum, instead of snare drum). His distinctive sound centers on a hard, high-pitched crack on a snare drum or rimshot, subtle hi-hat work with understated flourishes, while often playing only hi-hat with bass drum. Copeland's distinct use of a polyrhythmic approach solidifies his stance as an important drummer, subsequently influencing generations of drummers. His credit on Curved Air's Air Cut album was "Heavy Artillery" rather than "drums."

Copeland is also noted for his heavy emphasis on the groove as a complement to the song, rather than displays of technical prowess. He once drove this point home at a drum clinic: Copeland announced that he would show the audience something "that very few modern drummers can do," and proceeded to play a simple rock beat for two minutes. Nonetheless, his playing often incorporates spectacular fills and subtle inflections which greatly augment the groove.

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The Police

In 1977, Copeland founded the Police with singer/bassist Sting and guitarist Henry Padovani (who was promptly replaced by Andy Summers), which became one of the top bands of the 1980s.

Frequently cited recordings with the Police include:

Outlandos d'Amour: "So Lonely," "Roxanne," "Can't Stand Losing You"
Regatta de Blanc: "Message in a Bottle," "Walking on the Moon," "The Bed's Too Big Without You"
Zenyatta Mondatta: "Driven to Tears," "Don't Stand So Close to Me,", "Man in a Suitcase"
Ghost in the Machine: "Invisible Sun," "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic"
Synchronicity: "Synchronicity I," "King of Pain," "Wrapped around Your Finger," "Every Breath You Take," "Synchronicity II"

Copeland also recorded under the pseudonym Klark Kent, releasing several UK singles in 1978 with one ("Don't Care") entering the UK charts that year, along with an eponymously titled 10-inch album on green vinyl released in 1980. He also released The Rhythmatist in 1985, the result of a pilgrimage to Africa.

Stewart's older brother Miles Copeland III was the Police's manager who later founded I.R.S. Records. Stewart's other brother Ian was their booking agent.

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Later career

After the Police's demise in 1986, Stewart formed Animal Logic with jazz bassist Stanley Clarke and singer-songwriter Deborah Holland. The trio had success with their first album and world tour but the follow up sold poorly, and the band did not continue.

Copeland proceeded to write soundtracks for movies (Talk Radio, Wall Street, See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Highlander 2), television (The Equalizer, Dead Like Me), and video games (Spyro the Dragon), along with operas and ballets. In 1983, he earned a Golden Globe for his scoring of Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish. Copeland wrote the original score for the Babylon 5 television pilot, "The Gathering." (When the show became a weekly series, Copeland was not available, so Christopher Franke of Tangerine Dream was hired.) When a writer's edition of the pilot was released, the original Stewart Copeland score had been replaced with one by Franke.

Copeland has occasionally played drums for other artists including Peter Gabriel. In 2000, he joined with Les Claypool of Primus and Trey Anastasio of Phish to create the jam band Oysterhead. In 2002, Copeland was hired by Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger of The Doors to play on a new album and tour, but after an injury sidelined Copeland, the arrangement ended in mutual lawsuits. In 2005, Copeland started Gizmo, a new project with avant-garde guitarist David Fiuczynski.

Copeland premiered a movie about the Police called Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out at the 2006 Sundance film Festival.

Stewart Copeland is also currently appearing as a judge on the BBC show Just the Two of Us where eight celebrities are paired up with eight professional singers to perform duets together.

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