[Spotlight Post] Stewart Copeland
Last month (April) I indulged myself by taking a Friday afternoon “off” and trekking into Dallas to the SMU campus for the end of Stewart Copeland’s 3-day music residency. Copeland indulged students, faculty, and general public fans (like me and many others) in an almost 2-hour Interview/Q&A session.
For those who aren’t as familiar with Stewart Copeland…he was the founder of the 1980s mega-band, The Police. Sting was the most famous (or infamous, depending on your opinion of him) member of the band, but Stewart created it. That was just his springboard into becoming a world-renowned drummer/percussionist beyond those years as a Rock Star. He’s also a very lovely man who can tell a cool story (both orally and in written word).
After listening to him speak, I ordered his book Strange Things Happen and devoured it in little over a day. Though he isn’t a completely linear storyteller (and after my experience with Pulp Fiction, we’ve discovered I don’t do well with non-linear stories), he connects them well enough to make it all make sense without backtracking or over-explanation. It’s another amazing talent of his.
[asa]B0041T4OCQ[/asa]
I am a fan of The Police–not as much as some other friends of mine. And I’m not nearly the Stewart Copeland fan as those same friends, but I love Stewart’s work. He does provocative and evocative music scores to film and television. I kid you not, he’s completely “ruined” a Doris Day song for me. When he scored Dead Like Me for Showtime, in one episode, he took “Que Sera Sera” a fairly NOT creepy Doris Day song and gave it a music box, serial-killer-esque slowness and now it’s one of the scariest, creepiest songs I’ve ever heard. No matter how “cheery” someone else might do that song in the future, I’ll be looking over my shoulder for Reapers and dead people.
Stewart Copeland has also written operas, symphonies, and learned to jam with guys like Les Claypool and Trey Anastasi – and keep up with guys much younger than himself. He’s brilliant in ways I’ll never comprehend because where I can write a story and sing in a choir–those two things: writing and music have always been mutually exclusive to me. Where some people can’t walk and chew gum at the same time? I can’t sing and count at the same time…so folks like Stewart Copeland who can think and create in these grand schemes of musical vistas? That’s impressive to me. The fact he’s made an amazing living at it is astonishing and gives me (as a creative) the hope that it could happen to me (in my vein of creativeness).
So if you get the chance to see Stewart Copeland live–either playing or speaking–take advantage. He’s well-worth the parking ticket you may get for not knowing where you can park on a college campus. So if you want your mind blown by raw talent (some of it very surreal) check out some of Stewarts non-The Police work. It’s amazing and trippy and glorious.
And he does this for fans he cares about — happy birthday, Sockii!