Stewart Copeland

copeland is one of my favorite rock drummer, he is tasteful when it comes to drum parts and i love his hi hat works :D
 
copeland's definantely one of my favorites. i love the police's music and he gives the music such a great taste.i'd say his best is on the album "ghost in the machine." heh, i just realized the graphic on the cover are their faces. :)
 
Stewart is a very skilled player, indeed. From his initial playing with the Police to his work with Les Claypool (the name of the group eludes me right now..), his fluency in jazz and rock all around shows with much to hold respect for. He's probably also one of the most HARDWORKING drummers around right now. (i was just about to spert out that he rarely does studiowork and then I noticed a previous post by someone) His resume is incredible, akin to that of perhaps Josh Freese yet with an unusually high prediliction toward movie-scores. That is right on the money right there man. To be a musician, as a J-O-B. WITH the BENEFITS of working with others similar to the musician-side as they are creative and flex their brain and help challenge the minds of others, that's quite an experience right there! I am envious of this cat for that reason.

His disposition for traditional grip is what keeps it interesting to watch. I'd've liked to be taught by him in my early years. He and Les Claypool always work well together as well. Not so sure if he still jams with Les anymore....anybody know?

Anyway, that's my feeling about the dude

BTW, this is my first post here. Hello guys :)
 
BackInBlack said:
Stewart is a very skilled player, indeed. From his initial playing with the Police to his work with Les Claypool (the name of the group eludes me right now..), his fluency in jazz and rock all around shows with much to hold respect for. He's probably also one of the most HARDWORKING drummers around right now. (i was just about to spert out that he rarely does studiowork and then I noticed a previous post by someone) His resume is incredible, akin to that of perhaps Josh Freese yet with an unusually high prediliction toward movie-scores. That is right on the money right there man. To be a musician, as a J-O-B. WITH the BENEFITS of working with others similar to the musician-side as they are creative and flex their brain and help challenge the minds of others, that's quite an experience right there! I am envious of this cat for that reason.

His disposition for traditional grip is what keeps it interesting to watch. I'd've liked to be taught by him in my early years. He and Les Claypool always work well together as well. Not so sure if he still jams with Les anymore....anybody know?

Anyway, that's my feeling about the dude

BTW, this is my first post here. Hello guys :)

You have me curious now. I went to www.allmusic.com and Stewart Copeland's page. I could not find a collaboration with Les Claypool. There is information about side projects like pop fusion "Animal logic" but no mention of work with Les. I wonder what that was...a group, or work on a soundtrack or something...
 
hmmmm...wasn't on the allmusic page? wonder why not....It's (now that im thinking a bit clearer) Oysterhead- A collaborative project he did with Les Claypool, and Trey Anastasio (of Phish) some couple years back. The live footage i saw was on an HBO taping of a show they did somewhere. It's a very good group, i wish they kept doing their thing, i liked it. Very open-wide and different in some ways.

They released one full length. You can find it at Amazon.com, i'm sure.

check that if you want.
 
Ok, NOW I found it under the Oysterhead bio (there was no cross reference)

Biography by Steve Bekkala
Comprised of the unlikely trio of Trey Anastasio, Les Claypool, and Stewart Copeland (of Phish, Primus, and Police fame, respectively), the supergroup Oysterhead first came together for an intended one-off gig at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in May 2000. The chemistry between the three musicians was immediate, and the sold-out performance went off so well that the trio decided to pursue their partnership further, eventually entering Anastasio's Vermont recording studio in April 2001 to begin work on an album. The end result, The Grand Pecking Order, was released in October 2001, followed by a supporting tour of North America.
 
I could literally be gushing in my admiration for Mr. Copeland from now until the end of time, his playing opened up a whole new avenue for me in the respect of playing and listening to music of a more progressive leaning. He teases some of the most gorgeous sounds out of the hi hat like no one else (check out the Japan '81 bootleg for some of his best work in that department) and has the most distinctive flam IMHO. Furthermore his dedication to never straying too far away from the song yet having a strong musical voice should be an inspiration to us all. Saying that though, I still can't forgive him for Spirits In A Material World, took a long time before I could work out where the one was until after the first chorus. Can't wait to get my hands on the new Synchronicity DVD!
 
new member....hello all.

stewart copeland. probably my favourite dummer, excuse uk spellings please.

taste? oh yes
character? oh yes
timing? i don't think so. i heard that a lot of his parts were the last thing recorded on some of the Police tracks, so he wasn't so much driving the band as doing drums karaoke.

i've used this recording technique many times myself and it produces some extremely confident sounding performances.
 
Khali I have to disagree with that last statement. I find recording without the band live is much harder. I think that just proves the point that he has impecible timing. Although I am sure he was playing to a click. I have seen some of his live playing. He looks and plays pretty confident either way.
 
Recording your drum parts to a pre-recorded track is a very liberating experience. You don't have to bother about keeping the guys in time, remembering the structure or anything. Just play. If it works, keep it. If it doesn't work, bin it and try again.

This is a much harder attitude to assume if you have a restless band getting pissed off at you every time you fluff a take.

This was/is Copeland's studio strongpoint. This studio confidence also transfers nicely to his live work. If you know you can make it work in the studio then the strength of your character can force it through live. This may be why Sting disliked Stewart as a musician - inconsistant playing, great when he was great, sometimes not so great.

edit for spelling
 
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khali said:
new member....hello all.

stewart copeland. probably my favourite dummer, excuse uk spellings please.

taste? oh yes
character? oh yes
timing? i don't think so. i heard that a lot of his parts were the last thing recorded on some of the Police tracks, so he wasn't so much driving the band as doing drums karaoke.

i've used this recording technique many times myself and it produces some extremely confident sounding performances.

I own the DVD "The Police-Every Breath You Take" and one of the special features on that dvd is "Police in Montserrat": 45-minute documentary of the band recording Ghost in the Machine. On the documentary the way they record THAT album, and I'd assume, MOST of their albums is the complete opposite of what you said.

They would record most of their stuff relatively live, lay down the DRUM track, then Sting and Andy would come back and re-do parts, track stuff etc. He actually talked for a good while about the pressure of getting the drum track down right the first time, because he couldn't go back and re-do it later because of the way they recorded.

EDIT:

An documentry hosted by a young Jools Holland!
 
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I think Khali may be confusing the fact that he would sometimes go back and overdub some things, like the cymbal chokes on "Synchronicity II". There's no way you can pull that off live. I also heard he would sometimes go back and over dub certain drum hits just for clarity.
 
This just in: October 4: there will be a new Police DVD LIVE performance.

'The Police - Synchronicity Concert'
 
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Thinshells said:
This just in: October 4: there will be a new Police DVD LIVE performance.

'The Police - Synchronicity Concert'

Alright :) I look forward to that.
 
londoncallingbronxNYC said:
Does anyone know what kind of High hats he had?

I think they were a flavor of Paiste.... but it's been so long I forget. They sound incredible though no matter what they are.
 
Note:

After listening to the Police compliation cd "Every breath you take," It donned on me that Stewart used crash cymbals the very least of any popular drummer I know.

And FWIW: I prefer the original version of "Don't stand so close to me."
 
Copeland is easily one of my favorite drummers. He was my favorite for quite some time, but Brann Dailor unseated him.
 
I think Khali you're getting confused:
I've read that by the time the band was recording Synchronicity, Sting would have practically near perfect demos, and the drum parts were so close to Stewart's actual style, that it took him much effort to put his own "stamp" on his actual drum recordings


khali said:
new member....hello all.

stewart copeland. probably my favourite dummer, excuse uk spellings please.

taste? oh yes
character? oh yes
timing? i don't think so. i heard that a lot of his parts were the last thing recorded on some of the Police tracks, so he wasn't so much driving the band as doing drums karaoke.

i've used this recording technique many times myself and it produces some extremely confident sounding performances.
 
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