Stewart Copeland is best known as a third of the police, the topping trio that called him who left after five renowned albums published between 1978-1983 and launched Sting in solo celebrity.
With the police, who also included guitarist Andy Summers, out of the image, the drummer-percussionist has changed CAP and has become a film and television score composer, working on notable films such as “Rumble Fish” and “Wall Street” as well as “The Equalizer”, “Dead Like Me” and even more television.
After a world tour of police reunion, which was the most profitable trek in 2007, Copeland again pivoted, marking live orchestra music for the classic film “Ben-Hur” in 2014.
Later, he also reinvented the police catalog with a pair of outings, “Police Deranged for Orchestra” of 2023 and the Musical Exploration of the World “Police Beyond Borders” with the collaborator Ricky Kej, with whom he also worked on the album 2021 “Divine Tides”, which won an album Grammy for New Age.
Our conversation with Copeland, 72, was originally linked to his speaking tour, “Did I say too much? The police, Hollywood and other adventures”, but the Los Angeles meeting was put back in the palisades and the Altadena forest fires. Always the storytelling, Copeland does the speaking tour in Europe this spring and this fall.
He also has a new album, “Wild Concerto”, which will be released on April 18. We talked to Copeland, first via Zoom then a phone call, on his new project and his creative life animated outside the police.
Tell me about your new album. It is not the “pet sounds” of the Beach Boys or the “animals” of Pink Floyd with some sounds of random animals sprinkled. You seem to be more committed.
Stewart Copeland: Well, yes, animals get a much larger dressing room on this subject. It is not only called animal sounds. He East animal sounds.
How did it happen?
Incoming telephone call. Platoon Records, which belongs to Apple. They acquired this library of a naturalist, Martyn Stewart, who is like (British biologist and television host) David Intborough de Sound. This is how it was described. He spent his life on his hands and knees in the jungles and in the mountains mainly recording bird sounds, but also all these other animals. He has this huge library of these sounds and they wonder what to do with them. They said, “What if we make music?” So they called me and said to me, “Can you work with that?” And I said, “Why yes, I can.
So how did you compose music using the records of animal sounds?
The files that Martyn would send me from different places where the birds could have stopped, the ecospheres of these different areas. I will start with the background sounds, which are only a forest score or a wind score, then I would look for the rhythmic elements, certain birds, which are rhythmic, and I built rhythms from that. I have not changed any of the sounds. I haven't changed the ground. I have not changed the pace, but I placed them all carefully, so I build a rhythm with these rhythmic animals, the rhythmic section. And then I looked for long lines, mainly birds, wolves also have very long solo melodic lines, which are on the height. But I put a trombone next to these bad boys. And now we have your (John) Coltrane Wolves.
Interesting. So, you automatically have none of the animal sounds?
No autotune. No time to stretch.
You mentioned “Rumble Fish”. When I put the album for the first time, I really felt these vibrations “Rumble Fish”.
Well, it's all the percussions I have made by myself here in the studio.
L to R: Producer Ricky Kej, the natural sound record player Martyn Stewart and Copeland in the studio during the manufacture of “Wild Concerto”.
(Archie Brooksbank)
After having made two albums of music reinterpretations by the police was back to nature, the only place to go from there?
I forgive myself for looking back and doing police stuff because I am confident in my forward movement. Right now, I'm running a gigantic opera I wrote and this album on animals, so I'm going to do nice things, which makes me more relaxed to look over my shoulder.
It seems that it is a kind of natural progression of your film composition and your orchestrated work.
Yes, absolutely. The other love of my life is the orchestra and all the incredible things that he can do. The orchestra has such a huge vocabulary. During my short lifespan, I will probably not make the surface of what an orchestra can do, but I work on it.
This album was produced by Ricky Kej, with whom you have worked in the past. What has it brought to the project?
He is an incredible musician and a large producer and he works on the way there in Bangalore. He came to Abbey Road (in London), where we recorded the orchestra and produced a session. Having a producer is very new thing for me. I lived all my career without having a producer. The police never had a producer. We have just had recording engineers. And so recently, I had an experience with a producer and, guy, what took me so long? It's great. Someone else on which to rely, to carry the load and knock me backwards when I need to be struck upside down.
But was the police not listed with the group, like Hugh Padham on “synchronicity”?
He used to produce Genesis and other civilized musicians, well high and respectful of not being stuck on an island with three A – going. He knew where to put the microphones by dodging the pizza. He actually obtained a good recording. If there was one (more) active producer, he could have helped to break these fights or keep civil things, but perhaps not.
Do you still play polo shirt? (The Copeland logo on his website is a Polo Person on horseback)
No. I exchanged all the horses for children, and they turned out to be even more expensive. I have seven children, which is more expensive than 12 horses.
Wow. What is the spread of your children?
(Starts to say 50 but breathe his words to make it indecipherable) up to 25. And then I have five grandchildren. When you start lying about the age of your children, you know you arrive up there.
What was the oldest? Didn't I do this?
(Once again, starts saying 50 but breathes his words again).
Fifty years?
Yeah, 50 years old. We will go with that.
Copeland leading during the registration session for “Wild Concerto”
(Archie Brooksbank)
But you always seem young and lively.
My children became an average age before becoming decrepit. I could always exceed, exceed, exceed all my children. And then I started to become grumpy around 70 years old.
Is one of your children involved in music or showbiz?
Just one. He is in London. He is actually a filmmaker but he has the gift of music. He picks up any instrument and the music falls from his fingers. And one of my grandchildren, who is 8 years old. The young Arthur has no musical chops, but each time they come, he goes directly to the tail piano and he is looking for nice things there. You can see that it's right in its DNA.
