A Conversation With Copeland
7 min readI am not an emo fan. I hate the whiny vocals of the have-yet-to-sprout-pubes singers. I hate the predictable subject matter. I hate the fact that “emo” means something to me (early Starflyer 59, Radiohead) that’s completely different from what gets labeled “emo” today (insert several names of Warped Tour bands here). In short, I’m not an emo fan.
It’s for this reason that I’ve never given Copeland a chance. This has happened to me with other bands like South and The Fire Theft that I’ve heard mentioned in the same breath as emo bands and immediately have written them off as not worth my time. I’m here to say that I was wrong about Copeland. I threw out the baby with the bathwater and, up until I heard their latest release In Motion, wasn’t willing to open my mind or my heart to this gang of 20-something Atlanta transplants from Lakeland, Florida. Don’t get me wrong, I still hate emo, but I no longer count Copeland in that number.
I sat down on a recent Tuesday evening and gave lead singer Aaron Marsh a ring. I admitted to him upfront my disdain for the genre; but I let him know that I had wised up and was no longer lumping them in with the Dashboards of the world.
Circle 6 Magazine: Something that pisses me off about emo is that it seems like you can sing along the first time you’ve heard an album because they all sound alike.
Aaron Marsh: Right. Right.
C6M: You’re not by any chance a Queen fan are you?
Aaron: Yeah, I love Queen.
C6M: Especially on “Kite,” it sounds like there’s major Freddie Mercury influence.
Aaron: Several people have said that and I don’t really hear it. But you’re definitely not the first. I’ve had four or five people mention that song in particular with Queen. I don’t hear it as much. I was trying for more of like a 40s crooner like early Motown thing.
C6M: So you have influences like that? What’s something that your fans would be shocked to find out influences you or that you listen to?
Aaron: I probably listen to Sade every other day.
C6M: Really?
Aaron: Yeah, she’s like one of my favorite artists.
C6M: Dude, Lover’s Rock is a great freakin’ album. Do you have the live album?
Aaron: No actually I bought it for John our drummer but I haven’t heard it yet. But Lover’s Rock is one of my favorites.
C6M: You’re not married yet are you?
Aaron: No.
C6M: ‘Cause Lover’s Rock is a good album for…
Aaron: Oh, Lover’s Rock will be coming on my honeymoon.
C6M: Nice. So good job covering Stevie on the covers EP.
Aaron: Thanks man.
C6M: That’s something I wouldn’t have had the balls or the talent to attempt. Are there any songs that you wanted to do that got left off of that album?
Aaron: Man there was a pretty long list of stuff. We started making a list of all the different ideas we had. We spent probably 2 months while we were on tour once we knew we were doing the EP and every time we thought of a song we’d just write it down. We had a bunch of songs we thought would be funny to cover, but we didn’t want it to be a funny album…a bunch of random stuff. I think we talked about everything from Sir Mix-A-Lot songs to stuff that’s a little more serious. It got pretty ridiculous.
C6M: You covered a Police song on the tribute album didn’t you?
Aaron: Yeah, the Police tribute album we did “Every Breath You Take”. That’s pretty much how we got the idea to do the covers album. We recorded the Police tribute song and turned it in to the people at the label. They were really impressed with it and thought it would be a cool idea to have an EP of covers because they liked our take on the song.
C6M: A covers EP is kind of a cool idea. Back in the day, when MxPx did On The Cover, it was one of my favorite albums.
Aaron: It’s kind of weird. At times, I kind of felt like I was making the greatest Dollar Bin record of all time. I was like, “Man, in five years where is the Copeland covers EP going to be other than in the discount bin?” But it was still fun to do.
C6M: Are you doing any of the songs on the tour coming up?
Aaron: We haven’t actually talked about it. Probably not. We played the Phil Collins cover on tour for a while and it was fun but I’m kind of over it.
C6M: So the tour kicks off on March 22nd?
Aaron: We actually have the South By Southwest Festival a couple days before that.
C6M: Yeah and you’re traveling through New Orleans to SXSW and you’re not stopping to play in New Orleans…I’m actually kind of upset about that.
Aaron: Well we don’t really make the schedule. We’ve never played New Orleans. We’ve played Baton Rouge I think a couple times.
C6M: I had a couple questions about the songs on the new album. What’s the deal with the projector sound on “Kite?”
Aaron: I wanted to make it feel like a 1940s kind of thing. So I thought the piano part sounded like something you would hear on like a silent film. It was just something to kind of add to that vintage sound.
C6M: I got a Charlie Chaplain DVD the other day. For the sound options you could choose either the original piano soundtrack or there was an option to have a projector loop clicking in the background. My wife thinks I’m stupid for it but…
Aaron: That’s awesome!
C6M: The other song I wanted to mention – this isn’t a question as much as a comment – in “Love Is A Fast Song” you say, “all she wants is your money / all you want is her body.” That sounds just like a relationship I had in ’97.
Aaron: Well, the song is pretty much about just how twisted love has become. It’s really not the same any more. When you turn on the television, the only example you get from the TV is completely not love. The first verse is about a friend of mine who got pregnant before marriage and was excommunicated from her church. It’s like the only love that was really in that situation was the love she had for her child. There was no love shown from anyone else because everyone shunned her. So the real love there was the love of a new mother and that was the only example of love that I saw in that whole situation.
C6M: Another lyric I was wondering about was in the first track; there’s a line about “the endless fight between grace and pride.” What were your thoughts behind that?
Aaron: This song has a pretty ambiguous meaning, but it’s also kind of indirectly about the church. Mainly with their stance on – geez I don’t even know if I should get into it…
C6M: Go ahead.
Aaron: Well the church’s stance on homosexuality.
C6M: Jump on the soapbox, dude.
Aaron: I just believe that there’s a place in the church for everyone. That’s pretty much what the song was talking about. I don’t want to get too much into it, but it’s basically about being accepting. The line, “change if you want / but don’t you go and change for me / I will love you as you are / I didn’t mean to make you want to leave,” pretty much that’s just about…if you believe homosexuality is wrong but you want to love people, you can’t just sit there and tell them, “I’m not going to love you until you change.”
C6M: I think you hit it right on. Well I guess it’s about time to wrap up…let me shoot a couple typical questions at you. First one: What are you reading lately?
Aaron: I’m not a really big reader. The last book I read was Phil Yancey’s What’s So Amazing About Grace?
C6M: I used to not be into reading until I read The Catcher In The Rye. It’s the first book that really grabbed my attention.
Aaron: Oh that’s my girlfriend’s favorite book.
C6M: Well tell your girlfriend she has good taste. Next: What are you listening to? And give me something we wouldn’t expect. Don’t tell me, “Oh I’m listening to Lovedrug ’cause we’re about to go on tour with them.”
Aaron: (laughs) Um…let’s see…
C6M: You’re trying to find the most obscure cd you can think of right now aren’t you?
Aaron: I don’t want to just be obscure. I listen to Sade like all the time. Probably 50% of my cd time is Sade.
C6M: Damn, I need to send you some new music.
Aaron: Yeah, thanks.
Thus ends my conversation with the leader of this most un-emo of emo bands. In the past few days my opinions have changed about Mr. Marsh et al. This new album not only sounds more mature than the last, but more mature than the rest of this tired genre as a whole. Aaron’s open glimpses into the meaning behind his melodic hooks combined with my admittedly reluctant willingness to let down my guard have made me a fan. If the strides taken between Beneath Medicine Tree and In Motion are any indication of the future potential of these guys, there are many years of quality Copeland on the horizon.
You can check out Copeland at www.thecopelandsite.com and hear songs on their Pure Volume site.
Tell ’em Jacob sent you.
