Copeland James Conquers Rome
If it was possible to build Rome in a day, would you? If you could rush it all out in a moment simply to get something done, would that be the best way to do it? In the case of Copeland James, the time and care they put into their debut single instead of rushing it like they originally wanted to massively pays off. They called it ‘Restless In Rome’.
Copeland James. Image Credit: Regan Jones. Concept Assistance: Tarquin Alexandra.
Copeland James is a classically trained, keytar wielding songwriter from Bloomington, Indiana. Though ‘Restless In Rome’ is the debut single from Copeland James, this is far from their first foray into music. Having run their social media accounts for several years, Copeland has participated in Escapril numerous times. Escapril is a poetry-based daily prompt (find it on Instagram @letsescapril), which James has used to jumpstart musical ideas. This can be heard in their song ‘Half Awake’, using the 2022 April 1st prompt, ‘when I opened my eyes’.
They’ve also been uploading music to their Bandcamp, as they did with their demo ‘Garden of Secrets and Goodbyes’ back in July. Even more music can be heard on their Patreon, giving a glimpse into James’ composition and demoing process. Post-lockdown, Copeland James has also returned to live performance, having played a set in Nashville at the Tennessee Brew Works back in September. Though they played a stripped-back version of ‘Restless In Rome’ during their slot, Copeland’s full production of the track is a real aural treat.
‘I wanna build Rome in a day, routine is boring, throw it away.’
Released in November, ‘Restless In Rome’ stakes its claim with Copeland’s bright piano performance, heard throughout this song accompanying their finetuned melody and expressive lyricism. A single snare introduces a greater arrangement to the piece, played by Max DiBella with bass by Kellie McGrew.
Pizzicato strings soon morph into soothing glides, mirroring the choral-like vocal harmonies bolstered by engineer Ben Wesenberg. Played by Yoav Hayut on violin, violist Maeve Whelan and cellist Ethan Clay, the gorgeous interpretation of Copeland’s music for these strings was written by Daniel Nieberg, bridging the gap between James’ effortless piano playing and their poetic lyrics.
‘We’re smitten by what we don’t know.’
The parts played by Copeland James and their session musicians perfectly service the writing of this song. Nothing is overbearing, overplayed or indeed left too sparse - even Nieberg’s more elaborate moments are a musical response to James’ lyricism, expertly twined together by Kellie McGrew’s mix of the track.
An artist who writes from the heart, performs with playful precision, and sings from somewhere deeper still. ‘Restless In Rome’ is the perfect debut single from Copeland James, whose patience and meticulous approach in crafting this song has more than paid off, setting the standard for their work yet to come.
Continue reading for our Q&A with Copeland James. We ask them where a phrase like ‘Restless In Rome’ comes from, their earlier songwriting and Escapril ideas, plus their use of a keytar and their forthcoming music in 2023. All this and more below!
Image Credit: Regan Jones.
1. 'Restless In Rome' has a beautifully natural sound! What kicked off the writing process? Where does a phrase like 'Restless In Rome' come from?
Funnily enough, my song ‘Restless in Rome’ doesn’t actually have anything to do with Rome at all. Its origins are a little silly—I was in a music practice room late at night and I’d gotten distracted on my phone. I saw someone’s Instagram post captioned “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and I felt a little indignant about it. Like, hey, don’t tell me I have to put in the time and work! I want everything to suddenly change right now! The lyric “I wanna build Rome in a day” sprung to mind and I started playing around with it. I was taking a piano class at the time and learning the accompaniment for the Bach Flute Sonata in Eb Major, and without realizing it at the time, I wrote a piano part for Restless that was inspired by it; it has a very similar shape. You heard it here first: Copeland James ripped off Bach. Once I wrote the first line of the chorus, “Restless stories beg to be written,” that line merged with the first to become “Restless in Rome.” I loved the alliteration of it, and it stuck.
2. Hypothetically, if you could make a music video for 'Restless In Rome' with no concept of a budget, what would that look like?
I’m so glad you asked this! I really want to make an Icarus-themed music video for it. I know that’s mixing my ancient civilizations, but the Icarus story feels so right to me for Restless in Rome. It’s like the moment before the fall, when Icarus knows that if he shoots too high, he’ll fall, but also that if he flies too low, the waves will damage his wings. It’s difficult to strike a balance between being too bold and not being bold enough, and when I wrote the song, I was desperately trying to walk that line. I don’t think of Restless in Rome as having an impending doom like we know Icarus did, but if we didn’t know how Icarus’s story would end, and we just knew that he was soaring into the future with risks in his way at both extremes, then that’s the place where Restless in Rome lies. I’ve joked to friends about the song being “Schrödinger’s Icarus.” There’s an element of hubris, and the risk of the fall, but also a brazen hopefulness.
I love the idea of a music video cutting back and forth between me constructing a pair of wings and me dancing on a golden-hour-lit hillside leading to a cliff. At the end of the song, I picture putting on the wings and then running off the edge of the cliff, cutting off right as I leap off the edge so it’s left unclear whether or not the wings worked.
3. This is the debut single from Copeland James, what does it mean to you to be able to release this single at last?
This song has been a long time in the works. I started writing it just over four years ago, when I was a freshman in college, and I released it after graduating. It’s ironic that the impetus for writing the song was my annoyance at a phrase about having to put in time and work. I wanted to build Rome in a day, but in the end, the song was a huge labor of love, involving many people over the course of several years. Between lockdown, coordinating schedules with busy friends in the audio engineering program, getting studio time in, and collaborating on production, it took so long to get a finished product. I won’t lie and say that wasn’t frustrating sometimes, but it also gave the song a chance to grow over time. I think the strings are such an important part of the song’s sound, and my friend Daniel Nieberg composed those beautiful parts for it just a few months ago. If I’d been able to record the song quickly and get it out right away, that aspect of it would have been lost. It feels like an important lesson for the younger version of me who wished I could do everything at once. I wanted to build Rome in a day, but ‘Restless in Rome’ certainly wasn’t.
4. Between your Patreon, your participation in Escapril and your released music, you must have a lot of songs! How many songs do you think you've written?
I love a good list, and I keep one in a journal of all the songs I’ve ever finished writing. It was at 76 the last time I updated it! Don’t get me wrong, they’re not all good–this is dating back to around 2012, and some of them definitely sound like a 12 year old wrote them. Nonetheless, it’s still something I’m really proud of. If we’re counting snippets of unfinished songs, that list gets way longer. My notes app and voice memos are a haphazard archive of hundreds of song ideas that never saw the full light of day.
Image Credit: Regan Jones.
5. Do you have any plans to expand on those Escapril musical ideas? There's some excellent work there.
Absolutely! In fact, one of the songs I have recorded and ready to release soon was written for the 2020 Escapril prompt “Is anyone listening?” Escapril is one of my favorite tools for getting my creativity flowing; the prompts are always incredible, and having a community of artists working on the same prompts and hyping one another up is such good motivation. I don’t think I’ll ever finish all of the old snippets, but there are several that I’ve already expanded into full songs, and several more that I’m excited to finish.
6. A lot of songwriters feel differently about their earlier music from endearment to embarrassment, what was the name of the first song you wrote? How do you feel about that song now?
I definitely feel a mix of endearment and embarrassment looking back on early songs, especially the ones from when I was just a kid. The first full-length song (and I’m using the term “song” generously here) that I can remember writing was called “Falling Down,” and I wrote and posted it to youtube in 2011 to comfort my favorite America’s Got Talent contestant when she didn’t make it to the next round. It’s long since deleted, but I kind of wish it was still there so that I could have a good laugh at myself.
7. It's great to see you playing gigs post-lockdown, but what's been the most nerve-racking gig you've ever played?
I have a background in classical music; I was a flute performance major in college. Performing classical music and performing popular music are such hugely different ball games. One thing I love about playing gigs is that little mistakes often become a bonding moment between the performer and the audience; something they can laugh at together and make a part of the experience. Some of my fondest memories from watching live gigs are artists forgetting their own lyrics and laughing it off as the audience kept singing them, or artists joking with the audience when there were technical difficulties. Performing on flute was always so much more intimidating than that. Mistakes were inevitable, but never embraced. I have so much love for both music worlds, but I’ve still never experienced the kind of performance anxiety that I had playing flute when performing my own songs. I hope I get the chance to play lots more gigs, and I’m sure there will be nerve-wracking ones, but as of now I don’t think I’ve played a single gig that was as intimidating as just playing flute in a masterclass.
8. I've got to ask about the keytar. At what point did you decide, 'Yes, a keytar'?
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with the musician Lights. She’s a visual artist as well as a musician, and she used that to make these incredible music videos incorporating her illustrations, elaborate costumes, and creative set designs. She played a keytar, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Between Lights and clips of Imogen Heap performing live with a keytar vocoder, I’d wanted a keytar for a long time. I ended up finally getting one when I started playing more live gigs—a regular keyboard can be a huge pain to lug around! It was a practical pick, but also one that made my inner child very happy.
9. Finally, what's next for Copeland James? What does 2023 look like for you?
I’m so excited for what’s ahead in 2023. I haven’t officially announced this until now, but Restless in Rome was the first advance single for an 8-track EP that will be coming out in early 2023. The EP is called Small Talk, and it explores my complicated relationship with communication, and the gap between what we want to say and what ends up coming out. ‘Restless in Rome’ has already changed things for me hugely, and I know that this EP is going to be the catalyst for so much more. I’m incredibly excited for what’s coming up in 2023, and I hope everyone else is too.
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‘Restless In Rome’ is available to download and stream in all the usual places.
For more music from Copeland James, visit their Bandcamp page.
For behind-the-scenes access and unreleased music, support Copeland James on Patreon.
Follow Copeland James on Instagram and TikTok @copelandjamesmusic and on Twitter @copelandjmusic.
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