Stewart Copeland, between Argentine polo, orchestras, film music and The Police

Stewart Copeland He came to Argentina for the first time in 1980 The police. It was just two months after the release of Zenyatta Mondattathe third album that catapulted her to fame in the United States thanks to her hits Don’t be so close to me And Of Do Do Do, of Da Da Da. He played at the opening of the New York nightclub on December 14th, at Obras the next day, and at the Radio City Theater in Mar del Plata on the 16th.

Now, 45 years later, he comes with his project Police mentally deranged because of orchestrawhere he reinterprets some of the most famous songs from the trio’s repertoire with a classical orchestra, a rhythm section and a vocal trio. The show will be like that Wednesday, December 17th at the Gran Rex Theaterand the idea is to celebrate his work, both the drummer who revolutionized the way rock is played and the composer of iconic soundtracks like Rumble Fish, Wall Street And The vigilante.

As additional information, within the large group of Rex will be the members of Eruca sativawho have been accompanying him in Mexico since last week.

During this first visit and this new concert, he traveled to the country several more times, not only for the reunion of The Police in 2007, but also because of his passion for polo. He came to watch the Argentine championship and even see horses.

Now 73, Copeland says he’s enjoying this review of songs by the band he formed with in 1977 Sting and Henry Padovani, who was replaced shortly afterwards Andy Summersand also the journey through his work as a composer and researcher of the sounds of the world.

In conversation with ClarionThe drummer admits that he started having some work-related health problems when he was 70: “I have hearing lossnot very serious, that’s why I use hearing aids which I would recommend to anyone over 60 because when you lose your hearing you start to lose your mind. And that’s why it’s important. You have to hear the garbage truck drive by! As for my wrists and hands, the elbows are good, the shoulders are good, the thumb not so much.”

And he adds: “Strangely and counterintuitively, when I start preparing for concerts, the pain disappears. If I don’t prepare, if I’m not in shape and if I’m not playing drums, which is most of the time, then that’s the case.” Arthritis occurs. And the only way to combat that is to strengthen my hands again.”

-What do you remember from your time in Argentina?

-What I remember most about Argentina are of course the horses. I spent a lot of time there with Argentine horses. In fact, I bought many of these horses and took them back to England to play with my friends. I have spent many happy moments on the polo fields of Argentina. I’m not very good or never was because I’m not athletic and I devoted myself to music instead of sports throughout school. But that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it. I enjoy it and I like horses! But when I play in Argentina, the only players at my level are nine years old. (Laugh)

-In this concert you will play songs from The Police and your film music, but there will be nothing from your old group Clark Kent. Because?

-You’re right and that’s a good point. Maybe I’ll put some Clark Kent on the show, but the reason I do these Police hits is so people know them. And when you do a concert you want to have a reaction from the audience, so I use every ammunition available to fire up the audience. They like the songs they know best, because it’s a very simple physics of music in the brain: nostalgia, emotions, memory and music are closely linked. Message in a bottle It already has a very strong emotional charge. People fell in love, fell in love again, got hired, got fired, lived their lives and had children to the sound of these songs!” There may be another song that is just as good, but the one with all those memories has the most impact.

However, the topic Murder in numbers It wasn’t even on an album and it was the B-side of a single, and yet it got a very good response on stage. So there is a kind of mixture of the unknown and the known. The reason I look back fondly is because I trust my development: I’m currently writing a new opera, I’ve just released an album called Wild concert and I’m writing a book. I have a lot of new things to discover, which relaxes me when I look over my shoulder.

-And what do you remember from the days of Clark Kent, pure enthusiasm and passion?

-It was fantastic! That was my first success. The police were alive, but nothing happened. It was discovered that we were a fake punk band and people just stood there and didn’t move. That’s why I came up with the idea of ​​Clark Kent’s secret identity, because I didn’t want anyone to know that I was the drummer of this fake punk band. The public thought it must be someone important because why hide the identity if it wasn’t someone?

It was fun making music alone in the studio and playing all the instruments, really One man band. I think Paul McCartney was the only one playing all the instruments on their album at the time, which I think was pretty good company. A Beatle and me! When we played on Top of the Pops, the UK’s national television show, it was a memory I will cherish forever and I remind Sting at every opportunity that he played my baseline with a gorilla mask on for the first time on the BBC.

While the logistics of playing live with an orchestra may seem complex, Stewart Copeland says they actually are It’s easier than going on tour with a rock band:

“I have a new orchestra in every city,” he explains, “because the job is to rehearse with all the orchestras in every city. The good news is that these orchestra musicians read it straight from the page I wrote it on, and they play not just the notes that are there, but also how to play them. On the page is every detail and every nuance of how to play the notes, with all the accents, the subtlety, the staccato and the articulation. I call it “Put Italian on the side.” So it’s a lot easier than a 90-minute concert by a rock band, which requires four weeks of rehearsals, shouting, negotiations and agreements. The orchestra plays what it sees on the page, which makes life very easy.

-How did the idea of ​​going on tour with this format come about?

– As a composer of film music, I have worked with orchestras all my life, but I am already retired and not in Hollywood. For twenty years I worked as a professional film music composer, where I received mandatory training in the orchestra on how to handle it, how to compose for it and how to put it on paper. Things I studied in college but never used in my professional career until I came to Hollywood and started making films.

-You once mentioned that to perform The Police songs you needed three singers for Sting and a full orchestra for Andy. That’s a great sentence, but in some ways it’s quite true, isn’t it?

It applies to both! The amazing thing is that when I heard the results of this practical decision, I noticed something unexpected: the songs were like R&B with girl and boy groups, singing groups. I never paid attention to that ’60s style like the Four Tops because I like guitar and drums, but now I’m obsessed with that sound. It was a surprise to discover these instruments. As for the orchestra, I already liked it, and it’s true that Andy’s harmonic structures, his finger techniques, all aspects of his guitar playing and his extensive vocabulary require an orchestra to reproduce them.