Copeland began with the partnership of lead singer, songwriter, pianist and guitarist Aaron Marsh with his childhood friend, bass player and backing singer James Likeness. While Marsh and Likeness were stuck in Lakeland, Florida, not a city known for its music scene to say the very least, Marsh did manage to attend the one high school in the area that one would most likely form a band in, Through the connections that he made at his home city’s Harrison Arts Centre, a performing arts high school, he formed the first incarnation of Copeland in 2001, with himself, Likeness, Bryan Laurenson on the guitar, and Jonathan Bucklew, on the drums.
They started performing together anywhere that would have them and by 2002 the band had signed a record contract with The Melitia Group. Largely inspired by the death of Aaron Marsh’s grandmother and the hospitalisation of his girlfriend, their debut album “Beneath Medicine Tree”, was released a year later. The band took to the road and, wisely enough, didn’t leave it until 2005 when they went into the studio to record their next album. In between they toured like men possessed, taking their live show anywhere that people wanted it to be while avoiding overexposure like the plague.
2005 saw the release of their second album “In Motion”, however shortly after its release, Marsh started developing a passion for producing the work of other bands, working with the likes of Underoath and Anberlin to name but a few. While the band were getting higher and higher in profile, with their 2008 album “You Are My Sunshine” managing to break the Billboard 200’s Top 50, James Likeness had left in 2007 and the writing had been on the wall ever since then. After a farewell tour , the band called it quits in 2010. However, signs of life started to show in the Copeland camp in 2014, after four years of inactivity.
On the first of April, Marsh announced that the band were finally getting back together, and that a new record they’d made practically in secret “Ixora”, would be released in October. They went back on the road shortly before the records release and the reception of the shows has been better than ever. They’re a band that any fan of rock and roll should be proud to have back in the fold, and they ccome highly recommended.
Copeland supply a brand of anthemic pop-punk loaded with honest emotion and sincerity to which gentle, meaningful head-nodding lends itself. Whilst clearly influenced by their religious background in their lyrical sentiments, Aaron Marsh, the frontman of the group, avoids the 'christian band' tag, eager to state this is not their agenda. In 2008, the band parted ways but in April 2014, they announced the group were to make a fifth studio album, called Ixora, with an expected release date of October. Their music sounds similar to groups such as Mae, Hopesfall and Switchfoot, with Copeland being label mates on occasion with Mae, both being signed to Tooth and Nail Records.
Their live performance, sometimes acoustic, sometimes electrified, is always gentle and moving, incorporating harmonies with vocals that often use the falsetto. Their ethereal tones seem to reverberate around the audience with the use of a full guitar sound, sometimes incorporating keys into the mix to add further depth. It is the kind of music you would want to listen to if feeling down, yet the music is not depressing, instead uplifting and motivating with an energy of optimism that will certainly aid with any hardship. It is gentle music for gentle souls but with their emotive delivery it will engage most audiences.
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