Copeland: No Police Reunion In The Offing
Although he says the members of the Police felt “really terrific” playing together in public for the first time in 18 years on Monday at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, drummer Stewart Copeland adds that “not one syllable” was discussed about a possible reunion or return to the studio.
“I’m very keen on [reuniting],” Copeland told Billboard. “But I absolutely understand why it’s not going to happen and I’m down with that. It was really great to be the Police for 15 minutes. If you can think of some other award we can go get or some other good reason, give me a call, and I’ll try it out!”
As previously reported, the Police played “Roxanne,” “Message in a Bottle,” and “Every Breath You Take” at Monday’s event at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Copeland says he, Sting, and Andy Summers have remained good friends in the years since the group’s dissolution, and that they frequently visit each other at their respective homes.
“The main thought going through my mind was not about the induction, but about playing with Andy and Sting,” Copeland says. “The rehearsals, the playing of the songs … my kids had never seen the Police, and a lot of my friends had never seen the Police. This was only a faint echo of the Police, but it was the Police. I really felt great to get up there and play that music with some semblance of what it was like. A glimpse, at least.”
As previously reported, the band’s back catalog was recently remastered and reissued in Super-Audio CD format by A&M. And while Copeland admits he hasn’t listened to the new editions, he reports that he has been fiddling around with vintage Police tracks in new and unusual ways.
“I did a whole bunch of completely f***ed up lobotomies of Police tracks that I call ‘derangements,'” he says. “I got all the multi-tracks from live performances, the studio vocals, and then got so carried away that I put the wrong studio vocals with the wrong live backing tracks.”
“I put the lyric for ‘Can’t Stand Losing You’ over the riff for ‘Regatta De Blanc.’ I got ‘Demolition Man’ and screwed that all up. ‘Tea in the Sahara.’ For ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me,” I took the big vocal Sting did in the 1982 version and put it over the live track we did. It’s all in a different key, which was interesting. I tried to do ‘Message in a Bottle’ but that thing is locked like a diamond! It will not come apart!” Copeland had designs on releasing these oddities as bonus tracks on the reissues, but for now they will remain tucked away in his “studio vault.”
As for Copeland’s own music, he recently completed a score for the film “I Am David,” the tale of a child who escapes from a concentration camp in Bulgaria during World War II. He has also been tapped to score the upcoming TV series “Dead Like Me,” which he describes as “a very poignant comedy about life and death.”
Finally, he reports that Oysterhead, his collaboration with Phish’s Trey Anastasio and Primus’ Les Claypool, will aim to make a second album as soon as everyone’s schedules coincide. “If not next summer, than maybe the summer after that,” Copeland says. “We had so much fun doing it. It’s something we’re all looking forward getting to back to.”
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