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Steve Kopandy



Last Updated: 11/18/2009

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City: london
State: London and South East
Country: UK

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Wednesday, July 15, 2009 
Video blog this week direct from Venice Italy!



If the video doesn't work, visit Steve's Youtube Channel


Monday, July 06, 2009 

This week I have special Guest Blogger: Ben Hutton.....

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Ben is the frontman songwriter for Paperadio- that’s the band I used to be in before I went Solo. Ben and I have been playing music together for 15 years. I learnt a lot of what I know from this guy, and the band Joel and Ebow. Thrilled to call them friends.....

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This Friday night in London, Paperadio are doing their farewell show. After so many years, a stack of songs recorded, including a killer album called ‘Novella’ (2008), and some amazing live shows, They’re calling it a day. I will be there with bells on at the Borderline on Friday night, and so will hundreds of others. Only 7 quid but get there early as it may sell out.....

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Check out the songs at www.myspace.com/paperadio or buy ‘Novella’ on Itunes. I kid you not it is an amazing album.....

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So now over to Ben, the author of Fever, who kindly loaned the song to me for my album ‘Based on’....

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FEVER:
I like the word 'Fever' for love - hot/cold/sweaty/a little crazy/better with paracetamol.

My brother (ebow) and I wrote it in Australia before some sessions we did in Melbourne with David Carr.  Sometime in the past of Paperadio - circa 2001/2.  It was a song that started after Ian had been listening to quite a bit of Muse's first record - Showbiz and so there is a bit of that grandiose melodrama in the song.  David softened it a little into a more palatable earnestness.  The theme is pretty simple - love and all its idiocies.  Loving someone like a nicotine addiction but seeing and knowing their ability to turn you into a wreck-  or something like that.

What we went for in the end was a feeling.  We wanted something that felt dreamy and in lilting 6/8 to create that sad, resigned vibe.  Most of that is down to Dave's production and one morning we came into the Melbourne studio to find he'd sorted the middle section's vocal idea 'is this love ooh...yeah' on the top of some fancy chords i'd worked on earlier in the day.  It was love at first listen.  Ebow played most of the electrics and I think we had an average sized studio argument about making it heavier and less 'neutered'..... I kind of preferred it lighter and Ebow wanted more big guitars.  

…the 'lightness' won.

Benjamin Hutton....

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Have a listen to fever here.

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So see you all at the Borderline on Fri night. I’ll be the guy down the front with the teary eyes.....

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Steve....


Monday, June 29, 2009 

Category: Blogging
Video blog this week live from the sunny banks of the Thames.

Monday, June 22, 2009 

Category: Life
The Greyscale Dream
 
 
I wrote this lyric to fit the vibe of the album ‘words count’.
 
I suppose I just wanted to create a sense of mysticism about this beautiful girl. Heaven, dreams, haunting etc. Spiritual undertones… ‘blessed is she…’
 
This lyric really came from the James Hariman soundtrack which inspired it. There is subtle female vocal on the choruses sung by Stefanie Panaccio. If you like this song, you’ll like ‘Brown Eyes’ from the same album, also featuring a bit more of stef’s beautiful voice. 
 
Get the album here: cdbaby.
 
The Greyscale Dream
 
She’s  got heaven on the onside
She’s got friends in high places
 
I awake from this greyscale dream
To an orange cup of tea
From behind my mind she reappears
Always coming back to haunt me
 
Blessed is she for she knows my heart
Blessed is she to believe in us


(that's it).

I'm so tired that's all i have to say. just spent 2 hours replying to myspace messages. dinner and sleep now.

what song do you want next week?

Steve
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 

Current mood:kissy
Big kudos to the 1979 records promotions teams based in Australia and the USA. Tim Harris and I have music being sent to radio stations all over the world at the moment, and I have just hit 10,000 myspace friends!!!!!! Our team is amazing. You know who you are people and you know we're gonna have a big Christmas party in Hawaii.



I've had a bit of a shocker this week, sorry the blog is so late. I've been at the Isle of Wight Festival having a blast with my friends from the London Bicycle Company.

I made a video but it's not working.. so no vid blog this week sorry!

First Kiss... Track 9 off 'A True Dream'
I don't know what to say about this song. It comes out like a speech almost. 
Ummmm... I wrote it on a slow train from Sydney to Newcastle. Thanks to the beautiful friend who inspired it, who I incidentally never kissed... and she'll never know this song is about her hahahahaha.

if you want to hear it, you have to buy it on itunes. Just search "Kopandy kiss". I'm usually a bit more generous with my downloads but I am not going to make rent this month, so please buy! Free kiss with every song download this week*!!! 
(*ummmm.. not sure if that's possible actually).

Ste.


First Kiss
 
I say to you what life is this that we share together?
There could be love here
And you’re telling me you need a friend
But there must be more to this
If you could see
All the good things that we’ve both got going here
Then I believe
A little less conversation could be all we need
So baby get in line
And I’ll look you in the eye
If it takes too much time
We’ll never realize
 
All the world is waiting for
Are sparks to fly
And words to fall away
All the world is waiting for tonight
Is you and I to get this first kiss over with
 
I’m holding on to the look in your eyes when we locked together
In just that moment
And I made a little move to find
Where you’re heart’s been hiding
There’s more to say
I’ll give a little bit more
Every day you’re with me
Keep you hanging on
I’ll be holding you there
And you won’t escape me
 
You could be the one I love
The one I fall for
The only one for me




Monday, June 08, 2009 

Current mood:  chill
My first live video...
This vid was shot at the Tim Harris Album Launch in 2007.. and now finally released.


Lyric Series.10 (The Beach)
 
I built this song around the metaphor of a falling star. Falling stars are a long way away, they’re beautiful, they’re isolated, and they break up- sounds to me like a long distance relationship. The parallels are almost continuous. You also see them at night, when you’re alone on the Beach.
 
So I wrote this song, originally called ‘The Beach”. There are as many beach metaphors as star metaphors. That’s because the conversation with the girl actually unfolded on a beach.
 
The moment was real, the story half real. Sometimes I take not so intense situations, and turn them into big deals. Songwriting is like acting sometimes, you have to be larger than life. This is not my usual methodology.. Every other song on my album ‘Based on’ is very real.
 
“And there’s nothing sweet about this so-called ‘bittersweet’ goodbye”.
- The goodbye wasn’t bitter at all, but I wanted this line in the song.
 
The girl is the star, or at least, she wants to be a star.. off to make it big in the real world.. leaving me behind to watch from a distance. So she gets in the plane and heads for the sky. We used to look into each other’s eyes- and we don’t any more.
 
When a star falls, it doesn’t really affect us.. it all happens so far away. In some ways though, it’s a big deal.
 
The ocean is just a fine line.. This is the horizon.. a fine line between me and her. She tells me to stay in touch, follow her moves. But it’s like following footprints in the sand. Eventually the trail will stop. And I am left behind.
 
2 versions of this song:
The Acoustic Version on ‘Based On’
And the Electric Version on ‘A True Dream’
The only song I’ve ever released twice.
 
(Omitted 4th verse in version 2:
Let it go, I understand
But now I’ve gotta over throw
All that I’d hoped and planned
Cause a path that’s drawn in sand won’t last
And I am left behind.)
 
 
Falling Stars are Breaking Up
 

 
She wants to go
Looking alone for something
And I don’t know
What she’s gonna find

Now she’s all alone

When engines drone
And take her for the sky
We don’t see eye to eye
Overthrow all of the plans we’re making

Cross fade into another life
And there’s nothing sweet

About this so called ‘bittersweet’ goodbye
We don’t see eye to eye
 

 
Falling stars don’t mean that much

When you’re a world away they look so beautiful

Still they’re breaking up like us

And they’re alone without a friend to keep ‘em warm
 

 
She believes the ocean’s just a fine line

Feeding me to follow her with the tide
But a path that’s drawn in sand won’t last
And I am left behind
We don’t see eye to eye
 

 
But I’m gonna wait a beat for her

When she’s on satellite delay

And I’m gonna be the beach for her

When she comes home to me I pray
 
Falling Stars
 
(From A True Dream) Listen on my myspace profile.


 
Falling stars breaking up
 
She wants to go, She wants a change
She used to have a thing for life
She wants it back again

Now she’s all alone when engines drone and take her for the sky

She’s on the rise
Still we don’t see eye to eye
 

 
When she returns I’ll know she’s mine

But she’s become a star up there and she’s taking her time

Still there’s nothing sweet about this so called ‘bittersweet’ goodbye
 

 
Are we farther away than we thought?
Are we stars?
 Are we starting to fall?
 

 
She says to me the ocean’s just a fine line
In between looking into her eyes

Now I’m staring out to sea

But I can’t see what she means tonight
 

 
But I’m gonna wait a beat for her when she’s on satellite delay
And I’m gonna be the beach for her when she comes home to me I pray


Monday, June 01, 2009 

The Wire

Dying to sleep
But my eyes aren’t closing
I’m on the wire
Going round in these circles
I grind to beginning
I’m still on the wire
If the night is a love song
What will I be singing
When one day I wake and you’re gone?
But the night’s not falling
It just sinks like a stone
 
Love be my song
Let your love be my song - I’ll sing it
 
The moon’s like a pill
It just twists and distracts you
I’m still on the wire
The sky’s like a pillow I can’t get my head into
And I’m wondering why
I can hold myself captive
In the walls of my mind
When you’re not at the window
Looking into my eyes
Girl you touch me like lightening
You start me like fire
I need you tonight
I need you tonight
 
Love be my song
Let your love be my song - I’ll sing it
Love be my song
Cause I’m losing my mind
And you’re in it
Sunday, May 24, 2009 

This weeks lyric analysis is a song I wrote for the Hide and Spy Record ‘Words Count” This is track 2: “Hide and Spy”. You can listen and download this song at: www.myspace.com/hideandspy


 “Give me a boy until he is seven years old, and I will give you the man” -Saint Ignatius


We are very conditioned people. We are much a product of our upbringings, our cultures. What is acceptable in our culture is unacceptable in others, and vice versa. Imagine being transplanted to a country different from the one you know, and having to re-learn from scratch their culture and belief system? Would you give it the same unconditional trust and respect that you gave to your parents as a child? Why would you want to? You’ve got your happy little corner of the world now.


Open up your mind.


You get used to what you see every day. You grow to love basketball, or celebrities, while the real world passes you by. We’re protected by the system. But is it all in our best interests?


As long as you work for the system, the system works for you. But what if the system goes against your morals? What if the system is set up for the rich to get richer, and the poor to get poorer, and you have a problem with that? How do you get out?


The hand that feeds you lies: This could be the media, politicians, religions, or institutions. And the lies might not even be people deliberately deceiving us. They may have been passed down through cultures and generations.


‘Shock to the system waking up to existing in a life-like perception with your bull-shit convictions”


Are you just a pawn in somebody else’s game? Are you an ant in somebody else’s ant farm? Hard to know from where you stand.  Politicians are funded by the rich. They most often rise to power on the back of money.  Question every statement. Where is the conflict of interest coming from?

The system works perfectly for us in the first world. But the world as a whole is a very bleak place.  Have you seen it lately?


Open up your mind, if you dare

Hide and Spy

Open up your mind, over there

Underlies the workings of your mere existence here

Open up your mind

Don’t be scared of the hand that feeds you lies

Hide and Spy

 

Underground it’s underground

You’ve never found what’s going round

 

Expect a conspiracy

What you’d never detect from just meeting me

 

Shock to the system waking up to existing

In a life like perception with your bull shit convictions

 

Expect what you don’t expect

Expect a conspiracy when you meet me

Monday, May 18, 2009 

Paris in the Winter was written in a park in Paris – the Jardin Du Luxembourg – in the Summer. 


The first time I went to Paris was with my girlfriend in the winter. I went back in the summer, alone, and wrote this song. The city was a maze, I had no direction really. Just memories. Sure we were drifting when we were there together, but drifting with your girl is purposeful. Drifting alone is only good for writing songs.


Nuff said.


I wanted to blog on this song because a lot of people single it out as a favourite. Simple piano and vocal. You can download it for free if you join my mailing list. signup on my website - stevekopandy.com


But for the blog subscribers, you still get a freebie this week. check out this electrified remix by James Hariman: “Back in Paris” - Download at http://www.stevekopandy.com/backinparis.mp3


Paris In The Winter



Lying in empty parks with wind as cold as ice

Watching the lamppost lines of trees against the sky

Writing a fairytale against the sky of grey

Now I’m back in Paris

I don’t know what to say

 

Cause it’s hard to know which way to go

Without you

 

Drifting away, we put the river to shame

Going nowhere up the cold Champs-Elysees

And the city framed your face

And it takes me back to that place

Where I was not alone in Paris

This world is just a maze

 

I’ll trade up all my summers

For Paris in the winter

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 

Category: Music

 

Have you heard that Satriani is suing Coldplay for plagiarism??

 

“Viva la Vida” supposedly copies Satriani’s song “If I could fly”

 

I looked and listened into it. I know ‘viva la vida’ well so I went straight to satriani’s song.

 

Similar feel, similar tempo, similar chord structure.

 

But I was waiting for the chorus. I was expecting to find a guitar line that sounded similar to Chris Martin’s Chorus melody. When I didn’t hear one I laughed.

 

A song is made up of a few different parts:

Tempo, Feel/groove, chords melody and lyrics are the main ones.

 

Lyrics are not the issue here as there are none in Satriani’s piece.

 

You can’t copyright a tempo.  That’s ridiculous. If you can, then I claim 120bpm.

 

Feels also you can’t claim ownership of, because feels transcend artists, styles even genres. There are not limitless random combinations of feels that can be written/produced. If Satriani wants to claim he invented that feel, he’s deluded. 

 

My big issue with plagiarism is melody.  Melody is made up of both rhythm and tune.  Millions of unique melodies are written every year, some similar to others, but you can spot a rip off. It’s easy to write a unique melody as there are almost limitless random melodic combinations, when you add the variables of rhythmic structure.

 

There are no melody issues in Satriani’s case.

 

Finally we have chords. Coldplay (in a different key), use three out of four of the same chords as Satriani.

 

This happens all the time in music. There are millions of songs that use identical chords.

 

Granted, there are less that use identical tempos, feels and chords, but it happens. It has to happen, especially in Rock and pop.

 

Enough about Plagiarism Joe Satriani. It just doesn’t wash.

 

I challenge you that this is no more than a publicity stunt, aimed at getting more people to listen to your song- which I really like, thanks.

 

Next time, save us the drama and just pay for an advertising campaign.