colin_oregan

Its a nickname that just kinda stuck. His real name is Clarence Greenwood, but everyone just calls him Cope.

When Citizen Cope gets to the studio hes in his office, hes working. I know this because I worked as the assistant engineer during the recording and mixing of Citizen Copes third album "Every Waking Moment", due out September 12th on RCA.

The tension that people respond to in his work wouldnt surprise anyone after a meeting. As far as singer/songwriters go, Cope is intense. There are no stylists hovering, the A&R mens suggestions are left at the door, and producers know that Cope doesnt need any help finding his sound. Most of the time youre working, its just Cope, an Engineer, and his assistant.

With "Every Waking Moment", Citizen Cope returns with his brand of urban folk rock. While the second album felt like an artist digging in to figure out who Cope was, this album speaks with a self assuredness that is rare in artists these days. With all the peacocks vying for attention on MTV, imitating whatever is selling and calling it reinvention, its nice to know there are still artists like Citizen Cope out there finding their voice and their sound on their own terms.

For more on Citizen Cope please visit his homepage.

Colin ORegan: So the tour has been announced, what's in store this time? It seems like each time you go out it gets bigger and bigger.
Citizen Cope: Yeah, it's gonna be big. Every time we play, luckily, the word-of-mouth is so strong people have been coming out, getting into the music, singing all the words. It's become a really celebratory, spiritual experience playing live.

COR: The album actually feels more celebratory, in a way.
CC: I hope so. I hope it's uplifting.

COR: It definitely seems, if you dont mind my saying, more upbeat than previous work. Songs Back Together and All Dressed Up come to mind.
CC: I've heard that. Someone recently said, "Oh he sounds happy now." [Laughing] I don't know what contributed to that.

COR: You mentioned word of mouth. How do you feel about the fact that word-of-mouth has been something of a key to your success?
CC: Well I think one of the things we've done is, well... I give away a lot of records so people can hear it, get a chance to listen to it. I feel strongly about the records. What's great about it is that people who stop me on the street kinda have a genuine love for the music. It's not about celebrity or being on the radio or being seen on television. It's not like there's a star appeal to it, I think it's more that people feel connected to the music.

COR: How do you feel about the lack of support from popular radio?
CC: It's a Catch 22. I can't say, because I've never had it. People have played it, but they're primarily non commercial stations, doing their own thing. The bigger commercial stations haven't grasped me. Obviously the best way to get your music out there is to be played on the radio. But there's other ways to get your music out there, through touring, and television, movies. It's a shame that that format isn't more open to breaking new artists, or understanding different music.

COR: Do you feel the radio or the labels are to blame?
CC: Even the major labels have a tough time with radio. I think most big stations are held at gunpoint by their advertisers who want to associate themselves to a certain demographic and they believe they know how to centralize their target demographic. It's a shrinking format. Most of the big stations can't play what they want, so they don't have the freedom to break records. They're also more personality driven. We live in a day and an age where Record Executives want to be bigger stars than the artists, and where the DJ wants to be a bigger star than the artist. It's a tough thing. It's an executive driven business we're in. You gotta get to the people whichever way you can.



COR: On that note, would you say that without this support, artists are forced into licensing deals that they otherwise would not be enthusiastic about? I think because your fans are so touched personally by the records they don't know how to react when your songs are used to sell certain products. What do you say to them?
CC: I know, it's tough. I was at a store the other day. It's before 9 o'clock in the morning the neighborhood corner store and they're playing my record, the new record. This lady walked in that didn't know it was me and said to the owner, "Hey, I heard your man Citizen Cope sold out to WalMart," and walked out. I think it gets into situations where yeah, normally you wouldn't feel like you wanted to have a song played to sell a product, but there's only so many ways to get your music heard these days. It's a tough one, but so many people are watching TV these days. I think that maybe in an ideal world I wouldn't, say, sell a song to Pontiac, but I think it actually worked out very well. There are a lot of people that got turned onto the record by that commercial, and are now fans.

COR: Do you feel like by paying your dues this way, without the help of radio, that you're a stronger artist because of it, as compared to overnight successes we see on MTV and radio?
CC: Yeah because I think it allows you to evolve and do your own thing. When radio hasn't been your friend in the past, you don't have to react by making music for radio. Sometimes a radio artist, they don't have anything else. If they don't have radio they're dead. I don't have radio, but I'm still reaching people. So I can do my thing.

COR: Would you recommend paying your dues this way to up and coming artists?
CC: Hell no! I recommend getting a big hit on the radio and buying some island. [Laughs] I recommend the exact opposite way.

[LAUGHING]

COR: So how is this album different from the last album?
CC: It's just an evolution of the last album, hopefully. I was inspired by different things.

COR: Well the last two albums are in some way self titled, the first album being "Citizen Cope," and the second album you named "The Clarence Greenwood Recordings." Is it significant that this one is the first that isn't named after you?
CC: Naw, I just kinda wanted to name it after one of the songs. I think with the last album, "Clarence Greenwood...," that was just to solidify who Citizen Cope was.

COR: Why did you pick "Every Waking Moment" as the track to name the album after?
CC: It's just one of the first songs we did. I thought it was indicative of the love theme that goes throughout the record.

COR: So you consider love to be the theme of the album?
CC: I don't think it's a love record, necessarily. Because in life, there are more relationships [than just love]. I think the new record explores relationships. But not just with other people but with God, and the country, the city. It explores relationships today. Its really just about what happens in your daily life, every moment. You got your personal relationships and you have the stuff that happens every day that you gotta deal with. How you feel about how your country is reacting. You have a conscious relationship with your conscience as far as humanity is concerned: how it reacts, and how you react to it, within it. So it kinda explores all those different things.

COR: You worked with Bob Power on the first album "Citizen Cope," but for the last two albums you've chosen to self-produce. Does it feel more natural to produce your own work?
CC: I don't know. I kinda like producing myself. It makes it easier for me to follow. I can listen to my first instinct. It gives me a lot of time to listen. If you have someone producing you, he or she might not be so open to sitting and listening to a track all day, working on things that are you know... I don't have a certain set way to work. I just follow the cues, listen to what the song is telling me. Hiring another producer means working at his pace, if he wants to do vocals that day, you do vocals. I always kinda feel it's easier to get the record done, and easier for me to do it myself, than work with a producer. And also in today's day and age, producers are so expensive. You could really mess up picking the wrong person and letting your whole budget go. I'd rather spend it on the studio, on time making a record, I wanna be able to work with the musicians I wanna use, etc. etc. I know there could be advantages. Some people swing for the fences, I'm cool with the devil For some artists, producers work great, and get the best out of you, but some artists it just works out when they produce their own stuff.

COR: Are there any producers you'd like to work with, or do you plan to just produce yourself from now on?
CC: I mean I'd love to work with Dr. Dre. I'd love to work with Willie Mitchell. I don't know if he's still working. He did all the old Al Green stuff. There are definitely a few cats that I might want to do something with, but they are far and few between. Maybe more so as a collaboration, but not producing. The only one I think right now, who could really do something, probably would be Dr. Dre.

COR: What do you draw on for inspiration?
CC: Just day to day life. Situations you're in, people you meet, relationships you have, all those things draw in to doing what you do. Just being inspired in general to say something, or have some belief in something. If you can say it, and really mean it, it usually will mean something to whoever is hearing it.

COR: When you were working on the album, you always insisted on movies playing silently in the background, as part of the ambience in the studio. What significance did they play in how you write your music?
CC: I think it just provides something to look at. There's no windows in the studio.

COR: But a lot of times, you were able to line up the music to the film, and it was striking how well they followed each other...
CC: I think a lot of that was serendipity for it to work out like that. But it's just a visual as opposed to having an outline.

COR: So you don't look at the movie and think something needs to happen here or there to reflect the action on screen?
CC: I don't look at the movie and try to score it. I worked with a scene from Antz that really worked well with Back Together

COR: My favorite is the scene from Apocalypse Now, with the helicopters coming over the trees working so well with Friendly Fire..
CC: Yeah and Lost in Translation worked with Somehow. We used that opening scene a lot, but throughout the whole movie, it still kinda works. A film has to have a tempo, and likewise a song has to have a certain tempo. If it syncs up to a film I like, it's an indicator to me that it's a cool song and that it's got good tempo.

COR: What are your influences?
CC: You know Beatles, Steve Wonder. I'm listening to a lot of current music, whatever it be, just to see what's happening out there.

COR: Is there anybody specific out there right now that you're listening to?
CC: I like Alice Smith [who will be supporting Cope on a good portion of the first leg of his tour]. I haven't had a chance to listen to the new Thom Yorke album. But I think they're [Radiohead] the best rock band, the most important rock band, for now, and have been for a while. I liked My Morning Jackets album. Right this second, I don't know. There's a lot of stuff live that I see that I like. I listen to see what are people doing. But nobody currently is knocking me over; nobody's blowing me away. I love Outkast, I love the records they've been doing. D'Angelo, Erykah Badu. I love Coldplay, not so much the last record, it didn't really touch my soul. I've been revisiting some old stuff, like Dinah Washington, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, jazz stuff.

COR: Are you hoping for a bigger push this time? Everyone who's heard the album, label people, other artists, fans, seem to be thinking it's time for a bigger push.
CC: You know, they want me to make a video. I have a hard time with the video. Were gonna do one, but it's not my forum. I think it takes radio for the video, and you can't really count on radio. So we'll just keep evolving like we've done. I just want more people to hear the music.

COR: People are singing all your songs at the shows now. On the acoustic tour, you were practically drowned out a few times. How does that feel hearing that? It's gotta be better than hearing your song on the radio.
CC: It feels great man. Just being able to play, and then people being familiar with the music, being touched by it. I feel blessed because I can make a record that I look back and say I'm happy about it. I can say that about all three [records]. It's very hard as an artist whether you're a painter, or an actor, or chef, to say allright I'm cool with it. To me, if you can say that, you're operating already on a level where you've won. There's a lot of times you can sell a lot of records, but not feel like you've not done your best work but I feel good about what I've done.