No, she hasn’t been singing since before she could talk. And no, she doesn’t write about how her ex-boyfriend cheated on her (although she might, if he had) or how pretty the trees in her backyard look (although she might, if she had a backyard.) See, here’s the thing: Stephie Coplan is not your everyday singer-songwriter. With piano prowess far beyond her twenty-two years and lyrics that range from the heartfelt to the tongue-in-cheek, she stirs a geeky cocktail of one part Ben Folds, one part Nellie McKay, and one part Jason Robert Brown. Tasty.
Born and raised in the DC area, Stephie originally set out to be a sketch artist at the tender age of three. But after five years of art lessons and too many failed attempts at drawing flowers, she dramatically snapped her pencil in half one night and called a piano teacher. Throughout the next ten years, she went on to win several state-wide classical piano competitions, record two jazz CDs, play in dozens of pit orchestras, and release her first album of original music—all before starting as a freshman at Tufts University in 2005.
Now that she’s graduated with a degree in Philosophy and founded an award-winning performing arts education non-profit, Stephie finally has time to get back to doing what she loves most: writing jazz-pop songs about law school, Plato, Ben Folds, and other things that most singer/songwriters wouldn’t think of.
Until she enters the studio next year with her merry band of Berklee-trained musicians, all of her songs are free and downloadable on her MySpace, iLike, or Reverbnation pages. Stephie is looking forward to getting to know all the friendly folks in the Boston music scene, so say hi to her if you see her at one of the many open mics that she will be playing in the near future.
"Well, let me put it to you this way...[Stephie's song "Answers"] falls somewhere in the following range: at worst, it's merely world-class, grade-A, top notch songwriting...and at best, it just might actually be timeless art. Right now I could see myself listening to that tune for years to come, but I'll leave it to your own subjective taste to decide where along that spectrum the song falls for you. So bottom line, at worst, it's perfect. And at best, it's magical." ~Mike Connolly of Ambitious Tugboat
Just listened to your song for Jamie and want to express to you how wonderful of a thing it is to be able to have something a bit more tangible than the silent air to bring some resolution of sorts to what happened. It's (the song) raw, pure, and beautiful in a way that's worthy to the beautiful person the world's lost.
You discovered my secret! I named myself after a Stereolab song, and what you referred to was the CD single. The song itself was included on the band's 2001 release "Sound Dust". I am a big fan of Stereolab, and I had the honor of meeting lead singer/lyricist Laetitia Sadier a few years ago. I told her I named myself after one of her songs and hoped she didn't mind. She was totally cool about it and very supportive of me, which really meant a lot to me! That was my official baptism as Captain Easychord.
Hi Stephie, I'd love to see "Songs for a New World"! The April 15th show is the best day for me to see it. If you can reserve tix for me that'd be awesome!
Haha, that brings new meaning to 'final cut'. These aren't final but very close. Let me know whatcha think (I know Townie has a small tracking issue I think it's the cd)
