Introducing

CopperPilot

November 2008 and CopperPilot, a four piece from Ipswich, are almost a year old in their current guise. They've existed in various forms for a while longer but a change in vocals and on bass had previously ruled out any stability.

David Booty (vocals and guitar) is happy the transition period is over: "Me, James and Andy have been together playing in bands since the end of high school - about five years or so now," David said. "It's all a bit complicated but we're finally happy with things now."

The four band members are in full time education spread out across East Anglia, which gives Copper Pilot a wide area to build a 'local' fanbase.

"We've all recently moved away to university and although we've got a fair few uni commitments we see the band as being our number one commitment.

"We've created a bit of a triangle being based in Norwich, Ipswich and Cambridge so we're hoping to build decent fanbases in all three places and spread out from there."

Investing in the future

The band's decision to lay foundations close to home came after several national tours proved a difficult way of attracting support.

The tours, along with transport and time in the recording studio, were funded by a manager who CopperPilot had impressed during band practice.

"We've got a contact in Ipswich called Tony Shevlin, who I think used to be the music editor at the East Anglian Daily Times, and he had an interest in the band.

"He had someone approach him saying that they were looking to manage an indie band and he suggested us. The guy came to a practice and said 'yeah, I want to manage you'.

"Us being young and eager to get our music out there said 'of course, let's go for it'. We had nothing to lose from it - he was the one who put all the money into it.

"In hindsight it would have been better for us to work with someone who had more experience and more contacts rather than just the financial side. It didn't work out perfectly but we still got a lot out of it because he paid for all our recording and for us to tour.

"I wouldn't say we were expecting things to suddenly take off but it seemed like a step in the right direction. It was all worthwhile and it helped us to build a fanbase, but in the end we decided it was better to start off locally."

CopperPilot returned to the studio in the spring of 2008 to record new material - songs which were written following the departure of their manager and ahead of the closing stages of their time at university.

"A lot of the recent songs reflect the stage that we're all at in our lives at the moment - having to make decisions with what you want to do with your life, feeling pressure from certain people to make decisions and feel like you're going somewhere with life."

And have the songs helped with these decisions?

"Not particularly! I wouldn't say we've come up with any conclusions. I don't think there are any answers to it to be honest."

Venue shortage

David's ambitions to make a success of Copper Pilot are clear, but as with most Ipswich bands we've spoken to he shares the concern that local bands face an uphill struggle to get noticed due to a lack of venues supporting live music.

"The closure of the Pool Club and the Drum and Monkey has left Ipswich a little dry when it comes to venues. There's not anywhere inbetween small pubs and the Corn Exchange, which I think there needs to be.

"That's the good thing about Cambridge and Norwich, where there's middle-sized venues like the Junction in Cambridge and the Waterfront in Norwich."

Both Cambridge and Norwich are regular stops on the gig circuit and local bands often benefit by landing support slots on the bill. Openings like this are hard to come by in Ipswich.

"It's something the Ipswich scene really needs as local bands would then have the chance to support bands who are already big on the scene, and play with bands they like. They'd learn a lot from it and play in front of a bigger audience."

David says CopperPilot pride themselves on their live performances and that they're committed to working hard to get their music heard by a large audience.

They were also boosted by airplay from BBC 6Music's Tom Robinson, so is it possible that they could make the band a full time job following graduation?

"In an ideal world, yeah. But we're all very aware that it's difficult to make a living out of writing and performing music.

"When we were younger we were of the opinion that yeah, we'll be in a band it will happen, that's it - we'll make money from it. But as we've grown older and gigged more we've realised it's not actually as easy as that.

"But at the same time we're all willing to put in the hard work. We're going to stick with it and see how far we can take it."