BEN COPPERHEAD
Today, New York City-based composer, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist Ben Copperhead (previously known as Baby Copperhead) unveils "Copperhead Vagabond," the first single off his forthcoming LP, Wailing Viridescence, due April 28 via Shimmy-Disc. The track additionally arrives alongside an accompanying music video, featuring an animation by Brian Zegeer.
Said Copperhead of the track and video: "'Copperhead Vagabond' is a mystic auto-biographical song that recounts the origin of his namesake: a venomous copperhead snake who bit him on his 18th birthday under the full moon. Vagabond is raw and immediate with acoustic guitar and voice recorded together straight to tape, overdubbed with psychedelic sheets of fuzzed-out electric guitar, hypnotic bass playing, and percussive drumming by Euan Roger. This featured single is highlighted by Brian Zegeer’s animated music video, who contributed the original artwork for the album."
Wailing Viridescence is a 10-track album of sci-fi/psych-folk songs and instrumentals. The album was mainly recorded on a 4-track tape machine and features his exuberant Stringed Serpents: Jessica Pavone on viola, Tom Swafford on violin, and Brent Arnold on cello, who co-produced the string sessions with Grammy-nominated engineer, Mike Tarantino. The album was mastered by Kramer. A few of Copperhead’s past favorite recordings that were hand-picked by Kramer are also included.
A key inspiration for Ben Copperhead’s new album, Wailing Viridescence, can be traced back to his appreciation of old recordings using analog reel to reel tape. Years ago, while on tour in the UK, Ben found a book called Tape Music Composition. Cherishing the warming qualities of magnetic sound, he started teaching himself through experimentations in recording techniques. Utilizing a restored 4-track machine, he relished the challenge imposed upon himself by the constraints and parameters of the medium. The results yielded what he believes to be his strongest album to date.
Featuring a collection of songs and several instrumental tracks, Wailing Viridescence represents Copperhead’s deeply personal response to the physical, spiritual, and social injustice. It can be seen, in part, as having been born out of a desire for healing and self-expression under the paradoxical conditions of a need for self-reliance imposed from without and a longing for community coming from within. For Copperhead, this imposition of physical limitations and communal desire gave rise to unexpected inspirations.
The album title was inspired by the concatenation of activities undertaken during the pandemic: the ambient wailing sound he often heard during his walks in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, which he later discovered were vocalizations from a peacock in the park’s zoo; readings of myths from India and the story of a peacock who ate a venomous snake, causing the bird’s colors to come alive; and the singing of birds outside his window. These serendipitous influences inspired in him a moment of synesthesia: his namesake, the copperhead snake; the iridescence of the peacock; the wailing calls of songbirds. Copperhead translated this experience of musical colorations through alternate tunings and original arrangements that can be heard in the present album.
Wailing Viridescence represents Ben Copperhead’s continued musical growth and transformation refracted through the collective challenges we face in these tumultuous times. The album was co-produced with longtime collaborator cellist and composer Brent Arnold. Kramer mastered the recordings and hand-picked the songs in collaboration with Ben to help create his extraordinary debut LP for Shimmy-Disc.
