Kopek to bring their winning formula West

Date Published: {J}

Kopek are an award-winning three-piece rock band from Dublin who play Monroe’s Live on Friday next, January 27. Following a successful US tour in 2011, the band are now turning their attention to Europe.

“We did one single in America and then we were back here, working on new stuff and trying to arrange a deal for Europe, which we just finalised yesterday,” says lead singer and guitarist Daniel Jordan. “The first single’s going to be released in England and Germany in March/April, so we’re looking forward to that.”

Kopek formed when Daniel met bassist Brad Kinsella and drummer Shane Cooney.

“We’ve been together 12 or 13 years now,” he says. “We met each other when we were kids, teenagers. The two lads played bass and drums. They were looking for a singer, and they put an ad out. I answered it and we’ve been together ever since.”

Responding to an ad is almost a rock ‘n’ roll cliché, but the truth is that it’s rare for a bunch of strangers to click musically – and personally.

“It usually never works but thank God, for us, it did,” says Daniel. “We all had a bond over the music we listened to, especially when we played together. Most of the time you put ads up and it doesn’t work out, people don’t get on or there’s something that scuppers you.”

Kopek began to gig on the Dublin scene and soon made their name wowing crowds at competitions.

“At the start, we won little competitions here and there to give us the money to continue. It’s quite an expensive came to get into, to fund yourself as a band. Then, a few years later, we won a hundred grand in a battle of the bands.”

That €100,000 came from a contest called the Global Battle of The Bands in 2005. Winning that prize allowed the band to capture a more professional sound in the studio and it also opened the way for their American adventure.

“There were one or two local heats,” says Daniel. “Then there was a national heat in Derry. We won that, and we were representing Ireland. There were 26 bands then in the final in London. Luckily enough, we won it.

“We went to LA with the money,” he continues. “We went and worked with Danny Sabre, he worked with Bowie and The Rolling Stones. That was an amazing experience.”

Sabre may have an impressive CV, but Daniel, Brad and Shane were still determined to have their own say in the studio.

“I suppose he brought a new vibe to it,” Daniel says. “You notice a few tricks, just layering stuff and different ideas like that. But as far as arrangement and song writing, he didn’t have input at all. But he’s very talented guy – we were lucky we got to work with him.”

Kopek’s debut album is called White Collar Lies, a title that reflects the disillusionment and anger that many people feel about the current economic woes. That’s a theme that’s revisited in other songs.

“That was always going to be on the album, but the more we looked at the songs, there was a few of them that do relate to that idea. The rest of the songs are about different issues – love, friendship, sex. We wanted the album to be something that you could keep going back to.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.