Copeland: Motion Thickness

COPELAND’s sturdy belief systems protect them from making sacrifices to both their art and their lives.

Story: Julie Seabaugh



Early this past February, emo-rock visionaries Mae and ecclesiastical pop-punks Relient K were playing a show at Orlando, Florida’s Social Pavilion. During downtime, some crowd members heard something familiar playing over the sound system. It sounded kind of like the band Copeland, only a bit more… evolved. Come to think of it, Copeland did have a new album coming out in the very near future; could this be it? Shortly after the show ended, the Militia Group, Copeland’s label, began receiving e-mails warning that the band’s upcoming release, In Motion, had been leaked before its intended street date.

“Our manager was promoting the show,” says singer Aaron Marsh about the hardly nefarious activities of band manager Kyle Griner. “So he [played our record over the PA], being the good manager who lives and breathes our band. It wasn’t a huge deal. I think a lot of people thought it was a huger deal than it was, because they didn’t know that Kyle was there. He thought it would be a good place to give 400 people a sneak preview.

“Our bass player [James Likeness] has been pretty vocal about not taking the band’s music and spreading it around before the release, so it doesn’t surprise me that a lot of people jumped to our defense on that,” Marsh continues. “I’m really, really thankful that we have fans that care about our wishes as much as that.”

“Some people were talking on LiveJournal about how if anybody has a copy of the record, they would really like it if it was sent to them,” says Likeness. “I went on there and said, ‘Don’t download our album before it comes out, because the first week of sales are so important to a band. And even if you do download it and are going to buy it the week it comes out, if you share it with other people, they might not have the same intentions.’ It got posted on AbsolutePunk.net and our message board, and [the reaction] went through the roof.”

For the rest of the story, pick up AP 202 below…