After achieving global fame behind the kit for the Police, Stewart Copeland converted that platform into an extensive body of work as a composer, supplying scores for numerous films and television productions along with video-game soundtracks while also venturing into opera and ballet. Although rooted in rock and pop, his independent path has consistently explored divergent styles. Following the widely praised music for Francis Ford Coppola’s Rumble Fish and the Africa-themed solo release The Rhythmatist, he expanded further through both original compositions and collaborative ventures such as the jazzy Animal Logic and the funk-fusion supergroup Oysterhead. The Police’s high-profile reunion tour in 2007 pulled him back toward rock, a direction reinforced by the 2017 project Gizmodrome. Copeland received a Grammy Award in 2022 for Divine Tides, recorded with new age composer Ricky Kej, before revisiting his formative catalog on the 2023 album Police Deranged for Orchestra.
Born July 16, 1952, in Alexandria, Virginia, as the son of a CIA agent, Copeland passed his early years in the Middle East, later attended college in California, and relocated to England in 1975. He first worked with the progressive rock outfit Curved Air, initially serving as road manager before taking the drum chair. After the band dissolved, he assembled the Police in early 1977 alongside singer/bassist Sting and guitarist Henri Padovani, who was shortly replaced by Andy Summers. From their breakthrough single “Roxanne” in 1979 onward, the trio became one of the post-punk era’s most inventive and successful acts, blending reggae, funk, and world-music elements into a distinctive, cerebral pop sound that yielded additional hits such as “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” “Every Breath You Take,” and “King of Pain.” While still in the Police, Copeland—who issued the 1980 solo album Music Madness from the Kinetic Kid under the Klark Kent pseudonym—not only drew praise for his layered, intricate drumming but also contributed several songs, including “On Any Other Day” (on which he sang lead), “Contact,” and “Miss Gradenko” from the 1983 blockbuster Synchronicity. The group’s 1986 breakup occurred at the height of its commercial success, yet Copeland had already established himself as a film composer with a Golden Globe nomination for his work on Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s novel Rumble Fish. He had additionally delivered 1985’s The Rhythmatist, drawn from travels across Africa. Although he occasionally returned to pop-oriented projects—appearing on Peter Gabriel’s 1986 album So and forming the late-’80s jazz-rock fusion band Animal Logic—he concentrated primarily on a growing slate of film scores that encompassed Oliver Stone’s Wall Street and Talk Radio, Ken Loach’s Raining Stones, Four Days in September, West Beirut, and numerous mainstream Hollywood releases. Copeland further wrote the San Francisco Ballet’s King Lear, the Cleveland Opera’s Holy Blood and Crescent Moon, and Ballet Oklahoma’s Prey. In 1998 he was commissioned to score the PlayStation title Spyro the Dragon and continued with every subsequent entry in the series.
Copeland joined former Doors members Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger plus the Cult’s Ian Astbury for the short-lived Doors of the 21st Century in 2002; his mid-tour exit prompted a lawsuit that was later resolved out of court. Soundtrack assignments persisted, among them the 2003 Showtime series Dead Like Me and the films Deuces Wild and I Am David. He also launched Oysterhead, a power-trio supergroup featuring Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio and Primus bassist Les Claypool. A 2002 Italian tour with the percussion quartet Ensemble Bash and a chamber orchestra was captured on the 2005 CD/DVD release Orchestralli. The following year he produced and directed Everyone Stares, a documentary chronicling his Police years. In 2007, a year after the film’s premiere, Copeland rejoined Sting and Andy Summers for a thirtieth-anniversary world tour that extended into 2008 and ended at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Thereafter he resumed independent composing for an array of formats, including smartphone applications, video games, classical ensembles, and a Dallas Symphony Orchestra commission scored exclusively for Indonesian instruments. He also supplied music for a theatrical Ben-Hur that opened at the O2 Arena. HarperCollins published his memoir Strange Things Happen: A Life with The Police, Polo, and Pygmies in 2009. While maintaining a popular video channel showcasing performances with figures ranging from Jeff Lynne to Snoop Dogg, Copeland composed the opera The Tell-Tale Heart, based on Edgar Allan Poe’s story, which premiered in 2013. Gizmodrome, unveiled in 2017, marked a return to rock and included guitar hero Adrian Belew, Level 42 bassist Mark King, and keyboardist Vittorio Cosma; the group issued its self-titled debut that year. Copeland likewise revisited the Spyro franchise with the 2018 release Spyro Reignited Trilogy. In 2021 he teamed with Ricky Kej on the instrumental album Divine Tides, which captured the 2022 Grammy for Best New Age Album—Copeland’s first Grammy outside the five he earned with the Police.
A second 2021 endeavor materialized in 2023 as Police Deranged for Orchestra, a concert project in which Copeland reimagined Police material for orchestra augmented by Paul McCartney’s guitarist Rusty Anderson, Paul Simon’s bassist Armand Sabal Lecco, and vocalists Carmel Helene, Amy Keys, and Ashley Tamar. Also in 2023 he released Stewart Copeland’s Police Diaries, drawn from his personal journals covering 1976–1979.
