Short version:
Bradley Christmas, frontman and songwriter of alt-country four-piece Copperline, talks about the band’s third album, Sleepwalking, which is partly a commentary on the role and importance of art for the artist and for the audience.
Long version:
This is not the first time Bradley Christmas, frontman and songwriter of alt-country four-piece Copperline, has appeared on Sunburnt Country Music, which is why the first few minutes of this interview sound more like us having a conversation than me interviewing him. There’s a familiarity there, and when that’s the case it makes more sense to embrace it than pretend it doesn’t exist. Which means that we went quite quickly into a discussion about the role of art and AI and related subject matter – prompted, it must be pointed out, by the songs on Sleepwalking, Copperline’s third album which is out now.
While each song on the album can be enjoyed for itself, there’s a bigger arc there, framed by the first and last songs. The title song is about the perils of sleepwalking through life; the last track is about walking outside late at night as a form of problem solving, something that Brad does himself. In between the songs address the nature of creativity and of armchair critics, the need to be present and the importance of appreciating love in various forms.
The album works as proof of its own argument: that art is vital, that is cannot be replaced by anything mechanical, that life is better when we have other people’s creativity to enjoy as well as our own to express. Brad understands this not only as a musician but as an author, as he is the award-nominated writer of Saltwater Boy and has another book under way.
The broader discussion about AI and the pace at which it seems to be overtaking creative practice can sometimes seem to propose the inevitability of it all. Indeed, for a little while I was putting this sort of text I’m writing now through various tools, in the name of making it more SEO friendly, so that it could reach more people and so on and so forth. (Of course, it’s in the interest of the people making those tools to tell us that we can’t reach anyone without them. But it was also hard to escape.) I also thought it might speed up the process, because I wanted to publish these interviews sooner, and writing the text could slow things down. Instead, it made me slower.
Eventually I decided to just write what I wanted to write, and you’ll either read it or you won’t. You will choose to watch or listen to this interview or you won’t. I am not going to try automated tricks to make that happen. Choose to be here, engaging with Brad and Copperline and their work, or not, but be assured that the world is richer for having that work in it, and nothing can replace it.
Listen to Sleepwalking by Copperline on Apple Music
Listen to Sleepwalking by Copperline on Spotify
Listen to Sleepwalking by Copperline on YouTube
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