Citizen Cope

“I was a little late developing song writing stuff,” confesses Clarence Greenwood, aka Citizen Cope, the just-outside-mainstream recording artist with scores of fans who adore the man and his message.

That tardiness doesn’t really seem to have had a negative affect on Cope, who began his career with Capital Records in 1997 and chose not to reveal his actual age. Quite the contrary. As I learned, he’s had a superbly successful decade; “I sell out places,” he explained. “I’m ecstatic to be where I am.”

For instance, on Feb. 19, Cope performed a sold-out concert at Mr. Smalls in Millvale, Pa. He has also sold out theaters in Chicago, Indianapolis, and Austin, just to mention a few. This March, he will also be performing in London and Paris.

Though Cope didn’t jump on the song-writing bandwagon until relatively recently, he did get his start at a young age just listening to the music he loved. Fans of what Cope calls “the classic stuff” will relate. He was inspired by the greatness of musicians from “Otis Redding to the Beatles,” which compelled him to begin to test the waters. He started playing the guitar, got a drum machine, and wrote poetry. After a while, he was self-producing and distributing his own demo tapes, and creating quite a name for himself.

That name, Citizen Cope, is the result of a name for one of those original demo tapes and is almost as arbitrary as it would be to assign a genre to this man’s sound.

“Yeah, I kinda got my own sound, I think,” Cope remarks matter-of-factly, “but essentially, it’s Pop music.”

An appealing blend of Blues, R&B, Folk, Rock, and Reggae, Cope’s music is anything but ordinary. His website describes his music as being characterized by simple melodies and “soul-stirring grooves.” Cope himself modestly claims that the fusion he employs in his song is nothing essentially new, but he does admit that it is different.

Perhaps it is his unique musical style combined with messages and themes seldom expressed in most popular music that make Cope’s songs so memorable and loved. Although many seem to be politically charged, Cope insists that he has no political agenda.

“[My songs] are conscious more than political or social,” Cope says. “I’m just making a conscious observation of what’s going on in the world. I think that’s what art is: making an observation of your current state in history.”

Cope’s conscious observations of the world range from specific countries, like war-torn Sierra Leone in “Bullet and a Target,” to universal issues and statements, like the belief that love is what “makes the moonlight meet up with the sunlight,” in “Nite Becomes Day.”

Fortunately for his fans, future and current, Cope plans to continue to make music that expresses his observations of the world for a while to come. “I’m achieving [my goal]. It’s a constant thing,” he explains. Achieving his goal is not something he has already accomplished; it’s something he is continuing to do. Cope does admit that there’s one specific thing he hopes to accomplish whilst in the process of achieving his goal: “I would love to perform in Brazil because I’ve just hear a lot about the culture and how music is so important [there].”

Cope might not have to wait long to get there since his popularity has grown steadily since 2004, though he has not being fully embraced by mainstream pop culture. “I have huge underground following without much mainstream press,” he says. “I feel good about it.” For Cope, there are many rewards for avoiding the draw of the mainstream. He would rather have fans who appreciate him for his music and ideas, not because they’ve seen him on TRL. He explains that many of “those people” (singers on MTV) are “entertainers.” Cope, on the other hand, desires to be an “artist.” “There’s a big difference,” he says. “To have your own perspectives and ideas, that’s pretty much unheard of in the music business.” Cope emphasizes, “I don’t really want to be mainstream culture.”

Citizen Cope has achieved underground glory through his one-of-a-kind style and meaningful lyrics – so he’s completely satisfied. “I think I’m just probably going to be doing music until I’m not inspired to do anymore,” he says frankly. “It’s just what I do instinctively now. It’s my life.”

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