Former Police drummer Stewart Copeland reflects on his hall of fame career

Stewart Copeland — the composer, arranger and drummer for The Police — joined forces with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra to perform songs from the rock and roll hall of famers storied career last night (Oct. 8).

It was pretty exciting for me to talk to Copeland. I mean, he might be my favorite drummer. I always thought his drumming felt so melodic to me, and powerful and intricate and interesting. He couldn’t have been more gracious. He was quite animated and had a lot of questions about what’s going on in Detroit. It was a joy to talk to him.

The Police recorded five studio albums from 1978-83. It kind of feels like they did more, but that was really the concentrated period of creative time for them. Then they disbanded and everybody went their separate ways.

Listen: Ann Delisi interviews Stewart Copeland

Copeland went on to compose scores for films (“Wall Street,” “Talk Radio,” “Highlander 2: The Quickening”), television shows (The Equalizer, Dead Like Me, Star Wars: Droids) and even video games (“Spyro the Dragon” series).

Copeland is revisiting his days with The Police by putting a lot of their songs through a classical filter by teaming with different orchestras throughout the U.S. while on tour. He says “Stewart Copeland: Police Deranged” is a unique setup that gives him a newfound appreciation for his old band’s catalog.

“I have more appreciation for those songs now than I did when I was at the back of the stage,” Copeland says. “Because the orchestra is so much quieter, it’s more powerful. And weirdly, an acoustic phenomenon is that when you see an orchestra play, it feels really huge and powerful, and deep and sonorous and rich. But actually, the volume is about a quarter of two guys with a drum set and an AC 30 [guitar amplifier].”

Listen to the entire interview using the media player above.