Interview: Coppola & Painter

Coppola & Painter are a singer-songwriter duo from Sydney made up of Giovanni Coppola and Rod Painter. Their first album, Palladium, is out now for streaming and you can stream it below:

The album takes inspiration from classic rock and overall has a soft rock sound, like something you’d hear on an adult contemporary music station. Both musicians are longtime friends with decades of experience in the music industry. We are lucky to have them here with us on The Diversity of Classic Rock to tell us their story. Keep on reading if you want to learn more about them.

Angie Moon: How would you describe your music to a new listener?

Coppola & Painter: We would probably describe our music as classic adult pop rock with a touch of nostalgia, meaning and spirituality.

Angie: How did you two meet?

Coppola & Painter: We met at an audition for a band called “WEXL” in the late 80’s.  Since then we have played in a few bands and a number of songwriting projects. Mostly cover bands, but without our great friendship forged over nearly 35 years we wouldn’t have kept at it but here we are!

Angie: How did you get started making music? 

Rod Painter: I played in my first band when I was 15, and dabbled with making music since then.

Giovanni Coppola: [I’ve been a] classically trained pianist since the age of 7 but always had a tendency for pop and jazz, and the creative process of writing songs was something I was always drawn too.

Angie: Which musicians inspire you the most?

Rod: The Beatles, U2, The best of the 60’s and 80’s, and classic Aussie singers and bands such as John Farnham, Rick Price, 1927, Taxiride, LRB and Daryl Braithwaite just to name a few.

Giovanni: Definitely agree with Rod but I’d throw in Hall and Oates and Foreigner on top, oh and not to forget the king Elvis Presley.

Angie: Why the name Palladium for your album?

Coppola & Painter: Palladium is a precious metal. The album is precious in so many ways to us. Anything good that survives the test of time is precious, the songs of this album are a tribute to that. It’s also a tribute to two very precious women in our lives, our mothers. Giovanni sadly lost his mum while the albums was being recorded, and Rod’s mum has been proudly looking down on him for the past 18 years.

Angie: What was it like writing and recording the album?

Coppola & Painter: Everything really fell together we felt. It was around the time of the initial outbreak of COVID. The earth stood and we switched on I guess. COVID lockdown for the creation of this record was a blessing I guess. Everything we had been trying to say just came out. The recording was interesting. Most of it was recorded and mixed in (Giovanni’s) home studio. We had a session drummer who recorded his tracks a few hundred kilometres away and bassist who we have never met, and both recorded their tracks remotely. The final mix and mastering was a little challenging as we took a little risk with an unknown engineer in Indonesia. It worked out in the end.

Angie: How has the album been received so far?

Coppola & Painter: We’ve had nothing but praise and wonderful feedback, even today receiving some wonderful feedback in Apple Music where a listener shared. It’s music for your soul, heartfelt beautiful tunes for relaxing, reflecting and grooving. And even some airplay on a few community radio stations.

Angie: What are your favourite songs to perform live? 

Coppola & Painter: “Everything” is the only song that’s on Palladium which we’ve performed live, as COVID has impacted opportunities to get any performances prepared, so We guess the song “Everything” would be our favourite to perform. But looking forward to performing “Goodbye” and “Don’t Look Back” when we get a chance to perform live again.

Angie: What is your proudest accomplishment as a duo?

Coppola & Painter: We’ve submitted some tunes into a number of songwriting competitions, and one of our songs, “Goodbye” reached the semifinals of the UK and International songwriting competitions in 2020, that was a very proud moment.

Angie: Any words for your fans?

Coppola & Painter: We’d like to say to all our supporters, whether family, friends and those who love our music, who are now friends, thank you for your support and kindness, and it truly warms our hearts to think our music is connecting in a way that makes you feel and be joyous in something that we made.

You can follow Coppola & Painter on Facebook and YouTube.

Shoutout to Patrick and Jeffrey from Maryland for supporting the blog!

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