One of the early MCs at the festival, now Coppa has been chosen as ‘Voice of Let It Roll’ for 2024 by the festival to become the official voice and representative in a full long-term brand partnership & collaboration. He’s been in the scene for almost 20 years and as a result, he has an understanding of the art form like no other.
Coppa started out in the UK, where everyone understood his words without question, but realised the first stumbling block while touring China: this is where he learned how to guide the audience without them understanding a word of English, and he continued to perfect this craft in the rest of Europe.
Coppa likes to describe himself as a ‘DIY MC’, with his debut album ‘An Act of Aggression’ being the most important example of that. His upcoming third album and new label We Don’t Play will be the rebirth of this, and his collaboration with the German artist Brazed titled ‘Strange Things’ is the first step.
Congratulations on becoming the voice of Let It Roll. How did it feel when they told you about that?
I was amazed, but when they explained what they were looking for, it really sounded like me. It’s awesome, and I’ve been involved with Let It Roll for years now. It’s nice to make it official. The first Let It Roll I did was in 2012. I was one of the early MCs there, so the relationship was already there. They know what I do, and it works. It’s amazing to officially link forces. MCing in Central Europe is different from MCing in the UK, which is where I’m originally from. I came from the UK rave circuit, but there’s a different delicacy needed when you’re MCing for European crowds.
What’s that difference you’re talking about?
There’s a different understanding of the role of an MC. There will be people at the rave who might not necessarily understand English, or have it as their first language. This is a huge thing and I feel you have to be a lot more of a master communicator when there is this obvious language barrier. You have to be able to get your point across and express and communicate without necessarily relying on people catching every double entendre in your lyrics. It’s a whole art form to communicate with large amounts of people without necessarily using your words as your first point of entry.
When did you learn how to do that?
I had the opportunity to tour China a long while ago, and that’s when I found out that not everybody always understands my lyrics. Drum & bass is quite new in these places. One night, when we played in Shanghai, they had a screen up behind us, explaining what drum & bass was in Chinese. Having a sea full of faces just staring at you, you have to learn pretty quickly how to communicate and to get people involved. Things like that were a very good training ground for me. In other situations, it’s either sink or swim, and I had to learn to swim very fast. I’ve always kept those principles and translated them over to European and other international audiences.
Do you have special things planned for Let It Roll this year?
Yeah, lots of stuff. I’m still waiting for the full script, but there are so many things. I’m going to be hosting a whole bunch of shows. They’ve got a lot of in-festival shows planned, and I’m involved in the opening ceremony and alot activities and PR stuff on site. My voice and presence will be all over the festival across 4 days. A lot of my work consists of being involved in all the promotional material aswell.
I’ve also done the opening shows and the DJ intros and audio-visual stuff for the shows that they had already this year, like the big Let It Roll on tour in London, for example. That was all my voice with all the audio-visual stuff. For the Let It Roll on tour in Ostrava, and also for the SXSW takeover they did in Texas. It’s a lot of different things outside of MCing. They still wanted to keep the role of an MC, but they wanted to make it into a whole bigger thing. So, for example, at Let It Roll, I’ll be there for the full four days of the festival. I’ll be working like every day, all day. But on Saturday, for example, I will be also doing the Eatbrain versus Blackout stage.
This is quite a big thing to achieve! What other things do you have on your bucket list?
That’s a good question, because everything on my bucket list, I’m doing at the moment. It’s an active list, but one of the things which is coming soon is finally revealing my hip-hop solo project, a hip-hop/ urban music project with myself as the main protagonist. For many years I’ve been writing and recording for other genres of music outside of drum & bass, I’ve done everything. I’ve toured with eight-person live funk bands in Greece for example, performed with Felix the Housecat, Kruder & Dorfmeister and so on… I’ve done so many things. There are so many people in different areas of music who didn’t even know that I made drum & bass.
I’ve also been songwriting for other projects and other people for years, but I’ve been waiting for the right time and the right circumstances to finally put together my own thing. I’ve been working on that silently for the last year and a half and we are ready now. My ecosystem around it is ready as well. So yeah, this is my bucket list and we’re going to take that live as well. To release my first hip-hop/ urban album this year, by the end of this year, that’s the end goal.
What are some of the most special things that you’ve been able to achieve so far?
One of my proudest moments was when I did my first album, An Act of Aggression. I released it in 2015. I’d done a lot of features and a lot of releases everywhere already, but no one had ever asked me to do an album before. So I thought, you know what? I’m just going to do my own album and do it my way. I set up my own label at that time and what I’m most proud of is the fact that I put together the whole project by myself as far as A&R and everything goes. I was working with my engineer and the producers, but it was my brainchild, down to the artwork. Everything was done how I wanted to do it.
I released it and it went amazingly well. I got a lot of exposure from it. It also got MixMag drum & bass LP of the month in Germany. I had songs on the radio, I got to start my live show and I performed it everywhere, and that was all my own doing. That’s the thing I’m most proud of because I’ve always wanted that DIY thing from the beginning. I also believe that no one’s going to offer you opportunities, you have to create your own opportunities. For me, this was the most important example of doing exactly that.
Seeing that your work brings you that far, that’s amazing! You’re working on your third album now. How is that going?
This is the rebirth of that DIY spirit, I have set up my own new label again. Previously, I was too busy, but I decided to take the time to invest in my own thing again because when I do things, it works. I’m now working on my third drum & bass album which is going to come out on my new label, which is called We Don’t Play. We have the first release for that on the 17th of July. It’s called ‘Strange Things’, a collaboration with Brazed, from Hamburg. I’m looking forward to curating my own releases again and having full artistic control over what comes out. It’s never confined to any sub-genre of drum & bass, or even of electronic music. I’ll have a combination of sounds on one LP. I create all styles of drum & bass and electronic music. To have my own label is the only option to have that freedom to be able to fully express myself. The people I collaborate with know this too. One of the first questions they ask me always is, “So what style do you want?” I always tell them to do what they want, and that I’ll do what I want. This way, we make something special and unique. There are no rules. I find, artistically, that’s when you get the real magic from people and the situation.
Can you tell us more about this first release, ‘Strange Things’?
Brazed and I have been wanting to collaborate for a while now. For me, it needed to be somewhere where there were no rules or where it wasn’t tied to what some people might feel is my sound. I wanted to have a completely free space to create. They were the first people who came to mind. We have two more releases on the label already planned. One, we’re going to try and get out before Let It Roll. The ones after that are going to be part of my album, so the album’s probably going to be the third release on the label, hopefully before Christmas.
You’re also working on a new live show. Is that tied into the album?
It’s not necessarily tied into the album, but it is a place where I’m going to be able to showcase and perform a lot of the album material. I think there are over 100 drum and bass tracks with my voice on them. So, I have a lot of songs that people have loved for years or are currently loving. The great thing about this live show is it’s the only place on the planet where they can hear that done live, and I can always plug in the new material to do as well. I used to do these kinds of shows a lot, and I miss that. Every time one of the DJs who I’m working with is playing some of my music, which happens a lot, people are always like, “Come on, sing along.” We’re getting back to that this year.
Looking forward to seeing the outcome of that! Another thing you’ve recently done is signing with Bumblebeat Management. What made you choose them?
I’ve been speaking to Wessel for about two or three years now, about music and just back-and-forth banter. We share a lot of mutual acquaintances, and he’s also the label manager for Don Diablo’s label, Hexagon. I’ve done a lot of dance music projects for my former management, so we’ve crossed paths without realising it. I’ve always had an eye on him and I really like the way he moves. When I approached him about us working together, he understood me on the first go. He understood exactly what I was talking about, what my vision was, and where I needed the assistance. It’s the perfect fit.
Any last thoughts?
I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at Let It Roll this year, and I’m looking forward to sharing the time and the experience and my first time there for the full weekend. I’ve always just been in and out of the festival. Finally, I want to do a little roll call. Shouts to Tommy, who is my right-hand man when it comes to all my work and my operations. Shouts to Wessel. Shouts to Joe. Shouts to Hannah. And everybody else who I might have forgotten who I really wanted to shout out.
