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Ben Copperhead Premieres His Hopping, Spaced-out “Moon Rabbit” Music Video

Ben Copperhead delivers some of his best work ever on the latest album ‘Wailing Viridescence’ (Shimmy-Disc). Today, Copperhead also debuts his “Moon Rabbit” music video.

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Ben Copperhead, photo by Namiko Suzuki

Some musicians function best with all the works, while others, such as Ben Copperhead, prefer working within self-imposed limitations. Creating within these constraints has garnered the singer-songwriter some of his best work, as you’ll hear on his latest album Wailing Viridescence, which sees its official release today via New York-based indie label Shimmy-Disc.

Today is also the debut of Copperhead’s latest music video, for the single “Moon Rabbit.” The song illustrates the imaginative, inventive approach that he brings to his songwriting. Combining many genres and influences, Copperhead uses a combination of talk-singing, expressiveness, and delicate poetry to conjure up thoughts of Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave.

Speaking on the origins and inspirations behind “Moon Rabbit,” Copperhead comments:

“During lockdown, I was doing these monthly full moon live shows via my Instagram. It kept me working on new material and ritualizing with the natural moon cycle. Fans were supportive. ‘Moon Rabbit’ grew out of that experience.

“There’s an old East Asian myth about a rabbit inhabiting the moon. Gil Scott-Heron’s ‘Whitey on the Moon’ was also an inspiration about how silly and expensive human space travel is when we got lots of problems to work out here. The moon rabbit doesn’t really want us there. Just look up and find the rabbit silhouette when the moon is full.”

If you knew Copperhead from his previous work, you would recognize much artistic growth on Wailing Viridescence. But that growth was conjured up ingeniously, with Copperhead using just a restored four-track recorder to record most of what you’ll hear on this record. He has always had a strong appreciation for retro recordings that use analog reel-to-reel tape, so he was inspired to do something similar for his new record.

Many years ago, he discovered a book called Tape Music Composition which he utilized as a starting point to teach himself how to record in a much more old-fashioned, or even dated, approach. As he experimented more and more with this technique, he began to enjoy the challenges of it even more, and this imposition of restraints and limitations has produced perhaps Copperhead’s finest work to date.

Ben Copperhead ‘Wailing Viridescence’ album artwork

Ben Copperhead ‘Wailing Viridescence’ album artwork

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