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"Stephie Coplan & the Pedestrians EP" releases 21 January 2012
"JERK!" (Music Video)

After failing miserably at art lessons at the age of 8, Stephie Coplan snapped her paint brush in half and promptly entered a third-grade life crisis. She was too young to buy a sportscar, so she asked her parents for a piano instead. By high school, she had won several classical competitions, performed at Disneyworld with her jazz band, and released a full length album of pop originals, produced at XM studios in her hometown of Washington DC.

But just playing piano wasn't enough for Coplan, who was the only kid in her high school who kept Tom Lehrer, Billy Joel, and Ben Folds Five on constant rotation. She had too much to say, and it wasn't long before her songwriting began attracting comparisons to Regina Spektor and Lily Allen, among others. Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne noticed similarities to his own music, commenting that Coplan seemed "destined for the same commercial purgatory as the rest of us 'smart' singer/songwriters."

Like a musical M&M;, Coplan's outer shell of crisp, colorful lyrics protects a sweet, gooey, melancholic center of rich, observational storytelling. Blending humor, poignancy, and one hell of a vocabulary, Coplan creates characters ranging from hipster snobs to wild-child hippies to sadistic flight attendants and effortlessly builds entire worlds around them - all within catchy, tunefully crafted pop songs.

After establishing a strong, supportive fan base in the Cambridge-Somerville music scene while attending Tufts University, she moved to New York City, where she formed Stephie Coplan & the Pedestrians with bassist John Hebert and drummer Shane Considine. Very quicky, the witty trio has become known for their "fun to watch" (CAROLINE O'HARE, MTV) live shows, consistently packing rooms shoulder-to-shoulder on the Lower East Side.

Coplan's sailor mouth, Considine's aggressive drumming and Hebert's "fuzz-happy bass" (JAMES RICKMAN, BEACONPRESS.COM) dip the band's toes in punk waters, but the group prides themselves on their sunshine pop influences, including B.J. Thomas, the Beach Boys, and even infectious TV themes. In fact, the trio pays homage to their love of theme songs at live shows by covering "The Golden Girls," "Greatest American Hero," "Love Boat," and more.
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