Copeland

Even though Copeland frontman Aaron Marsh sings “I think I’m safer on an airplane” on his band’s new album, it doesn’t mean he has any easier time getting his 35,000 winks. “You’ll have to forgive me if I’m in any way incoherent; I’m like 30 hours without sleep. I was hoping to get some sleep on the last flight, but I didn’t. I thought about having a few drinks to just totally top it off.”

The Copeland guys are lounging in a mall-like airport terminal in Dallas, waiting for a plane to carry them to Japan where they’re playing a sold-out club date and a couple Lollapalooza-type festivals. The band is accustomed to grisly touring schedules, having played 400 shows in the span of a year-and-a-half.

It’s sleep-deprived moments like this, however, when Marsh probably wishes he’d stuck with his ambitions to be a classical brass player with a steady, predictable orchestra gig. He had the training to make it happen, after all, playing trombone in a 150-piece orchestra while attending a performing-arts high school in Lakeland, Fla.

But along the way a Soundgarden fixation happened. Then, during Marsh’s senior year, braces happened (“my tone went to hell”). Then an affair with the guitar happened. After that, rock ’n’ roll just took its course, culminating in the formation of his indie-rock outfit, Copeland, whose 2005 album In Motion hit #1 on Billboard’s Alternative New Artist Chart. The band also won Yahoo! Music’s 2005 “Who’s Next” competition.

Marsh’s classical background explains quite a bit. In Motion teemed with complex harmonies and arrangements that sidled up to bombast without hurtling over the edge. And the band’s latest, Eat, Sleep, Repeat, welcomes a more pronounced orchestral flair; a small brass ensemble rounds out the breezy tune “Love Affair.” Where In Motion’s lead track cartwheeled out of the gate to churning, distorted guitar, the new record opens with a moody combination of vibraphone and Marsh’s pristine tenor.

“[‘Where’s My Head’] just took up a totally different mood than any of our other records have been able to capture, so right when I conceptualized that song, I was like, ‘oh, this has to be the first jam.’” Eat, Sleep, Repeat is an audaciously subtle, otherwordly recording, even if the second part of its title is occasionally easier sung than done.