Bio
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Toy Story
So, my name is James A. Copeland. Most call me “Jimmy” , “Jimmy C” , “Cray Jay” , and very rarely “Beatmaster C”. I`m still earning my title of Beatmaster and I`m not always Cray, so for now , I think we can safely stick with “Jimmy”.
At the time of writing , I have just had my 27th Birthday. By psytrance standards, I’m way over the hill , but my youthful good looks keep me in the game somehow. I live in South Africa in a small town called Paarl. It`s a picturesque wine growing district and it’s very chilled out. I grew up here and I don’t consider myself a city person. More people = more bullshit in my opinion, so fuck them cities.
I`m the 3rd out of 4 children and I’ve had a life filled with adventure thanks to my parents, who always invested so much of their energy and money in travelling. My childhood is a mish-mash of memories off the beaten track in various 4×4s under the Great African Sky. I couldn’t have asked for better.
As a child I took piano and recorder lessons but still managed to erase all knowledge of music theory from my brain when I eventually stopped. This ‘erasure’ was something that I was to repeat a further 3 times, when I took more lessons in highschool and again when i studied at college. I suppose its something I don’t agree with – a structured approach to things – so I just discard it as useless information.
At age 14 I was pondering over getting a guitar so I could join my friends in starting a metal band. I eventually decided that I didn’t want to play guitar, but my father actually forced me to get one, and that has been the one single event that has most shaped my life. The next 5 years were spent seriously rocking out on guitar, bass and even a bit of drums. It was all rather violent music, based on energetic displays of teenage angst. Sigh… those were the days…
At some point during all of this, I decided that perhaps it was possible to make even more nasty, crazy noises with a computer and that perhaps I could make complete pieces of music without having to rely on other people. Thus began my dabbling in computer music. This was in 1997 and technology was not nearly as advanced then as it is now. It was also in this year that I had my first mind opening psytrance experience at a Vortex party at Silverstroom Strand near Cape Town and i was duly persuaded to dabble in this music from then on. Forgotten were the guitars, which were sold to make way for synthesizers.
I went to study at an audio college called Cityvarsity in Cape Town where i was in a class with Nate from Protoculture , Gareth from Commercial hippies and also Animal Chin from Counterstrike / Algorythm Records ( its Drum n Bass you fools!). I also met Craig aka the Skragg/ RABDOM L here and through him , established the original Timecode connection.
During the course of my studies, i met this total punkass motherfucker who lived in the same town as me through mutual friends. As it turns out , he was also making psytrance and had pretty much the same views on it as i had. He was also into making pounding badass music and thought the scene needed a fat dose of “new shit” . We began work on what would ultimately become “Damage”. Sigh… those were the days…
As Damage we became part of the Timecode crew alongside fellow upstarts Artifakt, Shift , Phyx and RABDOM L. In 2002 we threw a few parties and released a compilation or two before Deon and I bailed due to the fact that we didnt have enough money to invest in this. We played loads of crazy gigs and, with only a few releases under our belt on Timecode and Afrogalactic records , managed to bag our first international gig in Portugal. We played for Good Mood Productions , who also do the Boom Festival , and Rinkadink was also on the lineup playing his first international too.
In 2003, we ended up touring to Japan and also meeting Asher from Skazi who promised us a record deal with what was then Shaffel records. This supposed deal, which only became a reality about 2 years later, burned bridges with all our contacts at home and ended up demoralising me to the point where i thought drastic measures were necessary. I`d already started a side project to do music that was less agressive than Damage, and when my first few tracks on this project were surprisingly well received , i decided to take the plunge and go solo. Deon ended up releasing the Damage album with what became Chemical Crew in 2005.
Thus, Broken Toy was born, with my first releases on Timecode and Nano records in 2003 ( “Rockstar” and “Devil`s Playground” ). In this first year , I released 8 tracks -which is far above my average and I think very beneficial for me in building the name of the project. One of these releases , “Send More Money” would eventually lead to my proper record deal with Alchemy records UK and prompt me to relocate to London for two years. Sigh… those were the days…
In 2005 I finished my self-titled debut album and toured a lot. 3 years after I started Broken Toy, I finally released my album! I`d wasted so much time and it felt like I was only starting my career then. I also realised that i was “Broke Toy” due to the high cost of living in London and eventually relocated back to South Africa , where I once again find myself with a very favourable exchange rate and a very good quality of life. It is this very quality of life and increase in sunshine that inspired me to finally finish my 2nd album, ” The Low Down Dirty Sound Of…”. After missing my deadline by a year , i finally got it done and i feel that it is my best work to date. Its been a long road for me and i still feel that i am finding my style. The evolution continues , but this album was a major jump for me and I`m happy with it.
So – 5 years in the game , 2 albums and 60 tracks released, and over 20 different countries gigged in. What next?
At the moment , the album has just been released and I`m touring like a little bitch. I dont get much time to spend at home and that really sucks. I`m trying to practise playing drums so i can start a band and destroy the world with bass but i dont have enough time to do so. On the upside , i am playing at some fucking killer parties and my career has never been better. It feels like I`m on the right track and I`ll soon start work on the 3rd part of the Broken Toy trilogy. I`ve mentioned before that i might only do three albums, but that seems unlikely at the moment. The 3rd album will complete a metamorphosis for me and then I can actually get started on some proper music. It would be wrong to stop there.
So please stick around and see what happens next. Its bound to be exciting and this website will be the best place to look for new info on what I`m up to. Be sure to stop by every once in a while and see whats going on.
Peace out
Jimmy