MySpacea place for friends

Meet Ross Copperman, born October 1st, 1982 in Roanoke, Virginia where he grew up and went on to attend James Madison University between 2001 – 2005. From a very early age Ross knew he wanted to sing and remembers back to when he was just 5 years old belting out songs that were on the car radio in his Mom's car. Playing piano from the age of three, Ross made music before he knew how to speak in coherent sentences. His mother finally gave in to lessons and their house was never quiet again. Copperman played in several bands and learned other instruments to find himself musically. While developing as a performer he began songwriting. He started listening to a new cd every week to get new song writing ideas, a tradition he continues today.

In high-school Ross played in a band but the guys wouldn't let him sing or write songs so he took a songwriting class at college and wrote 'Fly Away.' The professor knew he was on to something special and told Ross that he should do something with it.

So what else could Ross do but give up his boyhood dream of being a lawyer along with a jazz piano player and turned his love for music in to his life 24/7. His parents hadn't been happy during his jazz phase (which lasted a few years in Ross's teens) but when he turned his thoughts to rock and began to write strikingly accomplished songs they realised their son knew what he was doing and where he was going to go.

After college, he did an internship at a New York jingle house, where he wrote advertising jingles to order. There aren't many popsters who can boast that their first hit was a tune for a Fisher-Price toys TV ad – Ross may be the only one. But it was a start, and, newly confident, he began entering competitions. He came third out of 35,000 entrants in the USA Song writing Competition (his swag: "$5000 and a bunch of free stuff"), and then was named Best Unsigned Artist in the Freshtracks.com contest.

The Freshtracks prize was $10,000 and a 40-date tour of America . It wasn't exactly a five-star jaunt - He would be by himself, fly to each city alone and do the show - but it was great for literally getting his act together. It got his chops up, and he was travelling all over the country. He kept touring for the next year, on a have-guitar-will-travel basis, until publishing companies and record labels started offering him deals.

Ross is known for his sweeping melodies and spacious choruses, but his emotive, scuffed-up voice bestows an intimacy that makes each song feel as if it were written for the listener alone. He eventually took the decision of signing to UK label Phonogenic / RCA Records.

Now relocated and living in Nashville, Ross has toured up and down the country for the past 12 months making a name for himself. He released a 'soft' single in UK 'As I Choke' last year and was single of the week on itunes and went and broke the record by having a staggering amount of 40,000 downloads in just one week. His first single 'All she wrote' hit an amazing 38 in the UK charts which is quite an achievement for a new artist. This release was soon followed by the release of 'Welcome to Reality' his debut album in UK. August saw 'Found You' released and hit the UK charts and Ross got on the road to support Mcfly which went extremely well.

Now with an album and 2 singles released in UK under his belt and a handful of some of the most intimate and special gigs played, Ross has now gone back home to America to push his album release over there and to begin writing another. The road to success continues....

SHINE - REGAL ROOM, HAMMERSMITH - 23RD FEBRUARY 2008