Nightlife / Music

Bettendorf native Stopulos releases CD

By David Burke | Wednesday, August 08, 2007 | () comments

Hear a track from "The Long Drive Home" at www.qctimes.com/multimedia

Tim Stopulos is calling his second album “The Long Drive Home,” and the title is appropos for the Bettendorf native who is back after four years of college at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.

“My hope is that it spreads around the Quad-Cities pretty quickly,” said Stopulos, who is debuting his CD with a concert Friday night in Davenport at the River Music Experience’s Redstone Room. “I’d like to start with this new band to start traveling to nearby campuses in the Midwest and start hitting the colleges.”

Stopulos recorded his first album with Fourth, a band he formed with three fellow Wake Forest students. One of those, guitarist Chuck Berry — yes, he’s heard the jokes — will join him for the concert at the Redstone Room. About half the songs on the album are by Fourth, he said, and the rest are his solo direction. With his new band, he’s joined by Kindred Priest of the Funktastic Five on bass and Eric Sparks of Stoopifunk on drums.

The new album was recorded at the First Church of Groove studios in west Davenport.

“It was my first experience in the studio and it was a lot of fun,” Stopulos said. “It was time-consuming — it took six months, which is a long time in the studio — but it’s just kind of cool to have the control you do in a studio. It’s just a different experience.”

Stopulos’ solo style is similar to that of his former band, he said. He compares it to a mix of Maroon 5, Coldplay, Ben Folds, the Dave Matthews Band and Radiohead, with classical, jazz and hip-hop influences.

“There’s more than just the rock component that goes into it,” he said.

Like Folds and Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Stopulos is mostly at the piano when leading the group. But unlike them, he said that isn’t always the center of attention.

“It isn’t that hard (to rock on a piano), just because I let the main themes go through the electric guitar, which is more powerful. The keyboard sound really fills it out,” he said. “I’m not like a Ben Folds in that the whole show is about me and my piano playing, like he is, because he can really take over a show. I let my piano playing sit back more and come out sparsely.”

Stopulos, who also plays some guitar, writes his own music as well. His songwriting influences are the members of Maroon 5, as well as John Mayer and Coldplay’s Martin.

“I like the way they can combine a unique sound and some serious musical integrity with the pop sensibility they have,” said Stopulos, who works at Jimmy John’s sandwich shops during the day. “I like that a lot.”

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.

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Who: Tim Stopulos

When: 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 3

Where: Redstone Room, River Music Experience, 129 Main St., Davenport

How much: $6

Information: (563) 326-1333 or RedstoneRoom.com

On the Web: TimStopulos.com or myspace.com/timstopulos

Multimedia: Hear a Stopulos song at qctimes.com/go