Grammy-nominated songwriter Ross Copperman joins the Pitch List podcast to chat about his newest EP, co-writing with Ed Sheeran, Music Row memories and more.
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Although Copperman has spent years in Nashville writing and producing country hits for other artists (30 No.1 singles to be exact) he explains that over quarantine he decided to venture into doing a project for himself: an EP titled Somewhere There’s A Light On.
“I got stuck home and it was this moment of ‘What are we doing? Are we writing still? Are we still artists if we aren’t touring? What are we?’ I thought, ‘Wow, if there’s ever a chance for me to dig in and do this, it’s now,’” Copperman explained.
This isn’t the first time Copperman has stepped into the role of an artist, but after years of growth and experience he felt he could do it better this time.
“I definitely am more grounded, I’m in a better place. I was a hot mess when I was an artist back in the day and I learned from that. Also that made me able to produce records and help young artists and kind of guide them on their path because I learned from my mistakes. I was in that vocal booth feeling awkward and not liking the sound of my vocal and not knowing how to tell the producer how to make it sound better,” he said.
The EP, which consists of five, polished, Southern-pop, radio-ready songs also includes impressive collaborations like with his two songs “Electricity” and “Therapy” which were co-written with Ed Sheeran.
He shares how their time collaborating went and how it felt receiving Sheeran’s encouragement when Copperman shared the news about wanting to return to artistry.
“Riding with him was kind of like what it’d be like riding with Paul McCartney. He’s just one of the best to ever do it and just humbling. We wrote three songs each session we had and we wrote 12 songs while he was in Nashville, for about two and a half three weeks… It was a lot of pressure asking for his blessing to put these songs out for myself because I wasn’t sure if he wanted to sing these songs or what. So I emailed him and he wrote me right back within five minutes and was like, ‘Dude, I’m so excited for you. You must be so happy being back in the artist’s seat.’ So I was like, ‘Wow, I have Ed’s support here. This is crazy. I’m doing this.’ So that really helped me to push through on this,” Copperman said.
Despite working with mega-successful artists like Sheeran, P!nk, Darius Rucker and others, Copperman is incredibly humble when it comes to his own status in the music industry, especially within the Nashville community.
Copperman and host Chris Lindsey continued to exchange memories about Music Row and the songwriting community as well as Copperman’s career throughout the rest of the episode. Listen to the episode here and listen to Ross Copperman’s “Electricity” below.
