Here are two essential facts about Stewart Copeland. First of all, he’s the drummer for Police. Second, he composed the soundtracks for the three originals Spyro The Dragon Game. You’ll need to keep both of those things in mind for this story.
Copeland was recently interviewed by The vultureand finally, after spending some time talking about my past, my musical tastes and some thoughts on people’s reception of and Police of work, he told a story about the private school his children attended, and how he had a very chance meeting with a parent especially. As he remembers:
My kids go to a private school west of Los Angeles, and they have annual gala events and fundraisers. Parents donate something like two weeks in a Swiss chalet or whatever, and I’m a cheap ham, so I said, “Stewart Copeland’s Drum Lesson.” At some point, a father brings his child in and the child may care less, but fathers love to brag about the Police. Basically, I tell stories to dads and show kids how to hold sticks. But one year, a father has no children anymore. He want a blank lesson. It’s a pretty expensive school. He must have achieved something in life. I showed him something on the drum. I gently tried to find out, “Are you a musician? Do you play in a band? “But he saw me Spyro frame, said three platinum. He said, “Oh, Spyro. Do you like those games? ” I said, “Yes. I’m really thinking of getting Spyro and staged it and turned it into an orchestral work. I just had to find out the guy who currently owns the copyright.” And he replied, “I can help you with that. I own them. I am the CEO of Activision. Now that you’ve mentioned it, we should re-release that game. ” So two years later, they re-released it. They rebuilt it from the ground up.
Now that he mentioned it, if you ever wondered what Spyro like with an orchestra, Copeland actually played some of them (along with his other hits) with direct padding, as you can see below:
Thank you Vinson!
