...where music falls off of trees...
“As for me, Saturday is the day I get to go to my studio, the Sacred Grove. It may look like Sherlock Holmes’s study, with books and shelves, but I tell you, man, every square foot is loaded. The hard drives are burning, the cameras are rolling, my buddies come round, they pick up a guitar, or start playing on the drums, and we just start rocking, like only we suburban dads can do.” That’s what Stewart Copeland does with his free weekends. The gatherings are already becoming legendary, with cool cats and all-stars from every corner of the music world. The studio is not only packed full of instruments and other audio equipment but also has six stationary cameras that record all the time from different angles of the room. The jam sessions usually last for a couple of hours, in an informal atmosphere, with lots of humor and fun. It’s a classic jam session, with everybody picking an instrument of his choice and contributing to the track. The next morning, Copeland listens to the material, chooses what to publish, overdubs instruments and makes a video. He insists that all of this is just for fun and hanging out with his friends and colleagues. Still, he doesn’t exclude the possibility of releasing a record from these sessions: "I am thinking about that, but it can only be some kind of charity thing, because everybody came over here not on the basis of making a record, but on the basis of having fun, hanging out and jamming. And for me to go and make a record would be complicated, unless we say, 'Look, I'm going to release a record just so the people can have this, and let's do a good deed somewhere.'" So far, Stanley Clarke, Snoop Dogg, Ben Harper, Ginger Baker, Matt Stone, Danny Carey, Neil Peart, Taylor Hawkins, Larry LaLonde, Les Claypool, and Serj Tankian have been guests at the Sacred Grove. Here are some of their performances:
