Finance trained, Rock and Roll inclined Steve Kopandy knows a bit about being a round peg in a square hole. He travels a lot. He writes from the heart. He takes risks. He often puts his foot in it- and he logs it all in albums.

"I wrote and recorded 30 songs in 2005/2006. They did not define me as an artist. I tried to have them all meet on some sort of middle ground and become a little album community. They would not give up their origins. I split them into 2 packs. We were all much happier”.

Pack 1 of 2; an album entitled Based On.

From acoustic guitars all the way to synths, loops, anthems, prehistoric computers and singing upside down; these two albums push two opposite boundaries for Steve.

The writer vs the performer, the singer vs the producer. 

Steve's music is always well produced, and it's always about the song writing.. a lethal combination for any musician.. but ‘Based On’ goes a step further. It's Steve's first 'post-band' release. It's deep, musically, lyrically it's like a journey- and for the first time, it's exactly where Steve wanted it to go.

Let's hear it.

As a teenager in the 90's, Steve was learning instruments, writing songs and singing in school choirs. Since then, Steve has fronted several bands, including London based Paperadio. He’s performed and recorded throughout Europe and the USA and has gone up and down the music biz bungee cord over the last 10 years, learning the ropes.

Two years in London, two EP's, Silver Things (2003), and Scripted (2004), and a broken heart later, Steve returned to his hometown of Newcastle Australia (2005) to write a double album.

"Music got me by the balls. I stayed up in the studio until sunlight, rewrote songs hundreds of times, ignored my work and social life and became consumed in making these albums. I gave up a year of my life as I knew it to make music... and I don't want it back".

Now based for a short time in London, Steve is outlandishly committed to music, constantly traveling, recording and meeting others in the music business. 2008 will be more of the same. The singles from the second album will be released and Steve will career his way through more albums, lyrics and life stories.

To be continued…

I was born in Port Macquarie, Australia on July 20, 1979. That makes me from Cancer. I lived in Port, Wagga Wagga, Charlestown, Eleebana, Redhead, Kew Bridge, Hammersmith, South Kensington, then back to Redhead, Newtown, Glebe, North Sydney, New Cross, Grove Park, Shadwell, and currently Mayfield, Australia (May 08).

I wonder if I know what schizophrenia is like as the bulk of my life up to now I've been a finance guy and a rock guy. Workmates used to call me the accountant of rock.

My main interests outside music and performing are psychology, modern history, wine, property and travel. I have high maintenance friends all over the world so that gets expensive.

Favourite place for a relaxing holiday is the Amalfi Coast near Naples in Italy. Scotland is the most beautiful place I've been, Bosnia the most interesting, and Detroit is a great place to hang out and meet locals. Berlin is my favourite city in the world, but Detroit's creeping up on that.

I am a performer. I love groups of people and social situations. I've been in bands since high school, the most recent, Paperadio. We worked the London scene for a while, toured the UK and East Coast of Australia. Being on stage with a band that is performing at its best and really feeling the music is a buzz. It's a precious thing.

I wanna see Springsteen in Concert. Also Ryan Adams. Best live gig I've been to was a Belgian band called Deus in France. Killers at the London Astoria also. And Beck at the Apollo. Wow.

I'm an 80's guy and love Cyndi Lauper. She can sing. I love Tears for Fears and Spandau Ballet too. I learnt guitar from 12 years, piano more recently and have been singing since I was a kid. I've been writing songs since about 15. I wrote 30 songs for an album in 2006. Have a double album coming out in 2007/2008.

I love bashing away on the piano and slotting the perfect lyric over a chord I don’t know how I found, and I love studio work, particularly mixing, when you hear it all buffed up.

I love Ryan Adams. Love is Hell is my favourite album.

I hate how the best albums in the world are albums you don't connect with on the first listen. It means you have to listen to what you don't like to find out if you like it or not. How many brilliant albums have I not given the time to and will never discover? A band like this is Deus. It took me months to get into them, but persistence pays off.

I'm a bit of a spiritual person. I'm a truth seeker.. but also realise it's hard to find/box up the truth from our perspective... so perhaps I'm Agnostic (Is it possible to be Christian and Agnostic at the same time? We've all got a measure of faith right???). I love learning social, political and religious theories and histories, but I'm not a scholar of such things... too much music to make.

I consider myself fortunate not to be born in the third world and hope I'll never take that for granted.

I also think that morality changes depending on where you grow up and in what era. What some people have a clear conscience about, others would rebuke and vice versa. We can't set our own rules.. people get hurt.. often oppressed. This helps me believe in God and His 'instructions'.

I change my mind a lot... and I update this autobio all the time.

I love music. I'll be making or performing music for a very long time.