Jackson-based rock band Colour Revolt will be headlining the Beta Upsilon Chi Island Party 2007 Friday at the MSU Ampitheater. It will be the band’s first appearance in Starkville since 2003, when they performed under the name Fletcher. All five current members of the band are full-time students at the University of Mississippi.
Colour Revolt consists of Jesse Coppenbarger on lead vocals, guitar and keyboards; Jimmy Cajoleas on guitar; Len Clark on drums and backing vocals, Sean Kirkpatrick on guitar and backing vocals; and Patrick Addison on bass guitar.
Since the band finished touring with rock act Brand New last summer, they have faced the challenge of balancing their lives as normal college students with that of musicians on the verge of national notoriety. They have also encountered hardships along the way that have merely served as obstacles on the road to success.
The group got its start under the name Foxxe while the members were still in high school. They later changed their name to Fletcher and recorded a full-length album Friends Don’t Speak on the record label Esperanza Plantation.
“[The name Foxxe] was confusing, and we got the name Fletcher,” Coppenbarger said.
After gaining a steady following under the name, the band eventually saw the need for another change. Coppenbarger said other bands also played under the name, and the group wanted to go a different direction musically.
“There was a Fletcher in the United Kingdom that was starting to get big … so instead of going through legal battles, we decided to find a name, and we got tired of Fletcher,” he said.
The band’s switch in 2004 to its current moniker was inspired by Flatland, a 19th century Edwin Abbott novel. Shortly after it began performing as Colour Revolt, the then quartet asked Sean Kirkpatrick to join as a guitarist and backing vocalist.
It was during this time that the band began to pick up more steam, surprising fans expecting to hear Fletcheresque material with a more dynamic, full sound. They began booking more shows around the Memphis area.
While going to college, the band continued to perform and in 2005 recorded a self-titled EP.
While the recording process began innocently enough in Jackson in a former band member’s basement, Hurricane Katrina’s wrath forced the band to record the remainder of the album in a much more unconventional environment.
“When Katrina hit, the power went out. We had most of our work done at that point, but we had to move to [Espreranza Plantation record label owner] Chaney Nichols’ house,” Coppenbarger said.
Clay Jones, an engineer for Sweet Tea, a recording studio in Oxford, had previously mixed albums for Modest Mouse and Elvis Costello and jumped on board to mix Colour Revolt’s album after listening to their recordings. The EP was released in early 2006 and has gained them a rapidly growing fan base.
Word eventually spread to Brand New, who later asked them to go on tour with them that summer. The tour took them all over the United States and Canada.
Coppenbarger explained the experience as surreal.
“All the tours we had been on were not of that size or magnitude, and we played our first show with [Brand New] … and they had 2,000 people there. We were blown away,” he said. “It was awesome.”
After the summer tour, the band kept playing frequently and began writing new material and replaced their former bassist with Patrick Addison.
Earlier this year the group was picked to perform at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. They scheduled a gig in Dallas, Texas, a few nights before the festival.
It was after the show in Dallas that the band suffered a misfortune that could have easily led the band to close up shop for good.
As Colour Revolt was getting ready to leave after their performance in Dallas, they went inside the venue to pick up their merchandise. When they stepped back outside, they discovered that their van and trailer had been stolen. All of their musical equipment and personal belongings were suddenly gone.
“At first, there was complete shock. We thought we weren’t going to play any more shows or raise enough money to be able to do this. But after a couple of hours we realized that this was the deal and that we might as well continue. After that, we were in pretty good moods, relatively,” Coppenbarger said.
The band called the police and received local news television coverage regarding the incident. They also posted a bulletin on their Web site and have gotten donations from fans.
Rather than heading home, the band opted to enlist the help of their friends and play the remainder of their schedule. The members found rides to Austin and borrowed equipment from other musicians and manufacturers at the festival.
After they played the shows, some members flew back home while others caught rides back to Mississippi.
Upon returning to Oxford, the band kept in touch with Dallas authorities, who were soon able to track down the band’s van and trailer. Much of their equipment has also been found in pawnshops around the Dallas area.
“Basically everything has shown up in pawnshops except my guitar cabinet, piano, pedals and cables,” Coppenbarger said.
Family of the band will soon help retrieve the equipment before the band goes on a shorter tour with Brand New again this summer, Coppenbarger said.
Along with playing more shows with Brand New next month, Coppenbarger says future plans for the band include recording a full-length album this summer.
“We’re taking June off to write, and we’ll be recording this summer at Sweet Tea Studios … some time this July,” he said.
Despite the struggles the group has gone through to get where they are, the forecast and mindset of the group is optimistic.
“I think the future holds good things, and after we graduate, we’re going to tour, keep making records and keep doing the music thing as long as we’re still good at it,” Coppenbarger said.
Colour Revolt will be joined by Brandon, Miss., band Redhill City and Tupelo band Wavorly. The event is free of charge and is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.