Remember back in high school when you had to recite ten lines from a Shakespeare play in English class? There was always one kid absent during those days. That was Copperpot. He would be in the nurse’s office, at home, hiding in his locker, anywhere but in front of a class room full of people.

Copperpot, born Daniel Kuypers in Chicago in 1979 has been producing hip hop and hip hop-ish beats since 2000 when he joined the Phonograph Scientists, a Chicago-based turntable crew consisting of four tablists and Copperpot on two sampler/drum machines. The crew played shows and parties throughout the Midwest and gained a following that extended from the Windy City to Kansas City. Unfortunately, unlike his fellow Scientists who enjoyed being on stage, Copperpot suffered from terrible anxiety, which persisted until the day he decided to quit the Scientists in 2003.

Then, in early 2005, while Copperpot was preparing to launch his debut album, Chapter 7, the brass at EV Records told him, “you need to get your face out there, you need to deejay.” “Ugh,” said Copperpot in dismay. Never-the-less, he decided to brave the Chicago crowds by getting a weekly gig at the Morseland bar. The residency started off as a low-key affair, mainly attracting locals from the quiet north-side neighborhood of Rogers Park. Things didn’t stay low-key for long when, after a couple months, the Chicago Reader ran a feature on Copperpot spotlighting his appearances on local projects from artists like Qwaazar (Typical Cats, Galapagos 4) and Iomos Marad (All Natural) and several acclaimed 12” singles featuring local Chicago emcees paired with lyricists from London. All of a sudden, people started flocking to Rogers Park to see Copperpot deejay, which was good. Fans would walk into the bar saying things like, “Hey man, I am going to sit right here and watch you deejay,” which was not so good. While Copperpot was infinitely grateful that people wanted to listen to his music and deejay stylings, being onstage still scared the heehaw out of him.

Now, with his sophomore album, WYLA?, Copperpot has chosen to stray from the bedroom producer style that had been his forte thus far. Instead, Pot has enlisted musicians to come in and play. Enter Matthew Lux, a bassist and member of the experimental group Isotope 217 and part of the Thrill Jockey collective in Chicago. Lux called upon a slew artists from all over Chicago to aid in the creating of WYLA?, most notably, Jeff Parker and Dan Bitney, members of the heavy Chicago indie group Tortoise and Josh Abrams (The Roots ‘Organix’). Copperpot commenced a “Henry Mancini type of hip hop production” with the musicians adding an element that Copperpot now deems as being vital to his sound - the skilled element! Being an autodidact with no musical training, Copperpot began to be very cognizant of his limitations and working with musicians has allowed him to expand boundaries and get the ideas in his head on to tape (or into a computer!)
Copperpot has recently ended his three-year long weekly residency at The Morseland and now deejays once a month in NYC at a small lounge called Shebeen in Soho. He still gets nervous about performing, but pooping in your pants once a month is better than doing it every week.