Categories
MAGNET EXCLUSIVE

MAGNET Exclusive: Premiere Of Stephen Chopek’s “Unspoken Hopes”

We’ll get this out of the way up front: Stephen Chopek has played drums for the likes of Jesse Malin, Charlie Hunter, John Mayer, Soul Coughing’s Mike Doughty and the Sharp Things. So, yes, his résumé is more impressive than yours.

But Chopek is a solo artist as well. “Solo” as in he plays all the instruments on the music he records and issues under his own name. Following 2o18’s Begin The Glimmer and last year’s Songs Of Shane, Vol. 1 EP (a collection of Pogues covers), Chopek spent tons of time touring in support of each record. But by the end, he was ready to get off the road and adjourn to his Memphis home studio to work on some new music. The pandemic only sealed the deal.

Thus far, Chopek has released two singles in 2020: “Cherokee Arms” (in March) and “With Every Love Lost” (in August). Tomorrow brings with it a third, “Unspoken Hopes.” It’s out on the Declared Goods label, which also plans to release a new EP from Chopek next year. “Unspoken Hopes” is the perfect song to help say goodbye to this worst of years.

“There’s only so long that you can ignore intuition,” says Chopek, who moved from his native New Jersey to Memphis in 2014. “Recurring ideas, plans and dreams have a way of finding their way out the unconscious mind and into waking life. ‘Unspoken Hopes’ is about your inner voice manifesting itself into reality through repetition. This song deals with leaving 2020 behind and allowing our instincts to guide us into the future.”

We’re proud to premiere “Unspoken Hopes”—and leave 2020 behind—today at MAGNET. Check it out right here, right now.