The Jeff Copperthite Biography

Jeff Copperthite was born on October 15, 1980 in Meriden, CT. He moved to Wallingford, CT at the age of 5 months, and lived in the same house for the first 21 years of his life. Jeff did not attain an interest in music until he was 11 years old. He grew up with a brother and a sister. His brother Scott owned a drum set, but other than that there was no "family" influence on Jeff.

His music teacher in middle school, Fred Rossomando, noticed one day that Jeff had "trombone arms", and recruited Jeff to play trombone for the band. He taught Jeff how to read music, and Jeff played the trombone throughout middle school. He briefly took lessons from Jim Friar on Trombone, but only for two months.

Jeff skipped a year of music-playing in high school and thought about giving up the trombone. However, by a stroke of luck Rossomando was hired to be the school's new music teacher Sophomore year. Jeff decided to give it another shot once he found out Rossomando was coming to the high school, and also taught himself over the summer of 1997 to play the bass guitar. Jeff joined Sheehan High School's jazz band as well as its concert band as a bassist/trombonist. He continued to play in all the music ensembles in school, including orchestra, chorus, jazz band, and even the pit bands for school musicals throughout his high school years.

Jeff was soon introduced to electronic music by buying a Yamaha PSR-320 keyboard for $400 of his allowance/office job money. He quickly learned how to work with MIDI on the computer, and started by transcribing music from the Playstation game "Final Fantasy Tactics" by ear. He would record the song off of the TV using a tape recorder, then piece together as many parts as his ear could pick up. He soon began using this talent for original music, and wrote instrumental songs inspired by his love of video game soundtracks. Only one song was written with lyrics and MIDI music, but it wasn't until 1998. This song "Roamer" became Jeff's first vocal song, although he didn't record it officially for another year.

In 1997, using money saved up from working at a local restaurant and the Wallingford town hall, Jeff purchased a Roland Stage electronic drum set, and appropriate gear for $2,000. His increasing interest in music encouraged him to begin using the drum set for drums in his MIDI songs. Jeff had used the set and keyboard to compose some more instrumental songs. He continued to play bass guitar in the jazz band, and in 1997 became the full time bassist for the band.

In the same year, Jeff joined a band at the request of his friend Dave Cosgrove. The band was called "Live Wire", and played covers and originals. However, due to scheduling conflicts Jeff left the band 4 months later. He did not contribute songs to the band, but did play 3 live shows with them.

In 1999, Jeff was approached by jazz band guitarist Scott Poglitsch to play some Dave Matthews band songs at the school's talent show, along with another friend Brian Howard. The three played two songs at the show in March, and were a hit with students that were at the show. Jeff also met Jim Fusco (fellow FM member/founder) a few months before while they were trying out for the school musical. That spring, Jim asked Jeff to help him do some music for an english class project on "Macbeth". Jeff helped Jim compose 5 songs using his electronic music setup, and was present when Jim presented the project. Fellow students were heard saying "Wait, you didn't go out and buy that music?"

A month later, Jeff was approached by Scott Poglitsch again to help on an english project for his class. Scott had written and recorded 3 songs with him on vocals and guitar on his 4 track recorder. Scott asked Jeff to record drums and bass tracks for them. The recorded songs were appreciated by Scott's class, and Scott asked Jeff if he wanted to join him in a studio forray to record other songs Scott had written. When undecided on a band name, the two were travelling to a local music store for microphones and recording equipment. They were following a car which had a license plate that read "QUILT". Since they had both got a laugh out of it, they went with that.

Quilt was popular among their friends, and they recorded 7 songs over the summer of 1999, after Scott and Jeff graduated high school. The first release was called "First Stitch", a play on the bands title. Scott recorded all vocals and guitars, while Jeff recorded drums and bass. The two played various graduation parties that summer as well as a guitar/bass duo.

Near the end of the summer, Jeff had written some music of his own. He borrowed Scott's recording equipment and recorded a solo EP, although only two copies of this EP remain. It was titled "Thoughts and dreams", and told the story of the beginning, middle, and end of a relationship. Songs from this EP that were later released on Quilt albums were "Waterfalls" and "Tonight". Jeff learned how to play guitar shortly before recording this album, and recorded all parts himself.

In 2000, both returned from school in the winter. Scott had written more songs, and the two spent three weeks during their break playing the songs and recording them. They re-recorded the 7 songs from "First Stitch" as well. Scott used bouncing techniques to record 2 guitar parts, and mastered 7 of the songs. However, it wasn't until 2001 when both set down to master the entire array of songs into another album. They labeled the 2nd album "Patchwork" since there were some songs that only had one guitar track instead of two. In all, the album had 17 songs, including classics "Meredith song", "All I Have to Be", "Everyone but me", "Spirits", and "Cleared".

Quilt came back into the studio/basement to record their first "live" album during Thanksgiving of 2001. They set up Scott's laptop which had an internal condenser microphone. Scott played acoustic guitar and sang on most tracks, but did play bass for one song. Jeff played bass for the rest of the songs and, according to the CD booklet, sang back-up vocals "whenever he feels like it". The CD was called "Thanks for Jamming" and was given to close friends. The band liked the live feel of the CD, and the banter that was rampant between each song.

The next winter break in 2001, Quilt decided to invest in higher end recording equipment given their maxing out the capabilities of a 4-track recorder. They bought a Zoom 10 track digital recorder, which added a vast number of recording possibilities. They put the recorder to quick use, recording an EP in less than a week of songs Scott wrote the previous year. The EP became "Blanket of Death", and was Scott Poglitsch's finest writing and guitar work to date. They also recorded another version of the "Meredith Song" on the day of purchase, but decided not to release it on the EP.

Quilt took a writing break for the next year and a half, but got together for jam sessions at regular intervals. In 2003, Jeff began to write some more songs, starting with a song inspired by a walk by Mirror Lake at the University of Connecticut. As the next final months of college came to a close and Jeff and Scott graduated, they sat down in the studio for a month to record Jeff's new written songs. Jeff wrote 11 songs, and they recorded 9 of them over the month of July. The end result was Quilt's 4th and most recent CD titled "Expressions", and was the first CD to feature songs written by Jeff. Scott supplies all the guitar parts, while Jeff contributes bass, vocals, drums, and keyboard tracks.

Scott went off to school in London, while Jeff continued to write songs throughout the next 3 years. While Jeff did not record many of the songs he wrote, he did keep them bound and played them once in a while. After encouragement from Scott and hearing some demos, Jeff decided to work on becoming a solo artist.

Jeff married his wife, Sherry, in July of 2004, and moved to Fairfield, CT officially. He set up his instruments and studio equipment in a room in their new apartment, but Jeff did not use it as much as he would've liked too. Jeff became a teacher in Greenwich, CT at a school called Westchester-Fairfield Hebrew Academy and taught math there for 2 years. It proved to be very busy and took up much of Jeff's time. This did not allow much time to record music, but Jeff did sit down to write songs from time to time. Jeff did end up recording 3 songs plus an instrumental, but has yet to release any of the songs from these sessions.

In 2007, after the purchase of a new condominium with his wife, Jeff set up his equipment in a dedicated room next to the garage. Jeff's new studio was quickly put to use and Jeff recorded a song he wrote a few months back called "Easy". After playing it on a radio show with Jim Fusco (whom Jeff had remained good friends with, via WCJM radio and the phone), Jeff was inspired again to record more of his writing, releasing his first ever solo album and the first album under the Fusco-Moore Productions name on February 24th, 2008. The album's name is "Greenlight", which symbolizes Jeff's recent resurgance in writing and recording music.

Jeff decided to join Fusco-Moore productions after Jim's invitation in September of 2007. He is excited about working under the FM name, and hopes this allows FM's music to be appreciated and heard by as many people as possible.