Sugarshack Sessions inspire artists to put themselves out there and give fans a new appreciation for their favorite musicians
Photo courtesy of Eddie Kopp.
Dailyreggae.com spoke with Sugarshack Sessions Founder, Eddie Kopp to learn about the creation of the Sugarshack Music Channel, Eddie’s creative philosophy mixing storytelling and live performances, and how his backyard in Bonita Springs, Florida has become a mandatory stop for musicians across genres including reggae.
We love Sugarshack Sessions and the Sugarshack Music Channel! All your live performances and docuseries are incredible! When did your interest in film and live music first begin?
I started filming in college in the wakeboard and skateboarding scene here in Florida. I picked up a GoPro and a buddy’s handy cam and fell in love with it.
I took a chance on a video edit on Windows Movie Maker back in ’05. I made a friend of mine a wakeboard edit and he got sponsored from that video and from there we built up our skills. His riding skills and my filming and editing skills.
I’ve been playing drums in bands since elementary school and in high school, I started joining rock bands and punk bands. I went to college in a country, pop-rock band, and took that with me to school.
I was always the guy taking photos on my flip phone and had a natural knack for photography, composition, and film. No formal training at all; I attribute all my skills to YouTube and studying all the knowledge you can find there. I’ve been learning from others and teaching myself along the way to fine-tune my skills.
It all started when I was in a band myself. I still play in a band now. For the first few years of Sugarschack, I wasn’t in a band, because it was my main focus but as of the last year I’ve started playing in a band again and finding a balance.
I’m still that guy in the bamboo with a camera now obviously!
That’s so rad! And what’s the name of your band?
They have a great Sugarshack Sessions up!
I wasn’t in the band when Sprout did Sessions. Sprout has been a project with the lead singer, Corey Neilsen, for a long time. He’s been a good friend of mine since the beginning of Sugarshack.
In the first few years, it was a different lineup, but he did do sessions with us. Since then it’s changed and I’ve joined the band. We did a Sugarshack One Take recently. That’s kind of like our first debut with the current lineup. I’m hyped on the band and the music that Corey and Jake are writing. I’m pumped for everyone to hear it.
How did it feel to be on the other side of the camera?
(Laughs) It was weird.
Was your director’s mind going on when you were playing?
Yeah, totally. It’s funny because One Takes are kind of my baby. Having that experience on stage with bands and knowing that energy up there. I feel natural being there with a camera and under that pressure. It’s a lot of situational awareness with one takes. It’s super high risk and pressure.
They are so captivating when you nail them. It was cool, Justin Kaczmarek, my right-hand man on the team, and the whole team was at Jannus that night here in Florida for the KBong show that Sprout played.
Everyone was there filming the show and Justin just felt inclined to get on stage. He was like I couldn’t help it, I had to get up on stage. It wasn’t even really planned. Justin came out with a one-take rig and went for it. I kind of caught him out of my peripherals and was thinking oh shit here we go!
They are really cool! Do you remember, was there a particular moment or night where the idea for Sugarshack came to you?
Kind of. I’ve said this before in past interviews. A huge inspiration was Mike Love’s Permanent Holiday on HI*Sessions. At the time the band that I was in that I thought was going to take off was crumbling. And it happens in bands. Bands are tough. I was going through this weird almost break-up vibe with my band and I caught that HI*Sessions and I saw that he was performing in a dining room. It may have been one of the first times I saw Mike Love play live in a quality video. It was captivating.
I had done one video with a local band, Soflo, on my back deck where we shoot the sessions. It’s right behind me, I’m sitting here now. It was for one of their music videos. It was right when I moved into this house. So I’d seen the Mike Love video and had seen the composition of the band sitting on the deck and it kind of clicked. I thought maybe I can do this for every band.
I’ve always had a love for acoustic sessions, whether it was MTV Unplugged when I was a kid, or when bands do acoustic EPs. Even punk bands in high school would do punk goes pop. I loved the acoustic sound.
I just kind of ran with it (laughs). I started with local bands like Sprout and started assembling a team around me of people that are super talented on cameras, audio, and all the little components that I can’t do or am not good at. Everybody brings something to the table and has trusted in the process.
From day one during the first session, something special clicked. Everyone was like ok this is cool. Let’s put our time into this and see what we can do.
Yeah, and going back through your early videos, it’s amazing how good the quality is.
I guess considering at the time they’re great. I appreciate that. We were shooting on kit lenses with Cannon 70s and 5D Mark Twos. We barely knew what shutter speed was or white balance. It’s so funny looking back but we did it!
People ask me how to get started and I tell them just start. Just put yourself out there, trust in yourself and just do it. That’s what we did. We put ourselves out there, took a chance on a lot of artists, and keep trying to improve as we go. It’s been an awesome journey.
Now is there a certain video or a point in time where things started to take off and you were thinking this is really starting to go somewhere and we’re gaining a following?
Yeah, I think when The Green showed up here. That was a sign that we could really push this and make it our careers. We all had day jobs whether it was at a restaurant or some of us worked at a print shop here in town. We all had jobs for maybe the first four or five years until the last guy on the team quit his job.
The Green that night was a huge indicator for us to push Sugarshack and try to book every band that comes to Florida. They came all the way from Hawaii. They trusted us and came to our space. They did five songs; one take each. It was awesome and those videos will live on forever. They are still some of our top played videos and we’ll definitely cherish those. That’s a serious memory for us and a serious milestone.
You have huge popularity in the reggae scene. Everyone in the American reggae scene knows Sugarshack. Was that an initial intent of yours to go a lot down the reggae route? I know you do a lot of other kinds of genres as well. Or was that kind of happenstance because you like reggae or were they bands you knew?
All of the above. We never intended to be a reggae channel. Reggae just took us in with open arms. And obviously the aesthetic works. The Florida lifestyle and backstop.
We intended for the channel to be a music channel. Our doors are open to everybody. There are metal bands that I want to get here that I think would be cool.
Laughs. On like an eight-string acoustic guitar.
We’d be down! I want to get A Day to Remember here; I think they’d make a sick session.
Yeah, they are a Florida band! That would be sick.
Yeah, right up the road.
The band I was in right before Sugarshack was a modern American reggae band. I had been playing the Florida circuit opening for bands like Tribal Seeds, Passafire, and The Hip Abduction. My band was in that scene already and had made a network with all the bands that tour in Florida. That was my go-to when I was trying to book bands from the gate. Those were our first picks because they were accessible.
We needed to build a foundation. We needed to build a library so that we could expand and get other genres to trust us. We’re still working on that. We have to stay true to our core and where we started and reggae will always be a big part of what we do.
And now especially since you have definitely a certain amount of clout, is there something you look for when you’re booking artists? Are you fans of them? Is there something that you look for in an artist where you’re like yeah they are a good fit for Sugarshack?
Yeah, I feel like that’s the golden question. It’s hard to put your finger on it. I always say first and foremost we need to see a band that’s giving it their all, putting themselves out there, and grinding.
This is full-time for nine of us now and it takes a lot for Sugarshack to do what we do. We don’t charge bands to come here, film sessions, and record with us.
Whether it’s touring, if they have a few records under their belt, or have somewhat of a following. We’ve had bands that have like a hundred monthly listeners but they are truly talented, so it kind of goes both ways. You kind of find a band that’s early on that has something special and if we can hear that spark then let’s go.
Or theirs a band like SOJA, who recently premiered on our channel, and have almost two million monthly followers on Spotify!
There’s a balance there. I handle all the bookings. Bands will reach out and I kind of sift through and find the ones that fit. There is a certain sound or aesthetic that we have on the channel too. It’s hard to explain but it’s palm trees and sunshine and crickets. I don’t know but it has to take a certain sound sometimes. I feel like the only way you’re going to grasp that is by listening to the channel. It’s curated and something that we’ve formulated over the years.
But like I said, our doors are open to all bands; it’s just a matter of bandwidth and what we can take on. We’re simultaneously balancing a full-scale media company doing commercial work as well. We try to do three sessions a month and find the best talent we can.
You’ve had so many artists on. Through all these performances whether it was something funny that happened or something memorable, are there any performances or moments that stand out in your mind?
The Movement. It’s a funny story because The Movement was a big one for us. I think there are only two sessions that I wasn’t able to attend and The Movement is one of my all-time favorite bands. So The Movement came to my house, my back deck and I wasn’t here for it. (Laughs)
Laughs.
This was like 2015 and it was before phones were really like they are today and I remember the guys had a shitty live stream up, so I could watch it. I was on a commercial gig up in Georgia. We have to pay our bills, so I had to be there and I think the booking came in last minute. I was like we cannot pass this up, you have to take this without me and they killed it. They are some of our staples for sure too. That was a standout moment and even though I wasn’t here, I was able to watch on my iPhone (laughs). So that one stands out.
We’ve had this band Dirty Bourbon River Show from New Orleans come a few times and they are just an animal. They are a lot of fun. They are New Orleans to the t and they were a lot of fun every time they came.
What’s the most fulfilling thing for you in your position at Sugarshack?
Oh, man. Nothing has made me happier than building this brand and channel with the team. I’m super blessed. It makes payroll for us every week; it’s unbelievable. I have to pinch myself sometimes to step back and think wow we’ve built this crazy machine. It’s providing a living now for this group of people and I still feel like we’re just getting started.
But yeah, happiness is number one. That bleeds into our content. We want to make uplifting content that the whole family can sit around and enjoy.
Recently you expanded into the podcast and docuseries space. What has the transition been like and do you have any big plans for the future?
The podcast was kind of a no-brainer. We have this platform; artists are coming to us. It just made sense. I feel like it was overdue. For podcasts, it boils down to finding a host and Bryce Ivie came into our lives through one of our commercial clients and as soon as I met him I knew he’d be the perfect fit.
I wanted a host who was from the outside and hadn’t been here since day one to give an unbiased perspective and fresh voice to the team. And to find someone that our audience would eventually fall in love with because that’s a big part of podcasts. The host has to be someone you want to listen to. Bryce has been knocking it out of the park so far. (Editor’s note: Subscribe here). I’m super happy that we got that going.
I love the docuseries work so much. We thrive in the live music space and being able to tell those narrative stories around musicians and live music is the best of both worlds for us. I’d love to put even more work into this area. We have one coming out this year that we’re super excited about.
Mixing storytelling with live performances is a golden recipe for Sugarshack.
