Daily Discovery: Stephen Chopek, “Staying”

Stephen Chopek

Videos by American Songwriter

SONG: “Staying”

HOMETOWN: Rutherford, New Jersey

CURRENT LOCATION: Memphis, Tennessee

AMBITIONS: Continue to write songs and share them with the world.

TURN-OFFS: Mushy apples.

TURN-ONS: Roasted brussel sprouts.

DREAM GIG: Royal Albert Hall.

FAVORITE LYRIC: “And the silent night will shatter from the sounds inside my mind…” from “One Too Many Mornings” by Bob Dylan.

SONG I WISH I WROTE: “Johnny Appleseed” by Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros.

5 PEOPLE I’D MOST LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH: Billy Bragg, David Byrne, Jim Jarmusch, Rick Rubin, and Stephen Shore.

MY FAVORITE CONCERT EXPERIENCEI didn’t get to see The Replacements back in the day, but I did see Paul Westerberg on his first solo tour at Lupo’s in Providence, RI. He sounded great and his band was perfect.

I WROTE THIS SONG BECAUSE…As the opening line of the song says, “This is a portrait of a girl”. She and I met on a flight from Austin, TX to Newark, NJ. Our conversation was brief, but it was enough to provide the inspiration for a song. Shortly after I landed in New Jersey, there was a hurricane that took out the power in my apartment. This gave me the opportunity to spend plenty of time with my acoustic guitar. The song worked well “unplugged”, so that’s how I recorded it.