Stewart Copeland grew up in the Middle East with a father who was in the CIA, went to college in California and in 1975 played drums in a progressive rock group called Curved Air. It was when this band broke up that he joined The Police, in which he gained publicity as a drummer.
While he was with The Police, he released a solo album entitled Music Madness from the Kinetic Kid under the name Klark Kent. At the time The Police broke up, Copeland had already made a name for himself as a film composer, earning a Golden Globe nomination for his score for Francis Ford Coppola's film Rumble Fish.
Copeland then focused on writing film scores, operas and ballets. After visiting Africa, he released an album entitled The Rhythmatist. He wrote the music for the television series The Equalizer and collaborated with artists such as Peter Gabriel and Mike Rutherford. He also lent his musical talent to productions by the San Francisco Ballet, the Cleveland Opera and Ballet Oklahoma.
In 1999, Copeland was asked to produce a song for Primus and in 2001 recorded an album with Les Claypool from Primus and Trey Anastasio from Phish in a band called Oysterhead.
In March of 2003, Copeland filed a $1 million breach of contract suit against a band called The Doors 21st Century after the band replaced him with another drummer, Ty Dennis. It was thought that Dennis would be a temporary replacement, but the group made it clear that it was permanent. The lawsuit was settled in June of 2003, but the terms of the agreement were not revealed.