Fleetwood Mac always has influenced local rock outfit Striking Copper (SC). Stevie Nicks’ bewitching wardrobe and pied-piper-like vocals are reflected in the copperheaded twin leads of Jaquie Lee and Allie Donnelly. The solid roots rock is amplified from the band, Daniel Bennett (lead guitar), John Stewart (bass guitar) and Frank Cacciutto (drums). And there is even love connections aplenty: Allie and her husband, Matt (vocals, rhythm guitar) have been together for more than a decade, and Lee and Cacciutto were married recently.
“We try to honor Fleetwood Mac by bringing an element of them into whatever we do,” Allie tells.
Of course, sans the drama.
“Running to You” is SC’s newest single—a followup to their 2016 EP “Mirror”—and features the real-life love stories within the band, albeit with happier endings. “The song has been a long-time coming,” Matt says. “It’s easy to write love songs when there is inspiration all around us!”
Haunting harmonies—reminiscent from when the twins’ covered The Cranberries’ “Zombie” (free on CDBaby.com, Spotify and iTunes) earlier in the year—are as present as ever. Clean, polished sounds cascade with a slowly building acoustic guitar, followed by electric instrumentals offering respite at the end of each line sung. Listeners even can visualize the band members’ journey to North Carolina with the album art. A worn, crinkled letter lies underneath a Polaroid photo of a road long traveled.
Special guests Swim in the Wild will join the show on Saturday at Waterline Brewing, wherein SC will release “Running to You.” encore caught up with the two sisters and guitarist Matt to get the details.
encore (e): How did “Running to You” come to be?
Matt Donnelly (MD): A few years back I played the opening guitar lick for a fellow musician and family member, Jim Oliver, and we started writing lyrics for it. It was never finished, but I always had it in the back of my mind. I finally introduced what was written to the rest of the band and everyone was into it. After completing the song, I knew we had something really special.
e: Is this the first song of a larger project to come? Please explain.
Jacquie Lee (JL): Yes, we have plans to record two EPs. We’ve been working on a few new songs that will be played at the upcoming single release party and plan to continue the writing process until we have a variety of songs we feel embodies who we are as musicians and people.
e: Tell us about the recording process: Who did you work with and were there any specific goals in mind?
MD: Recording the song was great! Whenever we have intricate harmonies that need to be recorded, we always get the best results when we sing together. Being able to see each other and feed off of each other while singing helps us bring out our best performance. We recorded at Big Rude Recording and put our faith in them to capture what we were going for. Needless to say they nailed it and we are very proud and excited about the end result. Our goal was to make this song something people can relate to. We worked to capture the emotions of the story behind the song.
e: Tell us more about the album art.
Allie Donnelly (AD): There is something nostalgic about an old faded worn out piece of paper with a poem on it and a Polaroid. It makes you think of simpler times, and “Running to You” has that nostalgic feel. It’s a love story, for any time period, but the artwork represents the simplicity of that love at its most stripped down point. It makes it easy for the viewer to relate to and maybe bring back some great memories about a past love or a current one.
e: Tell us more about the release party and how fans can purchase the single.
JL: We love Waterline Brewing Company. They are always so supportive of local musicians and have become great friends of ours. We will be playing new songs we’ve been working on as well as songs off of our first album “Mirror.” The Charlotte band Swim In The Wild will be opening for us and we are really excited to have them! We will also be hosting a raffle to win limited edition merchandise! There will be three gift bags and anyone who shows up at the single release party will be eligible to enter! The single will be available for purchase as a digital download only for $.99 cents via iTunes, CD Baby, Amazon, etc. and can be streamed by almost all digital platforms, such as Spotify, YouTube, Google Play, etc.
e: Tell us more about Swim in the Wild and why you invited them.
JL: We met Swim In The Wild at the Carolina Jubilee, a two-day music and food festival dedicated to raising funds to support the Carolina Farm Trust in Harmony, NC. Their music is awesome, the band puts on a great, high-energy show and we felt they are the perfect fit for our single release party. We also wanted to introduce them to our local music community.
e: Anything else you’d like to add about the single or its release?
AD: We will be releasing a music video for this single within the next month or so. The premise of the music video is two people coming back together after a long time apart.
We wanted to film the video in downtown Wilmington because we love our town so much and felt like it was a perfect backdrop for the video. We also are really excited about it because we asked our friends/family/fans to be the actors in the video. We have the best support system here! When we reached out through Facebook, requesting if anyone wanted to be in our music video, we were shocked by how many people responded! We are so grateful for everyone who gave us their time and effort, and would just like to thank them for everything!
Shannon Rae Gentry 