Stewart Copeland on recording The Police’s ‘Synchronicity’: “We drove each other crazy”

It’s no secret that members of The Police have had their differences over the years. In a new interview, drummer Stewart Copeland opens up about just how bad things got during the recording of their final album, Synchronicity.

Copeland’s new book, Police Diaries, is out now, and he tells the New York Post the dysfunction in the band was so bad during the recording of their #1 album it felt like “hell on earth,” particularly when it came to working with Sting.

“It was a very uncomfortable place — and we drove each other crazy,” he says. “We now understand where all that tension came from. And in fact, given that understanding, I’m very grateful that we got as many as five albums out of Stingo, because by then … he had a very clear idea of how the arrangements should go.”

Copeland explains that when the band started out it was a collaborative effort. However, he says, “It became more and more compromise for him — and it got tougher and tougher for him to make those compromises.”

“The times when I came the closest to homicide, the times when it became absolutely critical that I choke the life out of this man, were when he would come over to me and tell me something about the hi-hat,” he says.

Copeland says that in the end, he and Sting simply had major differences when it came to making music.

“Sting was looking for a beautiful place, and to create something serene and moving and, dare I say, intellectual,” he explains. “For me, it’s about burning down the house — it’s a party.”