From Gothenburg, Sweden they may be, but you won't find a better classic, heartland American sound (a la Petty, Seger, and Southside Johnny) this side of 1978 than the marvellous Capricorn. New album 'For The Restless' is a record brimming with fun, sparky tunes full of vibrant vocal harmonies, sparkling guitars and head-shaking grooves guaranteed to please fans of that 70s radio-friendly rock sound. Frontman Kristoffer Ekberg took some time out and answered a few questions for BBMATB on the band, the album and swapping songs over on the record.
Capricorn are Kristoffer Ekberg (Guitar / Vocals), Peter Soderberg (Guitar), Pontus Blom (Bass) and Thomas Eriksson (Drums).
The 'Capricorn' single from 2019 and album 'Soul Engine' (2019) are available on all the major digital sites. New album 'For The Restless' is out now on Wild Kingdom Records and available on all the streaming and digital sites.
Hi Guys, thank you for taking some time to answer a few questions. First off, for those readers who might not be familiar with Capricorn, could you give a short history of the band?
Hi Simon, we're just glad to be of service. And thank you for the support! Well, it all started back in 2015, we all had been in different projects doing all kinds of stuff, but the thing that united us was a strong yearning for good time rock n' roll. We've released some digital singles throughout the years, and 2019 we released a "45" that we named "Capricorn". That same year we released our debut album ''Soul Engine'' on Can You Smell It Records. In 2022 we released our second album "For The Restless", this time on Wild Kingdom/Sound Pollution.
And who would you say were the main influences on Capricorn?
Well... The influences comes from all over the place basically. Detroit, New Jersey, Muscle Shoals... Early J Geils band, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Bob Seger, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Jackson Brown, a whole lot of soul music. And of course Rolling Stones, Faces and Little Feat. Well the list goes on...
You've a new album 'For The Restless' - recently released. Where did you record the album; somewhere you've recorded before? And did COVID hinder the recording and releasing of the album in any way?
We recorded the album at Studio Enheten. It's a studio run by the ever so talented Kalle Widén, he did a great job making us sound so good, bless his heart! This was the second time we recorded in that place, all the basic tracks for 'Soul Engine' was also cut there. I guess the recording process went pretty smooth despite COVID. We kinda kept it to our self and if anyone was feeling something coming down then we just postponed it until we were good to go again..
Do you have a favourite track (s) on the album and if so, why?
'Long Gone Heroes' and 'Hold On/Hold Out' are definitely tracks that I'm very fond of. 'Got To Go', 'It Ain't Me' and 'Rock N' Roll Congregation' are also tunes that put a smile on my face. Actually it's hard to pin point a favourite.. I wrote 'em so I guess I like them all =)
Were there any tracks that didn't make the cut for the album which we might get to hear at a later date?
Funny thing.. 'The Searcher' wasn't meant to be on the album, we had another song in mind "Can't Slow Down". That song was already recorded back in the day, and Thomas our drummer thought that there was nothing he could do that would make the song better than the old recording, so we ended up scrapping it from the playlist. It was now time to find another song to put on the album, so I showed the other guys this demo I had on my phone, It was 'The Searcher'. They loved it and about an hour later it was recorded, true story!
How do you feel 'For The Restless' differs from your previous album, 2019's 'Soul Engine'?
The difference is that I wrote the songs on 'Soul Engine' over a long period of time. Some of them were already in our live set. And we learned the songs by meticulously rehearsing them. On this one I wrote the songs, arranged them with our bass player/producer Pontus Blom, and then we started to make demos of each song. That gave us a better idea of what was good and what was not.
'For The Restless' has been released on the Wild Kingdom record label - how did you come to be involved with them?
Both Pontus (our bass player) and I played on the late but ever so great Robert Strängen Dahlqvists (The Hellacopters, Dundertåget, Thunder Express) record "Rock På Svenska", and we also played on the tribute gigs at Debaser in Stockholm and Sweden Rock Festival. Wild Kingdom was the label behind all that, and when it came time to finishing up "For The Restless" it felt natural to contact Calle Schewen at Wild Kingdom to see if they were interested in going full circle, and they felt exactly like we did. It felt natural for the both of us to do this.
In terms of live shows, do you have any in the pipeline that people can come and catch you at?
We did a bunch of shows around the release of the album and we got a lot of cool things coming up, but due to the whole "two years of postponed gigs situation" we're not sure when it will happen, fingers crossed tho'!
What have been the highlights for Capricorn since you first got together back in 2015?
There's always highlights and great things happening along the way, but being signed to Wild Kingdom, the recording of 'For The Restless', and all the great reviews that's been coming in since the release of the album. Those are BIG highlights for sure!
Do you think there is a good music scene in Sweden at the moment? Any particular bands from Sweden that you'd recommend to readers?
The music scene in Sweden is alive and well, a lot of great bands out there making a name for themselves. People need to check out Beat City Tubeworks, a great rock n' roll band. Freedom is another great band that comes from these parts. If you're looking for something a bit thrashier, then you definitely need to check out Warfect, Thrash at it's best!
And finally, what plans for Capricorn going forward in 2022?
Well the plans for 2022 is basically supporting the album live as much as possible. There's also a lot of new music in the making so maybe we hit the studio again later this year..
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