There's prolific, and then there's Das Kapitans.
The band (recently mentioned in my artists to watch in 2022 post) create music on the heavier end of the spectrum, veering between outright thrashy punk and melodic rock, with some quite touching mellower moments. They have a great sense of humour and a totally honest DIY vibe, and their self-produced PR is always innovative but without seeming contrived. It would be easy for a band like this to descend into navel-gazing pretension, but there's no danger of this with Das Kapitans.
The band (Simon Bailey and Steve Potter, who formed the group near the end of 2020, and more recent recruit Lewis Smith, who now looks after drums) have met an incredible goal recently: to release an album every month in 2021. Each album has been presented differently, with a clear theme or unique twist. Take '10', for example: this was their tenth album of the year, has 10 songs, and clocks in at 10 minutes. Somehow, the guys have also managed to find time to create videos and other media to support those musical releases, and have set up a small Bandcamp-only DIY record label called Socks on Records.
The problem with this constant outpouring of creativity is that it can be hard to keep up. I'd been intending to write a post about Das Kapitans since around September last year, but every time I started to get some thoughts in order, they went and released yet another batch of songs. By my reckoning they put out 170 songs on their albums during the year. One hundred and seventy. And that doesn't even include the six-track live recording of their appearance on Peterborough's Doc Mason radio show, which they casually released in between albums 10 and 11; and a mini-release featuring a couple of Alkaline Trio covers.
It's really beyond me to be able to review this volume of material (but it's all worth a listen!) So instead, I thought I'd let Das Kapitans do the work by suggesting an interview. I was very happy when they agreed to answer my questions, and even happier when I heard their answers. So, with huge thanks to the guys for their time, here is the first ever Music Observer conversation:
MO: What or who inspired the idea of an album a month? Did you think you'd succeed?
Simon: It came from a comment either me or Steve made in January 2021, an off the cuff comment that we should make 12 albums in a year. I don’t know why but it never entered our minds that we couldn’t do it. How hard could it be to write and record 150+ songs in a year whilst working full time jobs ...
Steve: It was initially going to be a way of using up old songs, from before Fuzz and the Felts (our old band) and songs that were rejected as Fuzz and the Felts songs. That's why the first album is more of a collection of songs than an album as such. The decision to then write the rest of the albums from scratch was the key one, to keep it more interesting.
MO: What's your favourite of all those 2021 albums?
Simon: I am most proud of the acoustic album in May as that was totally out of my comfort zone, I couldn’t hide behind a fuzz pedal or distorted vocals. However the album I like the most for the collection of songs is album eight, 'Man on Fire'. It was written during a very hot July and you can hear how hot and irritated we were all through it!
Steve: For me, 'Man On Fire' is also the winner (at the moment). The writing goes back to my noisy, dirty punk rock roots. The song 'Bad Mood' was written by laying down some drums, hitting record and then making stuff up. It turned out pretty well.
Lewis: I can listen to the albums in a bit of a different way to Simon and Steve as I’ve had no input in their creation as I only joined later in the year. Album eight, for me is best of the bunch. It’s dark and mature; I feel like this is the point where Steve and Simon really started to believe in themselves and their ability to write and I think that shines through.
MO: It's my favourite album, too! What aspect of your music, and how it's developed this year, are you most proud of?
Simon: I think the ability to write so many songs over such a short space of time. I've been writing songs since I was about 15 but within that time there's been months and months of writer's block and a lack of ideas. Writing 12 albums in 12 months hasn’t given the writer's block any time to appear. I think even if we slow down a bit in the year ahead, the approach to song-writing will be the same to get the best out of us. I’d never written a whole album in 25 years, so to then be part of writing 12 in one year ... yeah, I’m pretty proud of that.
Steve: I’m proud that we’ve managed to make “our sound”. We’ve had a few messages suggesting other bands to us, saying “these remind me of you”. I've always been writing songs in bulk, and have probably 100s on old hard drives that will probably never see the light of day, but they were always a selection of songs, rather than anything written with consistency. Now we have consistency and our songs sound like our songs.
MO: Steve mentioned developing a Das Kapitans sound. You have a very DIY vibe - in the music and also particularly in terms of videos, merch, etc. Where does the inspiration come from?
Simon: I can't say I drew on any inspiration for this approach - it was what was needed from having a lack of funds available and a lack of time! The music is all very DIY and homemade, though, so to have that theme running through the merch, videos, etc. I think it helps us have an identity. To make 12 DIY albums and then spend £5k on a video might have been a bit strange and confusing!
Steve: I wouldn't want anyone else to be designing stuff for us. The essence of punk rock, and rock and roll in general, is DIY. Kids forming bands and playing gigs in their garages, spray painting t-shirts, designing their own flyers to hand out themselves ... This is exactly how it should be. It's fun, personal - the true spirit of punk rock.
Simon: Before 2021 that was an easy answer - performing, because I never really fully engaged in the recording process previously. I've had no choice in 2021 though. I've had to learn new skills, new terminology, etc., and it's been really enjoyable to learn. So it’s a close run thing now ... but I think performing still wins, just for that instant energy and immediate buzz you get on stage.
Steve: Love both. I love being sat down, coming up with a riff, and recording it, then two hours later having a song completed. I love sending that song to Simon and Lewis, and seeing whether it's good reaction or bad reaction. Performing live is a huge buzz. You feel 10 feet tall, and I feel like I become a different, far more confident, person - so what's not to love about that?
Lewis: I like the intricacies and tiny changes you can make and spend hours making when recording but playing live is what I live for, the buzz you get is like nothing else, whenever I've had breaks from playing it's the live shows that I yearn for.
Simon: Definitely the end of year celebration gig in Stamford in December. People jumping on stage, people singing the songs back to us, performing with our friends and collaborators from the year. It was a really special night.
Steve: I always like eating, so eating as normal is my pre-performance ritual.
Lewis: The only time I don’t enjoy eating is before being on stage, I can’t do it.
Simon: One of my biggest mistakes of 2021 was eating a giant burger on the way to our first ever live performance, an acoustic set on the Doc Mason show. It turns out giant burgers are not good for vocal performances! Apart from that, anything goes. We love food too much to start restricting what we have!
MO: What about afterwards - do you have a favourite post gig food?
Simon: A gig normally means a late night home and nothing says late night feast more than a bowl or two of cereals. Cold milk on bran flakes at 2am ... ... that's rock and roll.
MO: This may be a tough one, considering how much you've done this year! But what's been the highlight of 2021 for you?
Simon: As well as writing all the music this year we’ve tried to knock down some barriers between local bands and musicians - we're all trying to achieve the same thing so why not all work together. At that end of year gig in Stamford it felt like we had really achieved a small something with the amount of local musicians in the room all chatting away and getting on well.
Steve: We became close friends with the presenter of a radio show and podcast in Italy, and he did a two-hour end of year special show for us. In March, I wrote a song called 'Goodbye' which was my way of dealing with my father's death in the previous week. Danielle (from Italy), chose this song as one of his favourites because around the same time, a close friend of his passed away. He told us he used that song to help him deal with it, so that has to go down as the highlight of my year.
Lewis: Joining Simon and Steve! I get to hit things and spend time with really good mates playing music that I enjoy! What more could you ask for?
MO: And what are you most looking forward to in 2022?
Simon: The unknown of where we take this. The song-writing and recording hasn’t stopped so it’s exciting to see how we decide to release the new material and when. It definitely won’t be another 12 albums though!
Steve: Gigs, writing, gigs, recording, gigs ... And seeing where our music goes with full Lewis input.
Lewis: Having an input into the creative process. The focus last year for me was learning the songs and trying to get past the programmed drums to make them my own style.
Simon: During 2021 we used programmed drums in Logic on the Macs but we now have Lewis as full time drummer, so all drums will be real and played by a real human! Lewis will be writing the songs with us and adding his own drum parts so they will bring a new exciting dynamic to them and build on the song-writing of myself and Steve.
Steve: We'll be releasing less albums this year, so the songs we pick will be the very best ones, whereas before, we used 90% of the songs we were making.
MO: Just one more - can you sum up 2021 in five words?
Simon: If we take Das Kapitans out of the equation, 2021 was a pretty rubbish year ... ... but if I go with five words for a Kapitans year: fun, challenging, satisfying, community, fuzzy.
MO: Thank you!
The best, and most supportive, way to listen to Das Kapitans is by way of their Bandcamp page, where as well as finding their extensive back catalogue, you can buy a limited edition 29-track 'best of' CD!