Madcap

Yeah, this time its true [laughs].

I think they share the same vision that we have about where we want to go with our music. Side One was a good label, its just time for a change. I’m glad we made that change because I think Victory Records is definitely the place we want to be as far as a label goes. They’re a great label and they really got it together.

No I think we just both decided to go our separate ways.

[laughs] No its not on purpose, I think when a band gets up on stage there’s also fashion to it. You’re also selling yourself and I just started wearing a suit jacket and ties a while back. The other guys just jumped on it too and now it’s just kind of become our look.

Yeah I’m the main songwriter. What will happen is I’ll get the lyrics and what I want to write about. Then I’ll get the main chords going, then I bring it to them and from there we become a creative force. Everybody just puts their input into it and then it really becomes a song.

The band is more together now than we’ve ever been. We’ve had some problems in the band, we’ve been through band members, people not getting along and for the first time ever we’re totally all on the same level. We all get along with each other. It’s total unity right now. I mean it’s hard to spend 24 hours a day and be on tour and not have someone get on your nerves. But that’s expected and we all try to give each other our space. We’re a machine right now. We want to support this album the best that we can. We’re so into the album, we poured our hearts into it.

There is a theme to the album, it’s all about watching out, we’re in an unstable society right now and I thought that I could make it apply to what is going on in the world. But also be ambiguous with it and make it so that you could apply it to a relationship or a co-worker or someone you don’t like. Everyone is under suspicion in the world.

That was set up through our producer, a guy named Captain Ted Hutt, great producer. He actually knew all of the Wallflowers and I really wanted some organ down on a few tracks. I’m a Wallflowers fan so I knew that would be awesome. So we set up a meeting and I got to know the guy and I explained to him our situation and what we were all about and he was into it.

Yeah we were friends before we were even on Victory Records. We went on tour with those guys and they’re just awesome, great players, so it seemed right. I tried to make the album diverse. On our previous albums it’s all kind of the same formula, kind of the street sound. So for this album I’ve been listening to so many different artists and just kind of wanted something different.

We were trying to break away from the whole punk rock, street sound thing. I feel that punk rock is more of an ego than it is a sound, I mean it’s a way of living. It’s what you think about things and it doesn’t really have to do with sound and we were getting stuck in that rut and getting compared to a lot of contemporary bands at the time. They may be bands that I love, but I don’t necessarily want to be compared to them. I want to make a sound that’s all our own and that’s what I tried to do on this album.

Well yeah [laughs].

Even the smaller bands. When bands just start out they’re going to go with whatever is going on at the time and it just becomes this big circle, going around and around and around. When I first started listening to punk, I heard Minor Threat and I was blown away from the intensity of it. Then after a while I started to hear all these other bands and I started noticing that they were all sounding kind of like Minor Threat. It’s very easy to get caught up in that because the music is so good. I think punk rock is just a great style, they’re easy songs to write and it’s easy to get your point across in them. But in the last 2 years I’ve been listening to so many different kinds of artists, early rock and roll, early soul, Otis Redding, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and Elvis Costello. I listen to all that stuff now. I just see that there’s so much room to do other things.

Not really. It all comes down really to what you’re influenced by, how you feel about things and that’s going to come through in your music. I don’t really think it matters where you’re from. I know that east coast tends to be a lot more real and a lot more rugged because of the weather they go through.

Well yeah that was way back early in our career. This one time I threw a show with this one band called Spinal Conflict from Orange County. They were pretty big so I thought well I can get them and I can get us; it’ll be a good show. But the club wouldn’t let me have it unless we got an official promoter, someone they’d worked with. Well we put on the show and it did great and at the end of the night the promoter ran off with all the money. I can look back and laugh about it now but at the time…

Yeah we were coming home from a tour with Simple Plan at the time. We were just on our way home and we drove into New York City. It was cold and there was snow. So we stopped at our favorite pizza place and by the time we got out the van was covered in snow. It was probably the worst two days of my life. At the end of a tour you just want to get home. You don’t really want to be stuck in the snow but I told everybody, I was like “We are going home, We are getting out of here” so we didn’t stop, we got through it.

I grew up in Glendale, California.

I was the typical troublemaker. Not conforming to anything, wanting to be myself and I got kicked out of a couple high schools.

I was just stupid. It was nothing really in particular, just trouble. They could just sense that I was trouble. They just didn’t want me there but I was glad. I had an older brother that was always pumping the Rolling Stones through my wall in my room. He wouldn’t let me into his room so I would always put my ear up against the wall and listen to him play the Rolling Stones.

He’s still around. He’s way into our band and I’m actually introducing him to bands he hasn’t heard of just from me meeting them.

We’re doing six dates with a band called Mest. They’re a Chicago band. We’ve actually toured with them before. They were going out so I gave them a call and said hey man; I’d love to go out with you guys again. We’re going to do that first and then we’re going a tour with a band called Digger who’s on Hopeless Records and that’ll take us all the way up to March and we’re still working on what’s going on from there, but you can pretty much bet that Madcap is going to be on tour this whole year.

My favorite place to play is New York City, by far.

For some reason the kids are really receptive to us out there. Our best shows have definitely been there. I wouldn’t mind moving there myself. I’m a city boy. I like the action and the lights. First time I went to New York City my jaw dropped. I like going there to visit and I like going there to play so it becomes an all around great place to be.

As well as being legendary they are great guys and a great band to tour with. I love their music, it’s very real, and it’s got a lot of heart.

[laughs] God, I’d have to say that nothing beats a good chocolate bar.

I don’t really have a favorite one. I guess it’s kind of like wine; the more expensive it is the better it is.

Yeah I do, I have a small tattoo on the bottom of my right wrist. It’s a broken heart and it says true believer.

I got that actually when we went out with Bouncing Souls for the True Believers tour. Bouncing Souls is just one of my favorite bands ever and when I found out we were touring with them I was nervous, but I was just so excited because it was music I grew up listening to. We were in Houston, Texas and I felt like I’ve got to do something to remember this forever. It’s a cool tattoo. I’m not really into tattoos, I never really wanted one and this is the last one I’m probably ever going to get so it means great deal to me.

God, I think we’re all huge pain in the asses.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck