Capital Cities
Capital Cities have been enjoying huge success in America with the release of their single Safe & Sound and now the track is heading for the UK.
We caught up with Ryan Merchant to chat about the new track as well as the upcoming album A Tidal Wave Of Mystery.
- You are about to release your new single Safe & Sound here in the UK so what can fans expect from the new track?
It is an interesting track with a good mixture of many electronic elements; especially electronic dance beat, analogue synthesisers and then some organic instrumentation as well such as trumpet and guitar.
I suppose it is an alternative dance track in the sense that it is danceable but it is in the form of a song structure and it has interesting lyrics that tells a little story.
- The track has already done really well in the U.S. so you must be thrilled with the way that it has been received?
It is so exciting as this song has just been spreading around the world; it is number two right now on the top forty radio in the U.S. and it is number one in a couple of other countries. So it really amazing to see it spread like that.
- Congratulations are in order as the video for the new track won at the VMAs.
Thank you. We were really excited to get a VMA; we got it for Best Visual Effects. That was cool because the company that worked on it are an amazing visual effects house from Los Angles and they did it for a low rate for us. They did a really good job, so it is awesome.
- I wanted to talk to you about the video for the tack as it has a great concept and looks fantastic. I wondered how much input you had into it?
We definitely had a say in the concept. It was loosely based off of this video we put out when we first put out Safe & Sound almost two years ago.
We had no budget and we basically pulled a load of footage from YouTube of war and dancing during the 20th Century and juxtaposed the two showing the progression of war and dancing; so each section of the song represented a different decade in the 20th Century.
That video was really interesting and people really like it; it really was this DIY thing that we just put out there. We eventually signed to Capitol Records and they loved that video but they felt that we needed to do something with higher production value so it could be shown on MTV and everything.
So a bunch of people came forward with a bunch of treatments; one person came with a treatment that was based off of our original video. But instead of having war and dancing they thought it would be cool to have the two of us learning the dance in different styles and pasting our heads on different dancers.
But that director ended up being unable to do the video, but another director got involved and it took on a life of its own and became this crazy special effects video. So it was very much inspired by a video that we put together in the early days. We, of course, have a lot of input on every creative decision.
- This track has been lifted off the upcoming album In A Tidal Wave of Mystery so how does this track introduce us to the rest of that record?
Something that has become a signature of our sound is a mixture of very synthy elements; we use this really cool synthesiser called the Roland Juno 106 and it is the centre piece of our album. We first used it on Safe & Sound and after we had produced that song we started using it on every song.
Also Safe & Sound was the first song where we recorded trumpet; from then on we decided that we loved the trumpet and we had found this amazing trumpet player so we have utilised that on a lot of other songs. The synthesiser and the trumpet are found on a lot of other songs but stylistically the other songs do not sound like carbon copies of Safe & Sound.
You can hear a lot of different styles melted into there such as jazz influences, more rock elements and hip hop; so it is a bit more eclectic. But there is a sonic and a melodic foundation.
- You have produced the album yourselves, so why did you decide not to bring an external producer on board?
We produced Safe & Sound ourselves because we didn’t really have the budget to bring in an outside person. We have both been producing music for a long time and so we both felt capable of producing it.
We put the song out and then we put out our initial EP on the internet and people were responding to and so we thought we had figured out a sound on out own so why screw with it? We have tested out bringing in an outside mixer to mix something and a lot of the times you have high expectations but it doesn’t work out the way you want it to.
- When you are doing it yourself you do have more musical and artistic control then you would if you were constrained by a producer. So how much is that an element that you enjoy?
That is definitely part of it. It is just nice being able to do something in your own little studio where you are comfortable; you can just sit there for hours and you don’t have to worry about someone’s time.
You get whatever you put in to it. It really is just Sebu and I sat in a room for many hours. We love working that way as well.
- Andre 3000 is just one of the artists that features on the new record so how did that collaboration come about?
That is on a song called Farrah Fawcett Hair and that is our most experimental and wacky tune. It is all about the things in life that Sebu and I would think to be undeniably good. We would list off Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Farrah Fawcett hair, Daniel Day Lewis; the pinnacle of all of these different genres of things in the world.
We were thinking about who is the most undeniably good hip-hop artist, and the first person that came to both of our minds was Andre 3000. We had this section of the song where we thought it would be cool to have a hip-hop feature.
Our manager actually reached out to Andre as our manger had worked in the hip-hop world before and so knows a lot of people. He sent the tune to Andre and he really loved it and said ‘I would love to be on it.’
We had a back and forth internet/phone process with him where he recorded his verse in Atlanta and sent it to us. We would then give him a little bit of feedback and he re-recorded it and added some stuff to it. We went back and forth until we were happy. The next thing you know we have got Andre on the track.
- And how have you been finding the response to the album so far?
From what I can see on the internet, I read reviews, and people seem to be happy with it. Having heard Safe & Sound and then listened to more of our music, they seem satisfied with what we have put out.
When Sebu and I write music we are thinking first and foremost is ‘are we actually writing songs that we are going to enjoy performing and listening to?’ I think that we have achieved that. When I listen to the album I feel very proud of it and I can listen to it in the car and not criticise it and pull it apart.
- You released Capital Cities EP back in 2011 so how do you feel that you have developed as writers and musicians from that EP to this album?
Well a lot of the songs from that EP have mad it on to the album; the album is a kind of continuation of that EP and that sound. We started to get a little bit - in the case of Farrah Fawcett Hair - we got a little more experimental and recorded more live drums for that song.
I guess we have gone a little bit more outside the box with some of the songs for the album; but a lot of those songs we were writing while we wrote the EP. So they are older songs that we were album to finish for the EP.
- You are over in the UK at the moment so what are you going to be up to while you are here?
Well we are playing one show tonight at the XOYO and that is about it. We literally got in about an hour ago so we are doing some press and then we are going to do a sound check and then do the show. We will be heading back to the States tomorrow.
- So how did the pair of you meet and the band get started?
Sebu and I met back in 2008 through an online classifieds website and I was looking for someone to help me produce some songs. He had placed an ad offering his music production services. I responded and we got together to start working on some of my songs.
We instantly had a very positive musical chemistry where it was very easy to work and work on ideas. Soon afterwards we started working on jingles; we did that for a couple of years. Then we started writing songs together before deciding that we really wanted to start a band.
- Finally, what is next for you?
Basically a bunch of touring. We are heading back to the States tomorrow before we have a very brief trip to Australia to play a couple of shows out there; it will be our first time over there.
Then we are deep into rehearsals as we are doing another U.S. tour that will start in mid October. In December we have a bunch of one off dates. Who knows what is going to happen in 2014, but I know that it is going be endless shows.