Interview Feature: From Clapton to Crashing RV's - The Capelle Story.

Australia is famous for a number of reasons; its annoyingly talented cricket team, Kangaroo’s, Koala Bears, and not forgetting the beloved wildlife warrior Steve Irwin. Above all of this though we should remember some of the exceptionally talented music acts to come out of the country. I spoke to Australian born producer and vocalist of multi cultural outfit Capelle, about what music influenced him growing up in a country that spawned acts such as; AC/DC, INXS, and Wolfmother. “Well, as with most people my parents were a huge influence in that respect. I used to play with my grandfathers old records, stuff like Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, BB King, Eric Clapton and growing up as a youngster I was really into N.W.A [A Californian rap group]. When I was eleven or twelve I had a friend give me a mixtape of N.W.A and I loved it so much that I went to buy the latest album. However, the lady behind the counter wouldn’t let me have it because I was to young! So I turned to the Terminator 2 soundtrack and on there was Guns n Roses – You Could Be Mine and I’ve been a Guns and Roses fan ever since”.

Like anyone Nick’s influences changed and developed as he got older, the pendulum sung as he listened to more rock inspired music so inevitably the gangster rap took a back seat. Nonetheless, I’m sure you know as well as I do that everyone’s musical influences change during their lifetime – and this doesn’t mean we are all going to be music artists. I was very curious to find out at what point Nick felt the influences steered him towards a career in one of the toughest industries out there. “Well, I can actually remember the moment that happened. I was in my twenties and I’d entered into a competition called Nescafe Big Break and it allows young people to focus on what it is they love doing. There are all sorts of people there, inventors, scientists, people who are starting businesses. The winners of the competition get a £20,000 grant and I was one of the first artists to get that grant. That was the moment I thought I could really do this. As much as I loved playing music I just couldn’t see it as a viable option, so when I got the grant it really changed everything for me. I haven’t looked back since”.


So with the beginnings of a career on the horizon and £20,000 better off, were Nick’s days as a producer well and truly over and fully focused on creating a band or was he partial to producing the odd record now and again? “Well, I produce and record all the Capelle records and I’ve done loads of stuff in the past as a producer mainly in Sydney, Australia. Yeah I mean I still get the time to work with other artists, I’m actually working with a Chicago artist called Amanda Baker and we’ve been doing lots of different stuff, we’ve just recorded a whole album together actually”.
With Capelle firmly in place and having ample time to produce other artists records does Nick feel the pressure to succeed as an artist and to one day not have to fall back on his producing skills. “I would be lying if I said no I don’t fell that sort of pressure, but I don’t feel it from an external sort of place, I tend to feel that from within myself because I’m very driven and determined. I don’t really feel the need to be famous or make shit loads of money, for me it’s more about the fact that the rest of the world will be able to hear and listen to my music. Without that I can’t just make music for my own satisfaction. I get a kick out of people listening to my music and saying, ‘wow, that inspires me’ or they listen to the production of the record and say ‘fuck, that is so cool the way the drums are done on that I’m going to reference that for my own music”.

It is clear from this that one of Nick’s and of course Capelle’s primary aims is not to make lots of money and get rich from the profession, but to inspire people to make music, enjoy life and get fulfilment listening to their records. This is an aim that featured heavily while making their forthcoming documentary; Capelle – All Roads Lead to America. A documentary that is a no holds bared, first hand account of the bands escapades whilst on tour across the United States. The highs, lows, and bar brawls are seen up close and personal, the aim being to give the outsider a raw and real view of what a band can and will get up to whilst on tour. “Well, it’s a wall to wall documentary where we travel from LA all the way to New York – so that’s over 8,000 miles, with five of us stuck in an RV truck. It is a documentary about a band and their journey, but I also think it’s more then that its about the people we met on the way. All the forgotten heroes, blues artists we jammed with and having to get your own gigs whilst other ones fell apart and were cancelled. The documentary sees the highs of having a great time and the genuine love for each other that we have as a band, then the lows of us having some hard times, not getting the gigs that we want and tempers flaring between the band members. There is actually a moment where I crash the RV into the side of a gas station! It was such an emotional rollercoaster and the feedback we are getting from people is that they absolutely love it. I think it’s rare that a band can do a documentary because there tends to be too much of the cliché rock n roll lifestyle, although there is some of that in this documentary…but I think there are really solid characters that you can genuinely fall in love with”.
Forthcoming in March 2012 the refreshing element to this documentary is that– what you see is what you get. As Nick puts it “When you go into a project like that you have to be real about it, I think you can’t really hide and edit out stuff you are afraid the public is going to see, if you’re going to do something like that, you’ve got to give it 100%”.


It looks as if, for now Nick’s dream of being an artist is taking off rapidly with a DVD, new album and tour in the pipeline – producing may just have to wait a little while.