The Divine Nine: Q & A with Shai Halperin of The Capitol Years
I suppose it would have sounded a tad less lo-fi had I not done that. But it had to be done.
ADAM: Listening to Meet Yr Acres, it's somewhat difficult to you imagine you bashing instruments apart onstage. But I take it that your former band Mastercaster was a pretty intense group, yes? Are you mellowing with age?
SHAI: Mastercaster was pretty intense, yes. Intense on every level. Intensely traumatic as well. We bashed a few things in our day, but it wasnt too out of hand. Like I said, nowadays we're not quite as mellow as you may think. The group is still loud and still pretty rock and roll. We ham it up. It's great. I get a bit disconcerted thinking people could possibly want to hear more off the record but it's simply not happening right now. It could happen soon. Or not.
Collectively we don't feel as comfortable quieting down, so for now we'll jump around and have fun. There were a couple of harmonica based quasi-country songs in the set, but they're closer to the backburner now than the front. Who wants people talking when they could be watching dumbfounded instead?
ADAM: OK, switching gears a bit, the world ends tomorrow and Ticketmaster has to recruit the house bands for Heaven and Hell. Who's playing where?
SHAI: OK, there's a whole lot of bands that could fit in both these big rooms.
In heaven, I wouldn't mind seeing Bob Dylan with the Band doing Basement Tapes stuff. Velvet Underground, the usual pantheon. Whoever it would be, I'd have to be on stage singing harmonies in the background. They'd have to turn around and say, "Hey kid, you're pretty good."
In hell, all the boy bands of course. Maybe Eve. She's from Philly, though, so I can't front. She just shouldn't ever try to actually sing.
ADAM: Finally, Shai, what's on the horizon for you and The Capitol Years?
SHAI: Looks like we're getting ready to record in some fashion or another. We need to get these new songs on tape and that's one of our higher priorities. We want to keep playing live as much as possible and getting a nice solid foundation here in Philadelphia. Possibly we'll augment the band with more players. That remains to be seen. It's all about the next record. It will be big.
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