Joey Cape: A Lonesome Gimme in the Land of Oz
Joey Cape wears many hats.
He is arguably most well known as vocalist and songwriter for So-Cal punk band Lagwagon, but his artistic reach goes much farther – Accomplished acoustic solo artist, founder of his own label, One Week Records, guitarist for Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and let’s face it, contender for the nicest guy in punk rock.
He is back in Australia next week, on tour with the Gimmes, but he has also put aside some time to connect with his personal fanbase through a series of intimate acoustic shows.
Cape was last in Australia with Lagwagon at the very start of the pandemic; with the tour cut short due to looming government restrictions on public gatherings. “That tour was wild” laughs Cape. “Every day it was like, should we leave?.. I feel like we should leave… Maybe we should leave! Every morning we would meet about this time, in the lobby of a hotel and we would have a band/crew meeting, and half the guys would be like Nah man let’s see it through, we can do this! And the other half were like no, this is crazy, we should fucking get the hell outta here! I think Brisbane was the last show, but i don’t know – I know Adelaide was meant to be the last show but we didn’t end up playing that one, because the capacities were getting lowered every day by the government, you know. And then finally, in Adelaide, they were like We can do 100 people, and we will like Oh hell, it’s just one more show, let’s do it! Then on the final day they said Well, you can go to Adelaide, but you can only have 10 people” he laughs. So, we flew home on this impromptu flight. It was kinda nuts, man! Then we got home, and I swear, a day later they closed the airports! We were almost Australians for a while. I was thinking about that, you know – I have good friends there, good mates, but you can wear out your welcome at some point. Could you imagine if it had gone that way like Yeah, I’ll just be here for a little while… like one or two years”.
During the drawn-out lockdown throughout the U.S., Cape released his sixth solo record, aptly titled A Good Year to Forget, which takes a magnifying glass to some of his most personal subject matter to date, including love, loss, isolation, and the breakdown of a family unit, delivered in a raw, visceral way that both delights and saddens simultaneously.
“I made a record during the pandemic in a small room, by myself, and I played all the instruments and everything” He explains. “It was an interesting experience, like, I didn’t have anywhere to go, so I just made music. I couldn’t get together with any friends or colleagues to work on different instrumentation, so I just ended up playing it all myself. That seems like a decade ago now, but I only did it in 2020.”
Playing, recording, and producing an album in isolation is D.I.Y. in the truest sense of the term, but surely it comes with its own set of drawbacks? “It was fun, you know”, chuckles Cape. “I started as a drummer, and I’ve played bass, and guitar, and I can barely play keyboards, but I can fake my way through it. So, the limitations were annoying, but in the end there’s something kind of special about only playing to your ability; you have to keep it simple. I think everybody was looking for something to do during lockdown, and for me I spent months reading and trying to build birdhouses and learning crazy shit, and one day I just went Hey, you’re a musician, just make music; what are you doing?”
As we mentioned already, Joey will be playing his own solo acoustic shows on alternate nights while on tour with Me First and The Gimme Gimmes. If you don’t know about the Gimme Gimmes, they’re a punk rock supergroup comprised of members from other noteworthy punk bands, who play primarily and the line-up changes constantly, depending on who is available at the time.
Vocalist Spike Slawson (Swingin’ Utters) is the only constant member to tour for the entirety of their 28 year run, with Joey Cape only missing a handful of tours throughout the years. This time they bring C.J. Ramone (The Ramones) on bass, John Reis (Rocket From The Crypt) on guitar, and Andrew “Pinch” Pinching (The Damned) on drums. “This is the kind of band that can have a bit of a fraternity feel to it as long as the dudes have been in some band and have some kind of reputation that they will be able to bring people to the “cover band” show. It kind of works on different levels; John Reis is a legend, and C.J. was in The Ramones, and Pinch was in the damned – these are not novice guys, they’ve done a lot and they’re great players! But yeah, C.J., and John, and pinch; they’re great guys.”
“It’s interesting, they’re on tour right now in California, and I went and saw them in Los Angeles two nights ago. It was funny watching them; I was standing there in the audience watching the show, and they sounded awesome, and I was looking up there and I was a little jealous – it kind of felt weird, and then there were these kids in the crowd, kind of looking over at me, staring at me for a while and realising that I had this I have this great beard now, so it took them awhile, but people started asking me Why aren’t you up there?, what’s going on? I’ve gotta say it was kind of the best. It was kind of amazing, I was like I don’t know, just checking it out from here. But it’s a trip. They’ve done a lot of shows without me these days, but the Australian one, think I committed to a long time ago, so I was lucky enough to be on it.”
So what are Australian audiences in for when the band land on our golden shores in February? “It’s been a long time since the original band played a song together, like a really long time, like maybe over a decade, or 15 years. The line-up that played on the records stopped doing tours a long, long time ago, so we’ve had all these different people, and I just kind of look at it as Spikes vehicle – like, I’ll get in there every now and then, every once in a while, and have a blast! But it’s fine, it’s a clown car. I’ll get in that clown car with the Aussies, hell yeah! But… you asked about the set, and like usual I’m such a spaz, I just went off on a long tangent. The answer is: I don’t know. Spike’s been sending me these songs saying you have to learn this and you’ll have to learn that because I haven’t played with them for a while, and they’ve got a bunch of new material that they’re doing, so I have some songs to learn. No problem, no pressure.
“You know, when I watched them the other night, they opened with this song that we’ve never played, and it was killer, but I can’t say what it was because I think it needs to be a surprise! It needs to be a bit of a surprise, and again I almost feel like a hired gun, I don’t want to get in trouble, but it sounded so good, and I’m sitting there watching them thinking Ahh fuck, I gotta learn this song, and this looks difficult. And that’s the thing about this band, none of the songs are that difficult – there might be interesting chord progressions at times, but the thing about that band is it’s just straightforward rock and roll, but one of the songs he sent me to learn I had never heard in my entire life which is tricky, because with the Gimmes, they’re old standard covers like something like Olivia Newton John that you’ve heard your entire life and you’re like I don’t even have to learn it, I know in my head how these chords go, so there’s a couple of tricky things in there, but the good news is, if you just pay attention you can just watch me in the corner making mistakes and laughing. That’s my charm I keep it real for the guys, that’s my gig.”
So what can we expect from this series of solo shows?
“I’ll probably play a lot of material off [A Good Year To Forget], but it’s just not quite the same. The thing is, that I never really tour with a full band – I’ve only done it a couple of times, because I can’t afford it – I don’t get paid that well to play solo shows, especially coming to Australia, it’s like trying to facilitate for four other guys or more, it’s just not possible, so I always just play by myself…
Sometimes it just makes sense to bring an acoustic, and just do your thing.”
