by Alex Sansalone
photo by Mark Maryanovich
This past weekend, I had the utmost pleasure of interviewing folk musician Ben Caplan. Earlier this fall Caplan and his band, the Casual Smokers, released his sophomore album Birds With Broken Wings. We discussed both the album and his early inspirations that led him to making the music he does today. Since Caplan was in Canada for the time of our scheduled interview, our conversation was via phone.
Caplan was born in Hamilton, the Canadian city in the province of Ontario and now resides in Halifax.
“I listened to a lot of music growing up. I had three older brothers who were really into music. I remember as a kid getting ready for school and hearing Pink Floyd and Phish blaring on my brothers’ stereos. I picked up the guitar at the age of 13 and haven’t been able to put it down since.”
Caplan studied at the University of Kings College in Halifax where he decided to further pursue his passion for music. Later, he actively engaged himself in the Artist Entrepreneur Program through Coalition Music, one of Canada’s prestigious record labels. His debut album In the Time of the Great Remembering was released in 2011, awarding him Nova Scotia’s 2012 Entertainer of the Year and the 2013 East Coast Music Award for Rising Star Recording.
His newest album is rich with tales of his struggles, love life, and not so easy to decipher political views. “There’s a lot of things in common with my first record as well as differences in terms of my approach. I think with the first album my goal was to try and find a way of capturing what the band does live, but in a studio setting. And with my second album, my goal was more to forget about the live show and really delve into what the possibilities are in a recording studio; taking that idea as far as I could and seeing what I come up with.”
Caplan credits his band, the Casual Smokers, for taking a salient role in bringing his visioned sounds to life. “The band works with me in my arranging process and figuring out how to bring these songs to life. But in terms of the actual writing process, composing the melody and the lyrics, that I primarily do as a solitary guy.”
While he has no one set process for enhancing his creative zone, Caplan accredits some creative roadways he falls back on. He doesn’t believe in relying on handheld devices like smartphones or tablets for writing lyrics. He writes all his lyrics with a pen and pad. I think my favorite quote that I took from my conversation with Caplan is the importance he stressed on handwritten lyrics stating, “crossing things out is more important to me than writing things down.”
Birds with Broken Wings has a distinctive sound to it. It’s rich in mixing influences of folk, blues, and jazz; quite the triple threat. There are songs that set the mood for downing some beers with your friends at a local tavern, as well songs with underlying lyrics and hidden message expressing Caplan’s deep political views. He states the album was over nine months in the making and that one of his favorite track to perform off of it is “Under Control.”
The songs showcase both his storytelling and ability to deliver passionate messages while still leaving room for the listener’s interpretations. Caplan was willing to further explain some of the album’s lyrics and their esoteric meanings. He explained how the “Under Control” is an examination of the problem of dealing with major social change such as climate. It’s a topic many still fight for to this day.
“In the line ‘It’s under control far as anyone’s seen / But there ain’t enough shit to climb out the latrine’ the ‘shit’ represents the accumulation of evidence that things may not be going well, and perhaps by the time we have enough evidence that it’s obvious, we’re already screwed.”
Ben Caplan & the Casual Smokers started their tour in Halifax Canada and are scheduled to conclude late December in Groningen, Netherlands. They’ll be stopping in Philadelphia November 13th to perform at Milkboy, which I eagerly await!
