I’m CAPPA. A platinum haired, stray-puppy loving, sassy indie-pop artist from Nashville 🙂
What was the first record or song you remember listening to, and who introduced it to you?
I’m sure I had listened to records before this- but my parents were huge Hall & Oats fans. I grew up going to the Jersey shore and they would play it the whole ride down every weekend. They’re still some of my favorite musicians to this day.
Was there a defining moment when you realized that you wanted to pursue music as a career?
Honestly, there wasn’t. I just always wanted to do it. It’s kind of a weird feeling; growing up just knowing you want to/have to do something and not really knowing why it’s so engrained in you. I think most musicians and artists feel that way. I grew up being a pretty terrible singer (literally-I got made fun of all the time!) but I wanted to do music so badly. I would practice an hour and a half everyday and eat my high school lunches in the piano room while writing songs. I was pretty reclusive when I was younger so music helped me out a lot. Songwriting has always been like a best friend, if that make’s sense at all!
Your EP, Queen Of Hearts, just debuted on Billboard. What was that like?
So rewarding. It’s the coolest feeling. I’ve always read all the Billboard premieres so it was definitely a dream come true. I worked really hard on the new EP and you just never know how it’s going to go, but Billboard giving it the stamp of approval was a amazing.
What has the response been to the EP?
IT’S BEEN SO GOOD. I’ve had these songs written for 8 months now, so finally releasing them and seeing how much people dig it has been awesome. I also made a pretty obvious choice to go in a top-40 pop direction with this work in particular and I wasn’t sure how people were going to react. Everyone has been super supportive though and really seems to dig it. It’s hard for an indie artist to try to compete with that top 40 songwriting vein, in my opinion, but it’s always been something that I wanted to do.
“Nirvana” is probably our favorite song on the EP. How gorgeous.. what was production like with that track?
Thank you! That track in particular has an interesting story behind it. I loved Halsey’s “Badlands” and I searched to find out who produced it. It ended up being one of my best friends old tour mates. We asked him to send us a couple of tracks and he sent over that one and I fell in love with it right away. It automatically made me think of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” Every time I heard the track all I could envision was that story and them driving through the tunnel; so that’s kind of what I wrote it about. I flew to LA to record some of the EP with him and when I got there he was like “man, I think I lost the stems to that track.” And I was like, NO I NEED IT IN MY LIFE. So he remade it from scratch and I’m super stoked with how it turned out. It was a little bit more lullaby sounding before but this version has some grit to it which I love.
Do you have a favorite song on the EP?
It’s probably Nirvana also! It’s a tie between that one and “Next Ex”.
In an interview with Billboard, you said you had been dreaming about living on the road since you were 15. With this Matt Wertz tour… is everything panning out how you expected?
hahah, no! Not at all. But it IS super fun. It’s way more work than I thought but it feels really good to be on the road meeting new fans and getting to sing the new EP every night. There’s just always accidents that you don’t plan for- like the fact that we popped 5 tires on the trailer in the first two weeks. HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN!? But that’s also kind of the fun part about touring. You never know what you’re going to get and it keeps life interesting.
If your music were a pizza, what kind would it be?
Deep dish Chicago style pizza with cheesy crust. And maybe some pineapples on it.
Anything you’d like to add?
I’ll have some more surprises from the EP coming super soon 🙂
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