The Capris

“We are an indie rock band from County Tyrone. We have released 5 singles so far with plans to release more music again very soon. We play all kinds of gigs from bar gigs to weddings to festivals. We just love playing and making music so much, it's the only thing we want to do with our lives.”

Up n’ Comin’ NI is excited to introduce this week’s artist, The Capris, a 4-piece indie band from Co. Tyrone. 

Three members of the band met in school where they became good friends and originally formed the band as a 3-piece of Odhran (Lead Vocals), Jonny (Bass) and Padraic (Lead Guitar). “When we finished school about 7 of us went on a holiday to Croatia and we stayed in an AirBnB with a beautiful view of the mountains. One night during a drunken conversation, the three of us decided that we were going to start playing music together when we got back home. Fast forward 3 or 4 years and that's when we met Dee (drums) who became a permanent fixture in the band to complete the 4-piece. 

 

Music has always been a large part of all their lives. “We all grew up surrounded by people with great musical taste so we have some really good early musical influences. Anything from The Beatles to The Eagles to Oasis, I could go on and on for days. As for playing music, most of us started pretty early, for example, Jonny and Dee were both trained in the Double Bass and Drums respectively. Odhran's first music playing experience was actually in a pipe band playing the snare drum believe it or not! Then he figured out he could sing so that took over. Padraic started playing guitar a little later, around 15/16.”

 

As mentioned before, the band have so many different artists that inspire them in their day-to-day life. However, if they had to pick just one band then it would be Kings of Leon because “they are the one band that we all love equally. We are so inspired by everything they do lyrically, musically, and just how grounded they manage to stay despite being one of the biggest bands in the world. Just everything about them is perfect in our eyes.” Outside of that they draw inspiration from: Inhaler and The Academic, Two Door Cinema Club and Sam Fender.

 

"I think the most important thing we've learned along the way is to always make sure you enjoy doing what you're doing. There's no point in us making music and playing gigs if its music we don't want to make and gigs that we don't want to play."

 

Padriac is both the band’s lead guitarist and lyricist. He says that he is always looking out for things that could inspire him. “I do my best to make a note of it, whether it’s a little sequence of words, a melody, or just something I saw. I try to capture it. Then, when I’m writing, I pick little bits out of them and see if any go together. If I can get a verse done, then I know what I’m looking for and can use that bit of material to tell the rest of the story. Once I've written a song and added some simple chords, I bring it to the band at practice and we just jam it out and watch it blossom into a full song.”

 

The band would describe their chosen genre as indie-rock. However, when the band began their journey of making music initially, they didn’t have an exact sound that we wanted to emulate. “Our first two singles, while we still love them, are very different to our most recent three.” In fact, even now they would say their music is indie-guitar based with elements of rock and pop in there too. “It was the introduction of Dee (drums) that really elevated our creative process and now we're making the exact type of music that we've always wanted to make.”

 

“We create our own music as a band in a rehearsal space and then we bring it to a studio. We've worked with a number of producers before but right now our go to is Start Together Studios at the ‘Oh Yeah! Centre’ in Belfast. Michael Bell is the producer we work with there, he is amazing, just an absolute wizard. So its great to have someone like him who can really bring our ideas to life.”

 

Padraic has admitted that he draws on a lot of his own life experiences when writing his songs. “It’s actually something I’ve been working on not doing as much because I’m so comfortable writing about my own experiences and there’s only so many songs you can write based on yourself. But writing songs that way is great, in our single ‘Melancholy Blues’ for example, it’s based on losing a loved one and the line ‘Thoughts were pregnant with your voice no choice, days were poignant at their best’ felt so great to get off my chest, but it also really served the song.” Writing from such a vulnerable place is a real testament to his writing, giving us a glimpse into the emotional depth that he is willing to portray. 

 

The band gigs about once a month. Their plan is to do a lot more original band gigs, rather than covers, this year with some exciting things in the pipeline already. Make sure you are keeping an eye on their socials to keep up to date with all their upcoming events. 

 

“We don't necessarily focus on trying to do something really out of the ordinary but we do want to be something of a new band for people to enjoy. We just love the sound of our music and hopefully other people who like that kind of music will get some enjoyment out of our songs.”

 

When asked what their most memorable gig was, they said, “We have a number of gigs that we could say for this, but Dalfest is one that really stands out because it was the most professional experience we've had as a band. We played on the same bill as the likes of Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Sam Ryder and Scouting For Girls. Playing at music festivals has always been a dream of ours so to make that dream come true was just so rewarding and we'll never forget it. We also got the chance to support Lucy Bell {remember her from last week?} at her EP launch in Belfast and this was a really special experience too. We'll always be grateful to Lucy for giving us that opportunity.”

 

The band’s highlight in their careers so far was when their second single 'My Best Nights' was played on BBC Radio last year. This wasn’t the bands first time having their music played on the radio, however, “there was just something special about getting it on a big show on a Friday night. Other than that, we're just so proud of being able to do this while also navigating everything else in life. We have so many more cool things planned for the future too so hopefully our answer to this question will change in the next while.”

 

So, What’s Next for The Capris?

 

“We have so many more songs that we want to record and release, so many types of gigs that we want to play... We really can't give too much away right now but we have big things planned for 2024 and we encourage anyone reading this to give our music a listen because who knows, we could be your new favourite band and you'll want to be able to say you've ‘been here since day one’ whenever we inevitably become the greatest band of all time. Or whatever...”

Make sure you follow them and keep up to date with all their songs, events and gigs: 

Spotify: The Capris

YouTube: The Capris

Instagram: thecaprismusic

Twitter: thecaprismusic

Facebook: thecaprisofficial

TikTok: thecaprismusic