The Captain Midnight Band Interview with Music Without Labels & Beat-Play

The Captain Midnight Band

www.captainmidnightband.com

 Give us some background. Where are you from originally, where are you now, how did you get there? 

The Captain Midnight thing started in Oxford, MS around 1992 as part of a theatrical rock band called “Cardinal Fluff”. The band was formed as a backlash to the “Grunge” movement, which was itself a backlash to the unending parade of “Hair Metal” bands coming out of L.A. in the late 80’s. Lots of lashing going on. We were writing suggestive lyrics and doing perverse things onstage, and in order to protect our parents’ professional careers, we adopted aliases. I became Captain Midnight during a wild, LSD-fueled vision quest.

When Cardinal Fluff folded in 1999, I moved to New Orleans and kept the Midnight persona intact. I became involved with some UNO Jazz students who were short a guitar player.  We developed into a Jazz-Rock-Hip-Hop-Jam band called “CRÖNK” and had some success. We were doing shows with guys like Galactic, Merl Saunders & Melvin Seals, as well as playing Jazz Fest, French Quarter Fest, doing some cool tours, etc. all within months of the bands inception.

While in “CRÖNK”, I started to write more and more, and needed an additional outlet for all my new ideas. I ended up starting The Captain Midnight Band and also played in several other projects while pursuing my solo thing.  After Hurricane Katrina, I moved to Nashville and put together a new band.  After a few line-up I changes, we finally struck gold.

 What Genre would you classify yourself as? 

We’ve created a new genre called “Waterbed Rock ‘n Roll”. Copyright 2009 Captain Midnight! Someone described it as “Ambrosia with a hard-on!”

 What is it that drove you to pursue a career in music, and what it is that drives you individually as a musician or a band? 

The creative process is really what drives it. There is something truly rewarding about “receiving” a melody or lyric from the universe and turning it into something that gets people off.  With today’s technology, you can really speed up the process, which to me keeps the idea fresh and more pure. For instance, you get a lyrical idea and melody, jump on the computer, record some basic tracks, email mp3’s to the band, work it out in rehearsal, and play the song at a show later that week. That’s magic.

 What struggles have you faced with having your music heard and getting your name recognized by outside markets?  

The main thing, which is preposterous to me, is that several “industry” people have told me they love my music, but don’t know what to do with it.  They can’t find a slot to pigeon-hole our sound/vibe into.  Most labels don’t have the money to take a chance on something out of the box.  There’s less money spent on “The Next Big Thing”.  All the money is behind the latest version of “The Last Big Thing”. Most of the time, I don’t really even consider what we do as having anything to do with the “music business”.

You know the company TAXI? They accept musical submissions for different labels and do referrals and such for music placement in movies and commercials, etc. I’ve received nothing but positive responses to my music from them. They then turn around and tell me it doesn’t sound enough like the referenced artists. I’m not trying to be Green Day or Jack White or Coldplay. That’s what many of these labels seem to want.  Its frustrating to hear label people tell you how much they like your stuff and then pass on it because they don’t know how to market it. That’s why I don’t listen to the radio. 90% of it is regurgitated, safe, and uninteresting. Of course there are exceptions, but not enough to justify not bringing my iPod in the car.

MWL Response:

This is a growing problem for many artists emerging lately. We recently met with Roger LaMay, the Station Manager of WXPN in Philadelphia for an interview. The station is a leader in proliferating the spread of music that does not really fit into any specific category.  One thing he mentioned was that the artist MIA, before she became known was bounced around all over the place, label to label, radio station to radio station, and no one would take her because they didn’t know what category to place her in, but XPN was the only station that took her in and gave her a home, and the result was her music getting picked up for a movie soundtrack and now she works with many different kinds of artists and is played all over the place. Part of the problem is the “need” to fit people into categories, and MusicWithoutLabels and Beat-Play are in the process of developing some revolutionary online tools that can help eradicate this problem and could completely dissolve it, if it is adopted by the masses. Meanwhile there are organizations like XPN, who is a NPR affiliate, that still work towards the goals of proliferating independent music with the ideals of the artists in mind. You can check out our interview with Roger LaMay on MusicWithoutLabels.com, and also a second interview with XPN Program Director Bruce Warren,  for more info about their process. Help is out there, but sometimes it’s hard to find in the midst of so many mitigating organizations.

Also just an extra note, on Beat-Play you’ll have the ability to create your own genre category if you really don’t fit anywhere else, upon approval from your peers of course. Then being different will actually make you stand out instead of get ignored.

 What kinds of things do you do to promote yourself?  

Myspace, youtube videos, and Facebook are excellent tools. I’ve booked 75% of our gigs by steering clubs to either my website or sending them a video link. We also do little Baseball card-sized color flyers with fun art on them, and our friends pass them out to their friends in whatever towns we’re hitting. I find this is way better than just littering a town with flyers. We would rather play to 300 people who “get it” than 30,000 dip-shits. That’s the truth. Our flyers and artwork represent what we’re about. Just typing your name on a piece of colored paper doesn’t do much.  We’re creative people and our fans are creative people. We want to attract people like us.

 Is there a predominant message you hope to get across In your songs? 

Most of our songs are about sex, drugs, and rock n roll. You write what you know.  I love Bob Dylan but I’ll never be that caliber of poet. If there’s a message, it’s “Have Fun”, or “Be Yourself”. I’m aware that this last message is suspect coming from a guy named “Captain Midnight”, but it really is about being true to yourself.

 What are your thoughts on the future of the music industry and where it’s going? 

American Idol was the nail in the coffin. Send a text for the marginally-talented contestant you think should win. Really? A fucking text? 12 year-old girls are controlling what the public is being subjected to as far a popular music is concerned. It has nothing to do with being creative.

With the exception of the Jamband scene, and Jazz, there is little differentiation in the music industry and the entertainment industry. Like I said, I don’t feel like I’m even part of the music industry. We fund everything we do. We’re more like a small business or traveling salespeople.  At this point, our only hope is to expose ourselves to anyone who cares to listen.  We make our fans one at a time and we’re going into massive debt doing it.  It’s a gamble, but we believe our product is great, and that we will prevail.

I think the music industry has eaten itself. Maybe I’m biased because I live in Nashville, where so many people try to look, play, sing, exactly like whoever is big right now. Much of the scene is intentionally devoid of originality. That’s what’s so amazing to me.  So many people are trying to copy what’s hot rather than creating something original or personal. I don’t know about the rest of the country, but its a little weird here.

I often wonder with today’s system if we’ll ever get another group like “The Band” or “Little Feat” or “Frank Zappa” on a major label with some development and funding. I don’t mean groups that sound like the aforementioned artists, I mean something as unique and original as those bands.

When I hear people comparing “Wolfmother” to “Led Zeppelin”, I’m just amazed. That’s such a fucking ridiculous thing to say. I’m sure Wolfmother would agree. I was reading the AC/DC article in Rolling Stone earlier this year and there was something to the extent of… “we didn’t give AC/DC much consideration over the years. but when Kurt Cobain cited them as an influence, we decided to take another look”. That pretty much sums it up.  AC/DC have consistently put out great rock and roll product. Nothing has changed about their formula, but here you have Rolling Stone basically saying Kurt Fucking Cobain validated them! They printed an equally retarded review of some of the Rolling Stones 70’s releases and how they initially thought them uncool, but now they were kind of “hip” in an ironically cheesy way. We’re talking about a magazine that used to be the go-to source for cool shit.  It’s basically on the same level as American Idol, which has absolutely NOTHING to do with imagination or creativity.

MWL Response:

I don’t disagree, but I think that there is a clear distinction between the mainstream music industry, and the predominant music industry. I see the predominant music industry consisting of people like you and I, whose music does not reflect the direction of the mainstream industry. While the current mainstream industry has in essence, swallowed itself, the “underground” industry consists of the majority of musicians in practice, is already headed in a completely different direction. I see this direction as filling the mainstream gap that the current model leaves behind, and you will see the “underground” start to come up to the surface.

Are you currently unsigned, and do you plan on staying independent?

We are unsigned. but would love to sign to a label that got what we were doing.  Tour support and promotion really would help us. We still work day jobs, but when we do make $$$ with the band, we don’t have to split it with a big company. I’d love to get with a small label that understood what we could do with some more resources.

 What are your reasons for being an independent artist? 

Because we haven’t been approached by anyone with money yet! But really, its nice to be able to express ourselves without someone coming in and changing lyrics and artwork, strictly for “marketability” reasons.  What you see is what you get with us. There’s no “what’s Radiohead doing?” or “What kind of hairspray is Pink using?”

 Who are some of your favorite artists? 

Steely Dan, George Clinton, KISS, Aretha Franklin, Zappa, The Grateful Dead, Derek Trucks, Joni Mitchell

 Do you ever feel that people will be missing out on your music because you are not signed to a major record label? 

 Yes.

 What would you say if I told you that there’s a new force in Independent Music that will give you all of the power of the Major Labels and more, while at the same time giving you complete control over all aspects of your musical career, and you will never have to sign a thing?  

I would say where do I sign! Really? It sounds great but one of the problems today is that there are soooo many terrible acts out there cluttering up the musical landscape.  Am I a musical elitist? Yes. The kid who has listened to nothing but Kanye West does not need to have major label resources made available to him? This is the problem. Who’s running quality control? How many more “artists” are gonna come crawling out of the woodwork with the help of this new force? We don’t need another Taylor Swift. Please!

MWL Response:

Well the good thing is that we’re not forced to listen to any music that we don’t wish to. On the issue of quality control concerning our site, we are developing a radio, which I am just now releasing the details about.  With this Radio,  you will be able to “follow” anybody that you feel has a good taste in music. Once you do this, when you press play on your radio, songs from playlists of the various people you followed will randomly play in your player. There will also be various other methods of controlling playback, but this is a crucial one. With this system, if you don’t like a song, you don’t save it to your playlist, and if it doesn’t get saved, then it can’t get introduced to people that are following you. However if you do save it, and the people following you like it, they will put it in their playlist and most likely introduce it to people that you don’t know. Therefore the good music gets spread very rapidly, while the not-so-good music either dies out, or only reaches its targeted fan-base. This is a revolutionary form of online promotion and distribution merged into one.

Also this model offers the ability to bypass piracy, especially for the most popular artists, which is who piracy affects the most. If a song is insanely popular, it will undoubtedly be found on a torrent or limewire like program. However, if artists choose to give their music out for free, and distribute and promote it using this radio, there will be no need for fans to go to a separate site to get it for free, and the artist can then keep track of exactly how many people are listening, downloading, and rating their music, which can then be reported to an advertiser. Not only will the artists get accurate readings on how many fans they have, but they can continue to get paid for their music while the fans listen for free. Also the donation model can still be in effect with proceeds going to an artist’s favorite charity. This model is not new, it is used in TV all the time, especially with Basic Cable, but this is the first time it will be properly applied to music.

 And you would have access to the worlds first ever audio component auction, where pieces of songs are sold off at auction prices to be repurposed in other songs.  What kind of impact do you think that would have on your music? 

I don’t like it at all. That holds zero appeal for me. Make up you own shit. These guys who sample the Bee Gees, and then rap over it, and then say, “check out my new song” have got to go. The people who are signing them should be shot. There are a whole generation of people who think that sampling is the same as writing music. It’s not. Put down “Rock Band” and learn how to express yourself, not copy what’s already been done. Kid Rock has an entire song about Sweet Home Alabama, which is basically him singing over Sweet Home Alabama! This is repackaged entertainment, and not for the better. I have a lot of respect for Kid Rock as an entertainer, but being an entertainer doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with making new music.

MWL Response:

That is a very respectable opinion, but the reality is with technology many people see no need to make up their own when they can arrange other people’s music in new ways, and with little effort. It also doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t use the sampled tracks along with other original ones. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Also think about the extra revenue you could make auctioning off selected tracks of selected songs. Say you take one song and release all of the individual tracks at different auctions. One person may buy the drum track so they can put it behind a recording of them playing the violin. Another person may buy a 30 second clip of your drum recording, input the individual sounds of the kit you used into a drum machine, and create their own beat with the sounds from your kit. The possibilities are endless and this is all possible with Beat-Play. Don’t go putting us into a category now. There’s always more to the story than is seen on the cover.

The only catch is you have to choose to use it to your benefit, or not. 

How could I possibly benefit from heisting someone else’s musical ideas? I guess if I was to lazy to learn how to play an instrument or couldn’t write my own stuff it’d be handy to take someone else’s intellectual property and call it my own, after a few changes, course.

MWL Response: I think I answered your question above but again the answer is $$, and Credit! Who knows, it could expand your exposure and introduce new people to your music. If there’s one thing I know, it’s that a lot of people like more than one genre of music, and especially if your sound doesn’t fit into a specific genre, it may be beneficial for your name to be attached to a popular genre, without you actually having to partake in the creating that music.

It’s called Beat-Play, and it will be beta tested this Fall 09. Sign up at Music Without Labels

*Responses Written by Beat-Play Founder and President, Dante Cullari