Label mates Swingin’ Utters and Lagwagon played a sold-out show in Ritual Nightclub on Nov. 29 as part of their expansive tour with over 30 North American dates and a handful of European ones. Both bands released new material in 2014 and are long time friends.
Lagwagon has headlined the tour, with Swingin’ Utters taking the stage before them each night. Swingin’ Utters guitarist and vocalist Darius Koski said sometimes the reaction for a supporting band isn’t good, but visiting places such as Winnipeg, where they haven’t played since the mid-90s, the reaction has been great.
Lagwagon frontman Joey Cape has observed that the audience, for the most part, has aged alongside the bands.
“But they haven’t gotten wiser,” Koski joked.
Back then it was blackout every night, Cape said.
“It was super fun, but there are entire tours I don’t remember,” Koski said.
As the bands have gotten older, the partying has slowed down and they’ve moved from tiny Toyota Pickups to full tour buses.
“If I’m home too long, I start to die. It is like my body starts to deteriorate. I need this, I don’t know any other way to live,” said Cape.
The bands have learned to balance home time and tour life with growing families. Koski said he met his wife in the studio and the whole relationship he has been on-and-off the road. Cape also has two kids, including a 10-year-old daughter.
“It would feel odd to sell my music to her,” Cape said. “I’ll be driving my daughter somewhere and I’ll ask her if she minds listening to an acoustic song I’m working on and she’ll say ‘That’s fine.’ ”
Cape said he secretly waits and hopes for her to give him her blessing.
“She doesn’t listen to Lagwagon though. She says to me ‘Dad, I don’t like rock.’ ”
Cape said he sends demos to friends he grew up with who aren’t punk or metal musicians, just songwriters who he respects. “They are the kind of guys who will say ‘I think you can do better,’ or that the bridge is weak.”
“For Hang, I did writing sessions over six months with my friend who is a classically trained piano player. He’s a far more advanced musician than myself,” said Cape. “I’d fly down south to where he lives and we’d work on songs for three days.”
Cape said he had done that before for his solo work, but not for Lagwagon songs.
“With piano you can hear everything that is in the composition. It is a cornerstone.”
Songs learned on louder instruments such as drums and guitar run the risk of being one-dimensional where everything sounds the same, Cape said.
“Everyone should learn how to play the piano,” Koski added.
“I wish, man,” Cape responded. “My dad put a fucking football in my hand.”
Koski said he took lessons for a while and now wishes he never quit.
“I still think of anything I hear, any notes, any melodies I move my fingers on the keyboard in my head,” Koski said.
Cape said he wish he had learned to play when he was younger. When he tried to learn to play later in life, it did not come to him easily. “Now I just get together with a piano player. I know enough to do that.”
Cape said his father was a macho guy, whose sons got sports equipment and daughter got to play piano.
“Here is the fucked up part, my dad is a pianist and he’s great. Trained, amazing and he’s a singer. He’s sung all over the world,” Cape said.
Now both Cape and his brother are professional musicians. His parents and his step-dad were supportive of Cape playing in a band and touring.
Despite the challenges with balancing tour life with family life they urged artists of any type to pursue their calling.
“I love making records and being in the studio, but it comes down to going out and playing live,” Koski said.
