FEATURE
An interview with Calling All Captains
Feature
Having closely followed Canadian pop-punk-hardcore (?) band, Calling All Captain this year as they released one solid track after another, we couldn’t have been happier as they released their debut album last week. Slowly Getting Better blends pop punk with post-hardcore elements and if that’s not enough to get you giddy, then the gravelly tones of vocalist Luc Gauthier certainly will. The album beautifully showcases the band’s extreme talent, as well as their knack for writing meaningful tracks that touch on impactful topics with a hopeful sensibility.
We had a chance to interview the band to chat more about the album and more. So without further ado…
Header Photo: Alan Bremner
Words: Renette van der Merwe
The Interview
Your debut album is out, congratulations! That’s gotta feel great right?
Thank you so much, it feels incredible! To finally see all our hard work come out for the entire world to enjoy, there just are never going to be the right words to describe how we feel.
We love that you dabble in both pop punk and post-hardcore. What influenced you to fuse these two together?
We never intended on that to be the way things came out. We’ve always just written the songs we would want to hear, and it just so happens we’re fans of pop-punk, post-hardcore, metal and even emo trap music. It’s super beneficial that Luc is involved in metalcore and SoundCloud culture, Connor lives and breathes The Beatles, Nick is a connoisseur of heavy and angry music, Brad and Tim grew up on Blink-182 and other classic iconic pop-punk bands. Through the mixing of all our interests, we feel that ‘Slowly Getting Better’ is an album that is genuinely US.
“we are all slowly getting better in our own way”
The album is said to be “a soundtrack for the struggling yet hopeful people out there” and you do get that from the sound. It’s heavy and light at the same time – was that a happy accident or did you go into recording aiming for that?
We got started working on this record before the pandemic, so we were more just writing songs about our lives and our growth. As time would progress and the world would go into lockdown we started to deal with our own internal problems and write about those. We touch on topics ranging from dealing with substance abuse to coping with death and loss. All scenarios that, as we have gotten older, we realise are just a part of life. There’s no hiding it, so we may as well talk about it. As the name of the record suggests, we are all slowly getting better in our own way.
Speaking of recording – you were meant to record in 2020 and then the world shut down. Was the pandemic a blessing in disguise in terms of granting you more time to really refine what you were putting on the album?
Definitely a blessing in disguise! Not to say the first plan we had wouldn’t have created an incredible record, but we were super fortunate that we got to go with the same team that help us create our EP. We got the opportunity to sleep in our own beds every night, take breaks when we needed and have our weekends off to still do our own thing. We also had the chance to do pre-production over a few weeks, instead of rushing it over a couple days. At the end of the day, we made a record we’re all super proud of and are so excited to get it into everyone’s hands and ears!
You’re playing some shows in a couple of weeks. How stoked are you?
I can’t even begin to explain how incredibly excited we are to be releasing the record live to the best fans we’ve ever had! The show on Nov 5th at Starlite Room in Edmonton is an iconic venue for all of us as guys who have grown up going to shows here. To have the opportunity to bring these songs to life on that stage is incredible. It’ll be the first time we’ve shared the stage as the five of us in just shy of two years and everything we have planned is going to be well worth the wait.
How will you be celebrating the release of Slowly Getting Better?
We’ve got a few plans for sure! Since the record is out just before Halloween, we’re having a little costume party to celebrate together. Probably going to jump onto our Discord and celebrate with our closest friends and label mates for the midnight release. We’ve also got the doc screening on Nov 4th as a first chance for most people to come and hang out with us at The Buckingham while we show off behind the scenes footage from the recording process, playing a couple acoustic songs, and just having a good time!
Essential Albums
What’s the first album you owned?
First record I bought was All Killer No Filler by Canadian LEGENDS Sum 41
What’s the last album you purchased / streamed?
Last record bought was the Galaxy variant of Nothing Left To Love from Counterparts
My go to driving record is Camp by Childish Gambino
An album that never gets old??
After The Party from The Menzingers is a timeless classic!
An album that reminds you of summer?
Better Luck Tomorrow by Settle Your Scores is my summer time record.
Settle the argument
Vinyl or Spotify?
Ending on the big questions! In a mass consumption format, streaming no question. I’ve been using Sportify for years and I don’t think I’ll ever switch away from it. But from the other side there’s a sound that vinyl has that can’t be replicated by a streaming service. From a collector standpoint, being able to have multiple variants of a record, trade and show off the rare ones, and physically hold something is just such an incomparable feeling! So, I think there is a place in the world for both and the Pros for both make them necessary, depending on what you need either format for!
Share this via: