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If people really trusted God – whatever you want to define God as – they'd be naked like animals. Animals trust God. They don't hoard. They don't fear that they're gonna lose something. They trust Mother Nature, which I guess is my definition of God.
-Grayson Capps |
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Photo by Shannon Brinkman
Interlude 1: Calling
Grayson Capps: Everything I've recorded so far has been autobiographical.
JamBase: It's funny how different it feels inside when you hit upon your vocation, the thing you're supposed to be doing. There's plenty of things you do for a paycheck or you do to please other people but when you hit upon your thing it's weird how the light goes on.
Grayson Capps & Father |
Capps: Especially when you embrace it. It's like a bird or something jumping out of a nest. You don't know if you're going to fall or fly. Those first flaps are difficult because you're falling fast [laughs]! You question why you decided to jump.
There is an element of faith in embarking on your calling.
If people really trusted God – whatever you want to define God as – they'd be naked like animals. Animals trust God. They don't hoard. They don't fear that they're gonna lose something. They trust Mother Nature, which I guess is my definition of God.
Sometimes it's hard to believe things could be different than they are. We have a hard time shaking ourselves out of the moment.
Especially when things are bad.
We usually find our calling when things suck. We find it down there in the mud.
I started writing music because I wasn't hearing what I wanted to hear. There were certain people along the way that inspired me like Nick Cave. I thought, 'That son of a bitch, he's doing exactly what I'm feeling!' Then I discovered Tom Waits and thought, 'Shit, that's the other thing I was feeling!' Then there's some kind of end [to these inspirations]. Nick Cave, I love him but he gets too fruity sometimes. And Tom Waits is just Tom Waits World a little too much. You can't imitate it and you don't want to.
Bobby Long
Grayson Capps |
Despite some regional success with his old band, Stavin' Chain, Capps first came to wider recognition through the 2004 film A Love Song For Bobby Long, a loose adaptation of his late father's novel, Off Magazine Street. Capps' theme song for the movie is such a perfect slice of Americana it should come slathered in gravy served up by a weathered waitress named Flo in a faded pink coffee shop uniform.
"It's one of the few movies that captures the vibe of New Orleans, that Big Easy accent shit and people laying all over the place being lethargic from the heat. The beauty of it was they actually filmed in August when it was hot as shit. It captures some of the sweat that Marlon Brando had in A Streetcar Named Desire," remarks Capps.
However, there was a lot they got wrong. Capps says, "I remember seeing the four-hour version of it and loved it. What they whittled it down to broke my heart. I guess it was typical but the fellas with the money, at every turn, they just ruined it. They didn't understand why there wasn't a car chase. I'm serious. The whole romance was a Hollywood decision. In my father's book, Lorraine was a fat woman who ate Cheetos and had to be taken to a hospital in the trunk of a car. That's the real truth. She wasn't like a jazz singer. When she died, her daughter was a little pimply-faced thing from North Florida who Bobby and Fred just wanted to fuck. They did everything they could, and the only reason they kept her there was to try and get into her pants. The only bait they had was their intelligence."
Grayson Capps |
The title tune is also a standout on Capps' solo debut, 2005's If You Knew My Mind, one of those wonderfully messy creative blasts that announce the arrival of a genuine talent. It opens with a grand tale of dilapidated existence called "Get Back Up," which Capps swears is completely true.
"When I graduated college, we had a place with a $150 per month rent. Our one-legged landlord lost the place to bankruptcy. These different banks would send us notices saying we owed rent, which was still only $150. We had shotgun houses next to each other. We decided, 'Fuck, nobody knows who owns this place so we're gonna stop paying rent!' We didn't pay rent for two years. I had gas running to my place illegally. Then my neighbor, White John, had water running to his place. And my other neighbor, Black John, had electricity. We'd run extension cords to all the houses. It was a comedy. I was playing on the streets and whatever money we made we'd use to buy alcohol and food. That was my existence for years. It was wonderful but it's also where the line 'It's a rotten paradise. Sometimes I think I'm gonna die,' comes from. It was so on the edge. If you got some weird fungus under your arm you couldn't go to the doctor to fix it. It's exciting and scary at the same time."
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