Halifax singer Ben Caplan has strapped on his guitar and hit the road. I caught up with the "rugged, raspy, and roaring with charisma" songwriter to learn about life on the road.
Best thing about touring?
The best thing about touring is playing shows. There's more too it, but touring is basically 95% preparation/travel/sleep/sound-check/drinking, all to support the 5% of time you spend on stage. The reason I tour as much as I do is because
I love being on stage enough to warrant spending 95% of my time far away from home, crashing on couches, crammed into shitty cars, etc. just to get up there and play some songs for an hour. All that, plus I love meeting people, talking about ideas, and gaining new perspectives. That's a sweet bonus.
Worst thing about touring?
Being away from my kitchen. Hands down. I love cooking. I love spending hours in my kitchen listening to music and preparing meals from scratch - ideally from locally grown ingredients purchased at the farmers market. I do have a soft spot in my heart for eating Tim Horton's bagels and drinking terrible coffee in the car as I move on the next city, but in general tour food is no good. I try to buy food
in grocery stores instead of fast food, and sometimes I get to prepare meals in someone's house where I am crashing, but I always miss the comfort of cooking meals for myself and for my friends in my Halifax home. And I always miss my piano. I hate electric pianos with a fierce passion, so being away from my piano sucks.
Some crappy or creepy thing that has happened to you on the road?
I was playing a string of shows in London, England and I got really sick. Some kind of nasty flu. I even had to cancel one of the gigs, which is anathema to me. Especially when so far from home. Not like I am going to get a chance to play for these people again soon, right? I also hate bailing and putting a promoter in a lynch. The day after my cancelled gig, despite the fact that I was still feeling absolutely wretched, I didn't feel like I could allow myself to cancel a second gig. So I feverishly dragged myself across the huge city with my gear
in tow, and showed up at the venue. Sound-checked, sat in a corner on the verge of passing out, and then finally got up to play my set. They had an acoustic piano so that lifted my spirits...
I was glad that I went for it by the time I got of stage... I had been a little dizzy and woozy on stage, but the response had been really positive and the room had been packed. Now here comes the crappy part... after respectfully sticking around till the end of the night to settle up with the promoter, I discovered that he had been asking people at the door who they were there to see. This being one of the first times I had played in London, and not having done a press
campaign of any kind, obviously no one said my name. So the promoter stiffed me! He said tough break, but if no one was here to see you specifically, I can't pay you. Nothing... not even my tube fare. Not that it's all about the money, but it felt pretty crappy to have dragged my sick arse across London to honour my commitment just to get screwed by the promoter.
What awesome place should we know about?
You should know about Woodstock, New Brunswick. For the touring musician it's the perfect place to pass through on any tour that takes you between the Maritimes and the rest of Canada. It's half way between Fredericton and Quebec City, and it's beautiful. The community is not huge, but they are developing quite the taste for live independent music. Either a house show at The Big Yellow House, or at Fusion Cafe, the crowd is always really great. There is also an amazing summer festival there called Dooryard Summer Arts Festival, which you should should apply to. Even if you don't play music, you should visit Woodstock. It's beautiful, relaxed, and a great place to swim in a river!
What band(s) are you into right now? Anyone you’ve seen lately who’s rocked your world?
I'm actually really into tango music right now. Composers like Carlos Gardel, Astor Piazolla, and Glover Gil are some of my favourites. So that's mostly what I am listening to. My big focus right now is getting better at playing and writing on the piano. So I like listening to composers and players who burn with passion and kick my ass musically.
In terms of who I've seen lately that lights me on fire, I don't actually go out to shows that often unless I am playing them. But I got to see Snailhouse at the Halifax Pop Explosion and that was amazing. I also really love watching and listening to Charlotte Cornfield who I just did a tour with. Also, a major highlight of my last European tour was playing with C.W. Stoneking, who talks the way
he sings, and sings the way he talks, and writes really great tunes with beautiful arrangements.
Most interesting person you have met on the road?
Oh, that's a hard one! There is a character in every town... I don't know if I can answer this question without writing a Russian novel.
We love stories – embarrassing, scary, good natured we want to hear one?
So this past year I wanted to play both Pop Montreal and Reeperbahn Festival. The only problem is that there were on different sides of the ocean, and over the same weekend. So I thought I could play Pop on the first Wednesday of the fest, travel on the Thursday, and then play Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany on the Friday and Saturday. Maybe it could have worked, but there were too many factors and I didn't manage to think about all of them.
After flying red eye Montreal to Amsterdam, we rented a car and hopped on the road to Hamburg. A six hour drive according to Google Maps. What I hadn't realized is that the traffic in Germany can be CRAZY! There were moments when we were flying down the autobahn at 190 km/h, but there were moments, no - eternities, in which we were trapped in a parking-lot-of-a-highway just waiting to move five feet forward.
After a while, we realized that it was looking like we were going to miss our gig! So we did what any insane person would do after being awake and in transit for more than 24 hours... we decided to drive on the shoulder of the highway in the emergency lane. We were driving for maybe 2 minutes, when suddenly the traffic started moving, but before we could merge back in to traffic, we heard police sirens behind us! We wound up sitting there on the side of the road watching the traffic zoom by us while we were interrogated by the German police. They played some mind games with us while they made us wait, alternatively making us think we would be arrested or deported, and finally forced to play a huge fine. We wound up missing our first show by 45 minutes... about the exact amount of time we were held by the Polizei.
Music, silence, games – how do you keep busy in the car?
Listening to music in the car is key. It's when I discover new things. Nothing but time, let's discover some new artists! But sometimes you have to play some games to pass the time. One of my drummers, the amazing Ricky Gibone, taught me a great game called Hitch, Ditch, or Bang. You list three things, and then the people in the car have to choose and then justify whether or not they would Hitch the thing (commit to it for life), Ditch it (never see it again), or Bang it (have one wild and crazy night!). For example, River, Ocean, Lake. Which one would you choose to do without, which one would you marry, and which would you take for the night of your life.
You can learn a lot about a person from his answers. For example, I would Hitch the River since it is always flowing, always new, always fresh, always interesting. I would ditch the Lake, because even though I love spending time in lakes, I'll still have my fresh water from the rivers, and I want to Bang the Ocean, because... well... come on... the power! But you can play the game with anything... Ya know... Halifax, Montreal, Vancouver. Hitch, Ditch, or Bang?
Video: Ben Caplan's video for Seed of Love recorded live at Toro Magazine.
Ben Caplan's tour dates below:
Jan. 3 @ The Casbah Lounge, HAMILTON
Jan. 5 @ Jimmy Jazz, GUELPH (w/ Harlan Pepper)
Jan. 10 @ The Casbah Lounge, HAMILTON (w/ Molly Babin)
Jan. 12 @ Jimmy Jazz, GUELPH (w/ Graydon James & The Yound Novelists)
Jan. 17 @ The Casbah Lounge, HAMILTON (w/ Ben Somer)
Jan. 19 @ Horseshoe Tavern, TORONTO (w/ Herman Dune & Leif Vollebeck)
Jan. 22 @ The Living Room, NEW YORK CITY (*early show, 7pm)
Jan. 24 @ The Casbah Lounge (w/ The Human Race), HAMILTON
Jan. 29 @ Van Gogh's Ear, GUELPH (w/ Ladies of the Canyon & Heartbroken)
Jan. 31 @ The Casbah Lounge, HAMILTON
Feb.18 @ Ritual, OTTAWA (w/ Amos the Transparent)
Mar. 1 @ Plan B, MONCTON
Mar. 2 @ Red Herring, SAINT ANDREW
Mar. 3 @ Red Herring, SAINT ANDREW