Q & A: Capre

Brisbane based electronic duo Capre have been gaining ground with the release of their new album “Cassette Mixte.” Creating layered beats and lovely guitar notes, their music draws from a progressive mix of hip hop and rock influences. We had a quick word with Cozzie (Patrick Costello) and Hameon (Patrick Hameon) after they played a short but nonetheless mesmerizing gig at the Met last Thursday about their influences, their evolving sound, and what they’re looking forward to these holidays.

How did you guys come up with the band name?

Cozzie: It’s a star within a solar system. But in italian it also means female goat. We try to be the physical manifestation of that.

Hameon: Look up goats on Google, it is so funny. We had Capre-oniene but you don’t even know how to say that so we needed to cut that out.

Cozzie: Well we confirmed that goat thing after. We really like space.

Both of your names are Patrick. Is that strange for you? Do you have nicknames to make it easier?

Cozzie: My other friend’s name is Patrick too… We have a lot of Patricks in our group. But my last name is Costello so I get called Cozzie mainly. And his last name is Hameon so he gets called Hameon.

Who are some of your influences?

Cozzie: We’ve got some similar ones. I’ll always love Danny Brown forever. Forever. I also love Craig Nicholls from the Vines. I was mesmerized by Kurt Cobain–maybe not his music because I don’t play grunge rock, but they were just rock stars, you know? Music wise, I’d say Jamie XX, Danny Brown…

Hameon: I’ve loved electronic music since grade 12. I loved Justice when they first came out, but now it’s Bonobo. I’ve also started getting into Rolls Bayce, a Brisbane band. It’s got emotion. Pretty much anything has got that emotional tie to it so it hits you in that way.

Cozzie: It’s got to hit you. I’ve been getting really into David Bowie as of late. His choruses are so magical–Take a look at the law man, beatin’ up the wrong guy–ya know what I’m talking about?

Hameon: There are no pop musicians like him anymore.

Did you know you guys were gonna be an electronic band from the beginning? Did you have a vision and think, “Patrick and Patrick–let’s do this.”

Hameon: He came over and he was always doing guitar stuff.

Cozzie: Yeah, I like producing as well. I help produce tracks in there. People think I’m just the guitar guy and he’s just the keyboard guy but it’s really organic between us. Other times he’ll be like, “dude, i’m really digging that chord” and we’ll just layer it and layer it. Or we’ll bring in beats and work on that.

How long have you been at this for?

Cozzie: We’ve been making music together for about three years. We haven’t played live once this year up until now, but I feel as though I will make beats my entire life. Whether or not we can make a career out of it is not my concern at the moment. I’m just enjoying myself.

Hameon: We’ve just been jamming since now. It’s been fun for us. It’d be awesome for us to quit our day jobs and fully make it but right now we’re just enjoying where we’re at.

Cozzie: Sometimes I’m standing in my bedroom, making a beat, and just wiling out to my own thing, all alone, and sometimes that’s even better than playing live.

Hameon: Sometimes, yeah. Playing live gets to be stressful sometimes–you’re thinking, what’s going on? Is this thing turned on? But when you’re in your room or when Cozzie’s there you’ve got something to bounce it off of. We’re still waiting to play live in a perfect gig with a perfect sound. That’d be amazing.

Cozzie: There’s a lot of people staring. Actually, I liked playing just then. That was one of my favorite times. I was so chilled on stage. That was just me singing for myself as well as other people.

Is there set equipment that you have to buy or is there new technology that you have to constantly update yourself with? That occasional Darth Vader voice you did on stage was so cool.

Cozzie: We’ve got pretty outdated equipment compared to how fast things are coming out. I still use Ableton–the old Ableton. You don’t need to get the new one, really.

Hameon: It’s still a commercial business, though. New shit comes out and it might not even work for you. You’ve got to use what you’ve got well first.

Cozzie: Exactly, don’t fix it if it’s not broken. I’m not obsessed with new equipment. But my machine and my keyboard, an Ableton–those are definitely all I need.

I was listening to your SoundCloud–your tracks integrate a combination of vocals and rap. Are you guys moving to a more hip hop direction?

Cozzie: The stuff on SoundCloud… We understand that you’re not going to please the hip hop dudes and the electronic house dudes. The direction that I want to go in is the hip hop and house beats with singing but not too much rap. I do rap occasionally but that was mostly experimenting. I reckon if we had a new EP, it’d be more indicative of one sound. Hameon, how do you feel about that?

Hameon: I feel the same way. We used to do whatever we wanted. Acoustic Waves is all rapping.

Do you have a system for how you come up with newer songs?

Hameon: I’m not the lyric guy. I have three to four lyrics that I do, maybe three to four words, and then he extends them by a hundred thousand. We have a few systems. He brings the beat in, mostly completed, and I bring the base of the beat and we go off that.

Cozzie: My system is Hameon’s beat and me finding some guitar riffs. Did you see how I liked to add in the little guitar layers? Sometimes I do find myself with nothing to do, but whatever. My system would be come in, do some guitar stuff, find a loop that both of us like, record it in, and I sing over that. I’m all about the hooks.

Hameon: If it wasn’t so strange, I’d called it hooking.

Any Brisbane bands you’re listening to at the moment?

Hameon: Rolls Bayce. Look that up. They’re awesome. Other Brisbane bands… Millions is pretty good, they’ve gone to England.

Cozzie: We’re not super good friends with any other musicians, hey.

Hameon: Golden Vessel! He’s fucking awesome.

Christmas is just round the corner, what’s the present you’d be least thrilled to receive?

Hameon: My parents are in Europe. I’m not getting anything. Do you guys want me to get something terrible?

Cozzie: I’ll get you, like, two birds and you have to look after them and you’ll be like, aw man, I don’t have time to look after these birds… A full on bird cage, what is that?

Hameon: To be honest, I love all presents.