Tag: Splinter

Ongoing Evolution — Annie and Rod Capps Embrace Self-Improvement and Lessons Learned on “Never Done” Album

Rod Capps, Annie Capps, Ozzie Andrews, and Jason Dennie. Photo – Jen Prouty.

For Annie and Rod Capps, self-improvement is a lifelong process and commitment.

The Chelsea, Michigan, couple explores that concept and the lessons they’ve learned on their latest folk album, Never Done.

“I’m always trying to do better, be better,” said Annie Capps. “I don’t always succeed, but the best kind of growth is that which creeps up on you after a long time of doing a lot of inner work.”

As part of that inner work, the duo examines the impact personal growth and wisdom have on them over time. They also reveal epiphanies about past behaviors, decisions, and actions that surfaced while writing the 10 tracks for Never Done.

“It’s almost as if a light bulb goes off and those self-improvements start to show themselves in real ways,” said Annie Capps. “I write what I’m feeling, and my lyrics often reflect a combination of reality—the kind of person I am—and the kind of person I want to be.”

Annie Capps (songwriting, vocals, guitar) shares those self-reflections through lyrics that range from personal and anecdotal to conversational and humorous.

“Part of the healthier version of self-reflection is not to take myself so seriously, especially when lamenting the mistakes of my youth,” she said. “I guess I’m in the season of life where reflecting on the past is natural, but I’m also looking at it through a more compassionate lens.”

Through another lens, Annie and Rod Capps (guitar, viola, vocals) view Never Done as a milestone of sorts—it’s their 10th studio album.

They recorded the album in their Chelsea home studio and at Ann Arbor’s Big Sky Recording with bandmates Jason Dennie (mandolin, vocals), Dan “Ozzie” Andrews (bass), and Michael Shimmin (drums, percussion).

“Fast forward, I think we have gotten very comfortable with certain musicians and certain ways of recording,” Rod Capps said “I think we’ve learned what we can do and what works and what doesn’t.”

To learn more, I spoke with Annie and Rod Capps about their album ahead of an August 27 show at The Ark in Ann Arbor.

Continue reading “Ongoing Evolution — Annie and Rod Capps Embrace Self-Improvement and Lessons Learned on “Never Done” Album” →

Back to Basics – Hollow Head Explores Raw Alt-Rock Sound on New Self-Titled Album

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Hollow Head’s Elliott Miller, Ian Gerrard, John Baldwin, and Jim Adame. Photo – Paul Gerrard

Last August, Hollow Head’s Jim Adame and Elliott Miller took an expeditious approach to writing and recording their sophomore release.

The two bandmates from the Denver quartet created a makeshift studio at an Airbnb in Fairplay, Colorado to quickly capture the nine tracks for Hollow Head over six days.

“We didn’t go into this album with a theme in mind. The main thing that we wanted to do was write and record the majority of the songs together at once,” said Adame, the band’s vocalist-guitarist, about their new album.

“They all weren’t written at the same time, but most of them were written in a shorter period of time compared to A Spark of Madness. That’s more of a common theme with our songs.”

What resulted are nine tracks filled with honest, thoughtful, and vulnerable lyrics about processing internal struggles and sharing them with the outside world.

“That’s also why we decided to have the album be self-titled,” Adame said. “There wasn’t a lot of separation this time between Elliott and me—it was a lot more collaborative.”

Miller, Hollow Head’s vocalist-drummer, agreed: “It feels like our first true record. The other one was a bunch of different stuff pieced together.”

Continue reading “Back to Basics – Hollow Head Explores Raw Alt-Rock Sound on New Self-Titled Album” →