From the initial spark of self-discovery during walks in nature to the culmination of self-acceptance woven into each track, Capernum shares the profound narrative thread that binds the album together. Delving into standout tracks like 'Farewell My Friend' and 'Underbrush,' we uncover the depth of emotion and storytelling that underscore their production, offering insights into the bittersweet farewells and enchanting entrances that define the album's essence.

INTERVIEW

Your debut album, "Forest of Fairytales," offers a rich emotional journey. Can you share the inspiration behind the album and how your personal experiences influenced its creation?

That’s a cool way to put it. That album has a special place in my heart because it was my first full body of work that I felt proud of after making music for years. I started working on it in March of 2021.

Around that time, I started going on walks through a path in my neighborhood, and one time I realized I hadn’t looked more closely into nature since I was a child. I took a picture of a small carved-out hill that stood above the rest of the ground and I stared at that picture daily for a while. The album sort of spiraled out from the idea that self-acceptance

is an actual place you have to journey to.

The forest became the ideation of that very thought. Track 1 starts with a story of self loathing and incapability, to the final track where I finally felt capable and able to love who I was as a person. I feel like as I made the album, I slowly discovered who I was and began to love myself wholeheartedly. As far as music that inspired it.

As far as sonic influences go, I would have to say folk music, Glaive’s earlier work and Quadeca.

"Farwell My Friend" and "Underbrush" are standout tracks from your album. What emotions or stories were you aiming to convey with these particular songs, and how did you approach their production?

Farewell My Friend was actually the last song I started for the album.

I felt like it needed to be a much more minimal singer-songwriter cut to really make it personal. A lot of people thought it was about saying goodbye to a friend, but I really wrote it about saying goodbye to who I was.

I was just about to head to college, and felt like I needed to cut out a lot of my bad tendencies to really move onto the next stage of my life. It’s a song about saying thanks to who you were and how far you’ve come, but it’s time for a change.

It’s a really bittersweet goodbye that also works in the context of the album which I found really beautiful.

As for Underbrush, the three songs before it are supposed to be kind of a prologue in that they occur before the start of the journey to self acceptance. Underbrush is meant to signify the entrance into the woods. It’s supposed to feel magical and almost legendary in a sense.

For the production, I did a studio session with one of my high school friends. The intro guitar was recorded on voice memos to get the cicada sounds which gave it a really raw feeling and connected it back to the theme.

We thought that adding dreamy, bouncy production with the soft folky guitar gives it a sort of simple, yet otherworldly feel. I think it really fits that sparkly fairy vibe.

If I could go back, I think I’d redo the vocals on that song, but I digress.

As a new artist, how would you describe your signature sound, and what elements do you believe set your music apart in the current music landscape?

I think for my music personally it’s really hard to box into one genre. I’ve tried glaive type hyperpop stuff, folk, synthwave, indie and just straight up weird experimental music. Especially on FOF, it varies pretty frequently. I think the most signature aspect of my music is my voice. It tends to be a little weird and different from a lot of artists I’ve heard. I’m still trying a ton of new stuff, I pretty much just make whatever I’m feeling at the moment.

I think what sets my music apart is my ability to piece together worlds through lyrics and soundscapes. Even with differing genres, I can make a project sound cohesive. I love to tell stories, it’s so much fun. Pretty much all of my songs tell stories or stick to a certain concept, some more simple than others.

The themes of loss, hurt, self-reflection, and conflicting desires are prominent in your work. How do you navigate translating these complex emotions into your music, both lyrically and sonically?

I think for lyrics it really comes down to just being as vulnerable as possible. All of those emotions are things I’ve really gone through. I’ve lost a lot, I’ve been really hurt and I’ve come a long way in my personal life. I really like being super authentic with my delivery and just letting my thoughts come out in their purest form.

I love to write, and I’ve never really been a freestyler, but I treat the lyrics very delicately in that I don’t force anything that doesn’t work. I keep trying until I find the best inflections to show how I’m really feeling.

With production, I think the translation of emotions comes down a lot to sound choices that evoke certain feelings and also knowing when to make a maximal versus a minimal sounding part. Sometimes the most minimal areas allow for the emotions and vocals to really come through.

That’s something that I really like doing, and doing really really soft simple songs has been a cool thing for me recently.

"Forest of Fairytales" suggests a thematic connection between nature and storytelling. Can you delve into the significance of this connection in the context of your album and overall artistic vision?

In question 1, I kinda went over this, but I’ll go more into the abstract ideas I’ve had about this. Nature feels very open and freeing, and there’s so many stories being told just within wildlife. Animals trying to survive and bees pollinating plants.

It’s all very beautiful to me.

The openness really is fitting for the idea of self-acceptance. Self-acceptance is really just the mind being open enough to love yourself through any and all of the mistakes you make.

Nature is going to continue to play a pretty strong role in much more of my music to come. The possibilities with concepts and imagery in nature are endless really.

Your ability to vocally express intense emotions is a notable aspect of your music. How do you approach the balance between vulnerability and strength in your vocal delivery?

Vocals are something that is so cool to me. That’s where I really got my start with music. I’ve always been a vocalist, but adding production elements is something I didn’t start until a year before the album.

I like approaching the balance like anything, I think there really should be a good mix of vocal intensity on an album, depending on what you’re going for obviously. In my music, I really like to go more intense on vocals when feelings are even more heightened. I like to dramatize things a lot. And when a song feels like it needs to be more soft and visceral I like to really commit.

Vulnerability is something I really relate to more with a softer delivery. It feels quiet and heartfelt. I like strength when it comes to more catchy earworm songs. However, they should still have some pauses in their intensity at points to make the highs feel higher.

Overall, vocals are still something I’m constantly working on and trying to improve, so I think I’ll continue to get better at facing that balance.

Are there specific artists, genres, or even non-musical influences that have played a significant role in shaping your artistic style and approach to music?

Definitely. My biggest artist inspirations when I started were Juice WRLD and Convolk.

Rip Juice.

Now I would say my biggest inspirations are Bon Iver, Quadeca, Jane Remover, Underscores, Quedronol, The Microphones, Patrick O’Neill, and Brakence. A lot of these artists are exploring sounds I’ve always wanted to try out, and I think elements of their music are going to show up in my new stuff in a lot of cool ways.

I can pick songs from all of these artists’ recent bodies of work that are influencing specific songs I’m working on. Genre influences for me right now are really mainly folk, grunge, rock and experimental stuff in general. I definitely need to branch out more. For non musical influences, a lot of it comes from photography accounts I see on twitter, they inspire me quite a bit and help me to brainstorm visuals for my music.

I love the album movie for “I Didn't Mean To Haunt You”. It gave me some really interesting ideas for visuals. A lot of anime’s are also pretty influential for my style. “Mob Psycho” is a great example of a really visually stunning world that tells a really beautiful story.

I’d say places and atmospheres are probably my biggest inspiration right now though. I like emulating feelings of being somewhere while you aren’t. It’s cool for world building.

Looking ahead, what are your goals for 2024, both in terms of musical exploration and any potential new projects on the horizon?

I have so many goals for 2024. A few years ago, I made a lot of metric based goals, and slowly I’ve moved away from that.

Numbers are my last priority, while making art that I can be proud of is #1. I think my goal is to drop more music next year. This year I only dropped four songs, albeit one of them took me 6 months to perfect.

As of right now, there will be a new song in January called “Quilt”, and it’s a really soft, super short little winter themed acoustic song.

Really proud of it, and I’m excited to kick the year off strong. I’m hoping to drop a single like every other month at least for the rest of the year. So after “Quilt”, expect another song in February! I think I want to go back to some of the sounds I’ve explored before that are more poppy for sure, and I’m interested in exploring grunge which I’ve never really dabbled in.

As far as new projects go, I just started working on my second album. I’m excited to see where it goes, but I can’t really say too much other than it blows anything I’ve worked on out of the water. Depending on how long it takes, there might be an EP or two before it.

Super stoked for the album and its world.

In your creative process, do you have any rituals or routines that help you get into the right mindset for writing, producing, or recording music?

My favorite ritual for when I really want to feel the song is turning all the lights off in my room and recording with just light from my computer screen. It helps me fill in creative gaps because the dark helps me to visualize and feel things that aren’t there more closely.

I also really like making a song and then lying down and closing my eyes to see how it feels to really zone into the song. When I’m immersed, that’s how I know I’ve made something special.

I also work best from 12 am to 4 am so staying up late has sort of become a habit for me.

As your audience grows, what message or feeling do you hope listeners take away from your music, especially those who are encountering your work for the first time?

I think it’s super cool to see my growth since I first started. Even back then, I had people say that my music made them feel things that they hadn’t felt, or that my vulnerability was comforting. Some people say they just enjoy the music.

One thing I really want listener’s to get out of my music is an escape and the feelings that I try to portray. I also want to show people that anyone can make art. It doesn’t matter how many people it reaches, or how good it is.

We have so much freedom to express ourselves but some people choose not to. Nothing wrong with that, it’s just that if it’s something you’re interested in, what’s holding you back from trying something new?

Making art has shaped who I am as a person, and I’m so grateful that it’s such an accessible thing now. 

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