Interview: Cape Crush

Written by Zoe Tevyaw 

Massachusetts DIY veterans team up in new band Cape Crush, recently releasing San Souci on April 14th, a debut EP that tugs at heartstrings and headbangers alike. The tracks, written mostly as folk songs by vocalist Ali Lipman and turned into fiery, driven anthems by guitarist James Christopher, run the gamut of emotions and experiences in classic emo form.  The four members have spent decades as thriving members of the flourishing New England DIY and hardcore scenes involved in bringing the community back from the brink of pandemic restrictions. Blending their vast individual skill sets into this project, the members of Cape Crush have put their best feet forward for San Souci. We were able to connect with these musicians and pick the Cape Crush brain.

Zoe: Your band name “Cape Crush” references Cape Ann in the north shore of Massachusetts where you’ve lived. Do you have strong ties to Massachusetts and its scene that influence your work?

Ali: Definitely. James and I both grew up going to shows at the Fishtown Artspace in Gloucester. There are a lot of great bands and music people that can trace their roots back to the scene in Cape Ann in the 2000s. Certainly, I was inspired to make music by being there, but its longest-lasting impact for me is the crusade to make art and music accessible to the under-18 crowd. Massachusetts is known for its great punk and hardcore music scenes, but we’ve always fought against the powers that be to keep it going. I think there are a lot of scene elders (us included!) who are still fighting the good fight to keep all-ages music alive in the suburbs. It’s important - not just for the pipeline it creates for young talent - but for the young people who find a sense of belonging in those scenes. Youth is often criminalized, and there are few places you can hang out in public with friends without being extorted or accused of loitering. Cape Crush wears the North Shore band label proudly not because we don’t love being part of the Boston scene, but because of solidarity with the awesome music that is coming from our home region. 

As far as influencing the songs themselves - that’s definitely true! You do see Massachusetts in these songs. Homesickness for Massachusetts is a prevailing theme on the EP. My favorite example is in Sunny & Boone which is a song about phoning my former roommates to ask them about their pets and lamenting about the distance between us. And of course our sound - I think the arrangements themselves are very much influenced by the emo sounds of the Northeast and all of our time spent in the DIY scene. 

Zoe: The title of the EP is San Souci, after a neighborhood in South Carolina. Do your location and surroundings play a role in your creative choices, and could we see that in the EP?

Ali: The San Souci EP visits many locations because as a songwriter, I went on many journeys with people and places that inspired me. This particular collection of songs has a thematic through-line that reflects on the time I spent in South Carolina. It’s not a concept album, but it can probably be attributed to what I was working through personally when I wrote the songs. There are also visits to Delaware Water Gap and Lowell on the EP.  A couple of these songs are quite old, and some of them are responses to the old songs with more time and wisdom under my belt. 

Zoe: New England definitely has a booming DIY scene. What does being involved in that community look like from your perspective? You’ve been involved in it for a while, have you noticed any cool growth?

Cody: I have been booking shows and playing in the area since 2007. I've always been in love with the local DIY scene here and am intrigued by how it goes through waves depending on the flow of college kids coming to and leaving the city. Like many other cities, the pandemic closed a bunch of our small-capacity places to play so it's been fun seeing people get creative about how they can host a show.

Ali: We’re all involved in the community to some extent. I help run a DIY booking collective on the North Shore called, “Oh, Nice Booking Collective.” We don’t have permanent space, but book VFW Halls, basements, and cafes and do 1-2 shows a month. There are a lot of promoters in the area that share our ethos, and we’re often teaming up with one another. For example, we are gearing up for our second rendition of Hope Fest, a charity festival that showcases underground art/music while raising funds and awareness for mental health. This year we’re teaming up with NAGLY (the North Shore Alliance for GLBTQ+ Youth). We’ve already had 100 submissions from bands that want to play if that gives you any idea of how things are booming around here!

Jake: The scene up here has always been so welcoming! I used to book/host a lot of shows, and it’s always been a blast. I used to live at a show house in Lowell, down the street from two others, one of which Ali lived at, and it made the years in and after college so special. When I started up a short-lived annual emo/punk festival for ALS, the community showed up in droves. It’s always been so supportive of anything, or any band, I’ve tried to bring into it. It’s been such a privilege to do the same, especially with all the talent up here. It’s definitely come and gone in waves, but the future feels really bright. I don’t think I’ve been this excited about the scene since I first entered it many moons ago, and I’m so happy that the rest of Cape Crush is pushing to make it even better! 

Zoe: You’ve said that a lot of your ideas start as folk songs. Can you walk me through some of the process of turning stripped-down ideas into such energy-packed tracks? Are there ever times where you debate keeping them acoustic-based?

James: This has been my role in most of the bands I’ve been in. I come from a hardcore background but have always loved singer-songwriters and the art of actually constructing a good song. With hardcore, it always felt like you were coming up with cool parts and gluing them together the best you could.  But I think it’s that experience that allows me to hear quiet folk songs and envision how they could be presented in a loud and energetic sort of way. Typically, Ali will come to me with a song she has written, that’s usually pretty complete in its folky, often finger-picked form. To be honest, all the songs sound better this way. She’s just so talented. I really do love folk music, and think there is a place for those songs to sound just as they are on our records. But from my perspective, I don’t always want to listen to a whole record of folk songs, nor is it very fun jumping around on stage to acoustic finger-picking. I think she was shocked the first time she heard what I did to some of her songs. I remember sending her a garage band file for “San Souci” that sounds much as it does in that final recording and feeling a little worried I had ruined something special.

On a more process oriented note, once I learn the song from Ali, we usually record a very basic version to a metronome to get the tempo, then we fit pre-programmed drums from Garageband and start layering guitars/vocals. I love this part. I love drenching loud driving guitars with melody. These songs start to take some shape, but it’s really not until Cody and Jake get a chance to put their spin on the rhythm that the songs sound the way that they should. 

However, some songs like “Mothers Day” stay quiet because they feel right that way. Sometimes it’s a challenge for me to play quiet songs. But I secretly love it. But we usually discuss how Ali pictures the song before I take the distorted guitar butcher knife to it. I think we all feel there is an importance to having variety on a record. 

Zoe: San Souci is a debut release for Cape Crush. What was your strategy for piecing together the project knowing it might be listeners’ first impression of you?

Ali: Bold of you to assume we had a strategy! Jokes aside, we’re lucky enough to all share a similar vision for the band. I think the best thing we did for the project was choosing to record with Zach Weeks at God City Studios. We realized pretty early on that this was special, and having someone special engineer the music was the best thing we could do to shine a spotlight on the songs. Maybe the strategy is to give the songs their best shot at being heard and loved the way we love them. 

Zoe: From what we can tell by your single, you seem to infuse your sound with a lot of fun energy. How do you balance keeping things lively while discussing heavy topics like homesickness and grief?

Ali: You’ve described the classic emo dichotomy! We all share a love for the genre, and while there’s definitely a place for ballads, an energetic sound often gives the song the drama it needs to really hit. A good example of this is in the second chorus of Avec Souci where James does this simple descending guitar riff that emphasizes the emotions of the refrain. Honestly, I think a lot of this is the magic that James, Cody, and Jake bring to the arrangements. I wouldn’t call the songs lively, but they’re certainly fizzy and catchy because these guys have a good instinct for what goes where to make a song tug at your heartstrings.

Zoe: The San Souci single release also has a lyric video set with a doodle-filled composition notebook, any particular reason you chose this kind of imagery for that?

Cody: I made that lyric video and I think the idea I was going for was just the small doodles that would be in one's notebook writing lyrics, during class, work etc.  I know personally the notebook I used to write lyrics for another project was littered with little doodles. 

Zoe: You’ve got a bunch of shows lined up for Spring and Summer. Is there anything you can tell us about what your live shows look and feel like?

Ali: You can certainly expect to see a big grin on Cody’s face! We try to keep it energetic and fun. Plus, you don’t want to miss my terrible stage banter.