Vikesh Kapoor: A Boston Musician By Any Other Name…
Vikesh Kapoor insists he’s not from around here, nor, really, anywhere in particular. “I’m from India, I’m from the United States, grew up in Pennsylvania,” he relents. “I don’t consider myself a Boston or Cambridge musician, though the city has been kind to me.” Indeed—Kapoor’s name has lit up the local music pages of late, thanks in no small part to Newspress Scare, his upcoming seven-inch (the album release party is Thursday night at the Democracy Center in Cambridge). In the ensuing media blitz, he has tried to carve out an image as a traditional troubadour, and Newspress Scare represents an admirable effort at traditional folk from a talented musician and earnest songwriter.
The seven-inch consists of two originals and a cover of “Mack the Knife,” on which Kapoor rasps Bertolt Brecht’s melancholy lyrics. Kapoor claims the cover is on his debut “Because it feels good to sing it the way I’ve sung it,” but there may be another explanation: the song’s bittersweet lyrics allow him to wring every drop of “awww” out of a song most people associate with a much more upbeat Ella Fitzgerald version. On the title track, “Newspress Scare,” Kapoor attempts an extended metaphor in which a town is thrown into confusion when a newspress is rumored to have broken. It’s an up-and-down effort, which some fun vocal runs leading into harmonica solos. Kapoor’s best original work, though, is “Oh, Siv,” a heartbreakingly simple meditation on the departure of a woman. When asked if Siv’s story springs from an event in his life, Kapoor is characteristically vague: Siv was “a friend of mine…She really did leave on a train,” but he then says he wrote it because “it reminds me of what Tom Waits says in ‘San Diego Serenade.’” (After reading the lyrics—thank you Lord Google—it’s not tough to imagine Kapoor and Siv as more than friends).
Kapoor’s decision to travel the road of the lonely singer is somewhat archetypal and, as singer-songwriters tend to do, Kapoor cares an awful lot about his lyrics. “A song is never fully written until the words are complete,” he writes. Among his prettiest lyrics is this from “Oh, Siv”: “When you make it out to the West/ will you call me to tell me you don’t like it?/ tell me you’ll meet me back in Ipswich.” Ha! Ipswich! Kapoor might not consider himself a Boston musician, but we’re glad to have him.
–Dan Weber
What’s your story? Where are you from, how did you get into music, where do you want to go?
I’m from India, I’m from the United States, grew up in Pennsylvania. I went to church when I was a kid but wasn’t religious. I went just to sing the hymns. Last summer I stood in the Salt Lake in Utah, looked up at a red mountain and realized I had arrived there because of my songs. That was enough for me then, but now I just want to keep goin up and up. I don’t consider myself a Boston or Cambridge musician, though the city has been kind to me.
What’s your upcoming tour schedule?
It will be posted this week on the website. I will travel through Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Chicago, and Michigan,then through Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine. So, a Midwestern and Northeastern tour.
How do you see yourself as a musician? Singer-songwriter, composer, world-ruler-in-waiting, something else entirely?
Singer-songwriter is a lazy term given nowadays to love song singers with nothing new to sing. I write a song first before I can sing it because it’s new to my eyes. I’m a contemporary songwriter-singer with old heroes hiding in my microphone speaker.
Who would you most like to share the stage with?
If he were alive, John Jacob Niles. He gives me the shivers.
What’s the worst gig you’ve ever done, and why? The best?
All shows teach you one thing or another, for better or worse. If there’s someone listening, how can I say it’s the worst if that person has spent their time listening to me? I played a show for 3 people in El Paso, and four barking chihuahuas, yet the girl who offered me a space to play listened so intently that I can’t even see a show like that being bad. I remember her face still, so you know?
How do you view your lyrics’ relationship with your music? Do the lyrics drive what you do—that is, do you write your lyrics first and fit a song around them—or do you focus on melody and then tailor the lyrics?
The words don’t always come first, but a song is never fully written until the words are complete.
Why did you choose to include a cover song (“Mack the Knife”) on your debut 7″?
Because it feels good to sing it the way I’ve sung it.
Can you tell me a bit about how you wrote “Newspress Scare” and “Oh, Siv”? What inspired you, what was the songwriting process like?
“Newspress Scare” is a lyrically dense, tough, song. Maybe my most ambitious, lyrically. I’m just writing about things that deeply resonate with me, but that I don’t see other singers singing about, especially folk singers. I was getting so much information from the papers and internet- the information age it seems has a lot of people talking but many less listening. I can see this just standing in an elevator with strangers. A stranger’s best friend is his cell phone now, it could never be me or you. Maybe I went into the ring with that frustration when tackling this song.
“Oh Siv” was written in three minutes, just as long as the song is, shortly after I found out my friend, a dark-haired Norwegian gal named Siv, was moving away. I woke up in the middle of the night and wrote it quick. She really did leave on a train. Why I wrote it reminds me of what Tom Waits says in “San Diego Serenade”
Vikesh Kapoor plays at the Democracy Center in Cambridge on Thursday 2/11. Get tix here.
Click here to buy Newspress Scare.
