Best known as the frontman of influential West Coast skate-punk outfit Lagwagon for the past 34 years, Joey Cape has also made music under his own name for a while now. But there’s a third string to his bow in the form of Bad Astronaut, a slightly less punk-oriented band that was formed in 2000 and which lasted until the death of drummer Derrick Plourde in 2005. The band put out their third record, which they’d begun making with Plourde, the following year and then called it a day. But almost two decades later, Bad Astronaut have returned with Untethered, a collection of stripped-back, reworked songs that Cape made with members Angus Cooke and Todd Capps. The singer was inspired to put it together after hearing the acoustic instrumental covers that the other two had been performing—an outfit Cape lovingly nicknamed Tangus.
From there, Untethered—a humorously morbid pun on “unplugged”—was born. The result is a collection of nine beautiful, elegiac, and wistful songs that truly reveals the broken heart and soul at their core. Mournful and haunting in equal measure, these songs are possibly the most melancholy in Cape’s career, and even though they’ve all been released previously, they sound totally transformed, not least the anthemic and epic nature of “The F Word.”
Listen to the full stream of Untethered below, and read our brief Q&A with Joey Cape about what, and how much, this band and this record means to him.
A friend of mine has a theory that every punk eventually turns into a country singer. Is this album part of that evolution?
It does seem to be true. In my case, it’s more like reversion. I always wrote songs with an acoustic guitar because I don’t play piano. Almost everything I’ve ever written began with a stripped-down acoustic demo. Performing a song the same way is just as comfortable to me.
This album started after you listened to the Tangus covers of other punk bands, but what made you decide to re-record these songs?
It was initially just for fun and intended to be one song—maybe to be added to the Todd and Angus recording collection. That song was “Grey Suits.” We all enjoyed the process and liked how it turned out, so we chose to do a few more and just kept going. Somewhere along the line, I suggested a full-length. Why not?
What do you get from Bad Astronaut that you don’t get from Lagwagon or your solo stuff?
I don’t want to cite the outstanding musicianship, because I think everyone I collaborate with is talented. I guess it’s simply a matter of the Bad Astronaut guys being some of my earliest friends. For example, I played in a band with Todd Capps when I was 14. I suppose the music differs slightly from the other projects, but I’m unsure why.
How did it feel to revisit and reinterpret these songs?
It felt great. I love the simplicity of the recordings. The three of us have gotten together and played the songs since, and it sounds virtually the same because there are no overdubs on those recordings. We probably would’ve recorded the album live if it hadn’t been for COVID. We’ve played a gig recently. It was effortless and rewarding.
What was the process for doing so? I feel like “The F Word” in particular might have been tricky.
The overall process varied. Sometimes we’d just discuss the arrangement and tempo, and then Todd would track his piano part as a foundation. Other times, I’d demo the song first live with acoustic and vocal on my cell phone. That was, of course, just a guide. Later, Todd would create a piano base from that. Following piano, I’d lay down a vocal, and then Angus would have free reign with his cello parts to fill in the gaps. Angus also mixed it all in his home studio. As you said, “The F Word” was a bit tricky. We struggled with the outro’s length and dynamics. With fewer instruments, keeping up the intensity and excitement is challenging.
A little while ago, you recorded the first new Bad Astronaut song, “Wide Awake,” in 15 years as part of 2019’s box set, Universe. Was the long wait out of respect to Derrick?
The hiatus was due to many things, but it was primarily because it was hard to visualize performing that music without Derrick. He and I started the whole thing. I couldn’t imagine the band without him. After a decade or so, we attempted new versions of the band with other drummers. It was cool, but didn’t quite work. Nobody’s fault. Just chemistry. Eventually, we stopped searching. Then, an old friend named Eric Herzog came along. Derrick and him were friends, and there was mutual respect there. Playing with Eric was familiar. I loved it. Unfortunately, Eric passed away, too. So fucking sad. It’s hard to even think about it. “Wide Awake” featured a great drummer, Kye Smith, from Sydney, Australia. He was a long-time fan of Derrick’s drumming and was nice enough to help us. We decided adding a current song to the box set would be cool. It wasn’t even a song of mine. I only wrote the lyrics. The rest was Todd. I think it worked.
