Happy Ears: Moonglow by Cape Cub
By Chad Male
I has become we:
It’s an early summer’s day and it’s the year 2017. 10am. It’s actually pretty cold and droplets of rain fall on me from the mile-wide grey clouds that hug the earth from above. Not those graphic white Toy Story clouds, not the black thunderclouds either. I’m in Glasgow, Scotland, working on some new music and I’m thinking about what the future holds for Cape Cub. Not in a negative way, mind. But in a good way. A hopeful way. I’m thinking about how far it’s brought me, how promising things currently are, and where I might take it next.
The band is in a slight state of flux. The lineup is about to change and I’m currently speaking to one of my oldest friends Mark and a good friend Simon. They’re about to jump in some sessions at our rehearsal space with myself, our guitarist Jack, and our drummer Adam. Nothing’s been promised or planned. It’s not an ‘audition’ either (that just feels a bit lame). It’s a ‘see how things go’ basis, I guess. Mark and I have been in bands together since we were just thirteen years old and praying at the alter of Blink 182. He can play every instrument going, and we’re assigning him to keys. Simon is a seasoned gig promoter and knows what it’s like to be in a band and be in this tough industry more than anyone. He’s also a damn good bassist. I think this is going to be a good move for the band and I think I’ve found the right guys to help me take things up a notch.
—
Fast forward to a year later. It’s May 3rd, 2018. That band change I was telling you about? It worked a treat. It’s progressing joyously and we feel like we’ve hit that special spot in our band chemistry. The live shows have been better than ever and they’re still getting better with each gig. It’s a feeling that’s passing good vibes right through each one of us and we’re all into it.
Jack and I are finishing up the new single. We’re adding in some more guitar lines and making this truly sound like the first full-band Cape Cub song. It no longer sounds like the solo artist Cape Cub.
Moonglow is a song I wrote about hope. I often go back to this theme of a light at the end of a tunnel. I guess like how Robert Smith writes songs. Dark, sometimes sombre, open-ended, yet equally optimistic, jovial and often quite saccharine. The conflict of happiness and sadness clashing head on. The war between love and loss. It all plays around in my head like two whirlwinds clashing into each other to create something boundless and full of energy. I’m writing about these emotions that are essential to the fabric of being human. Playing on these feelings that are neither black nor white, sitting in that middle grey-ground that we
find ourselves alive in so often.
Maybe those clouds in Glasgow struck a chord with me.
We’re about to head on a handful of dates around the UK to truly road test this new lineup we’ve been refining for nearly a year. Things are feeling so good.
—
It’s July 12th, 2018. Tomorrow sees the release of Moonglow, our new single. I’m slightly nervous, super excited and feeling thankful that Cape Cub is no longer the image of one person, one mind and one set of emotions. It’s about the collective. For real this time. This song sees us pushing the boundaries that I’ve often set myself in the past. It’s one that encapsulates our live performance more. It’s setting the tone. We’ve got organs, lots of guitars, chants, big drums and a heap of other cool things going on within the production. I’m finally letting go of these walls I’ve often built around the project. I’m letting other people in and I like how this feels. Moonglow is the result of what happens when I let my guard down, and leave myself open to
change.
And you know what they say. Change is as good as the rest.
I has become we.
—
Chad Male, Cape Cub