Amidst the blitz of exciting young alternative rock bands emerging from Australia steps Capitol Affair. The quartet emerged in 2018, uniting in the midst of shared heartbreak and self-doubts, taking solace in both the camaraderie and subsequent musical bond that would come from the inception.

Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.

Jarrad - Vocals, Ben - guitar, Tom - Drums, Ricky - Bass

For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Capitol Affair? How long has the band been around?

So we all kind of knew each other from a music university. Tom and myself (Jarrad) were trying to start a band whilst Ben and Ricky were already in a rock band. After failing to get our project going, we asked Ben to join and he introduced us to Ricky and that’s a very short version of how the band started from my perspective. We wrote a few songs and released our first single “It’s Too Late” in late 2018.

What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?

The idea was sparked from the song “Casual Affair - Panic! At The Disco”. In our minds, the name kind of translates to “An important event”. We spent a lot of time together working on this band because we felt it was one of the more important things we wanted to do with our lives. We’ve never changed our band name.

Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?

We all write in this band. We usually start with an idea and we’ll jam it until we are somewhat happy with how it sounds. After that I’ll take the song and put it into the computer and start working on melodies. At this point multiple members are probably with me and everyone chimes in with helpful touches until we get to the point we have a basic song. After this I’ll throw some scratch vocals down and bounce it out for people to listen to. If we still like it, we’ll spend more time really focusing on every single part, transitions, etc until it is a finished demo. 

From their we’ll bounce some backing tracks out and start playing it. In the past we have wrote about romance. Our first EP was kind of based around that. Since then, we’ve started delving into other things we deal with in day to day life, whether that be mental health, being just a number and relationships. We tend to write about things we see from our perspective.

I can definitely see us writing about a whole range of things that we would have never thought about starting out, but that’s just a part of growing as people. We will always make sure we keep our lyrics real.

What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?

Currently, I personally am being inspired by 40s music. I have no idea how it was recorded, but there are subtle mistakes and really slight tuning issues that you wouldn’t hear in today’s music without it being deliberate. We’re going to release music in the future that uses some of those techniques and I’m super excited for it! Our newest single “Will You Go” has trumpet in it, which isn’t typical in pop/rock. I think most of our inspirations for our writing don’t typically come from our genre.

Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?

Ricky was telling me about how as an early teenager, he was shown the band “Underoath”, which lead him to start playing music. He used to sit at the back of the class with his headphones on, by himself, listening to emo music. 

What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, etc …

For me, it’s nothing cool at all. It is a day of a bland diet. I try to not eat anything like chilli, garlic, tomato’s, anything that could make my voice dodgy. 20 mins before we go on, I’ll warm up my voice with some vocal exercises. The drive to the show is always fun. We throw on some stupid playlist that has nothing to do with the music we are playing. Every time we put on “Drake”, something bad happens. It’s kind of a rule to not play Drake before a show now because it’s bad luck.

What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?

think playing Brisbane/Canberra/Newcastle. Those first shows getting out of our hometown (Sydney) was special. 

If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?

‘09 Paramore. I listened to them growing up, so that would be so special to play alongside the line-up that changed my musical perspective. I think the lads from 5SOS would be a good time. From the same city and roughly similar age. That’d be fun.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Our new single “Will You Go” is out! If you want to hear what a trumpet in a pop/rock band sounds like, go have a listen!

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