Interview: Northern Captives
This week, the Lincoln-based alt-rock trio Northern Captives released their debut album DIZZY, showcasing their ability to capture the essence of modern life's struggles and triumphs. Born during the UK lockdowns, the album reflects the band's journey of introspection and creativity amidst uncertainty.
In an exclusive interview, we had the opportunity to hear from the band about the creation of their debut album, collaborating with Kris Crummett, the diverse musical influences shaping the album's sound, and their DIY ethos and passion for music and community.
What inspired the themes explored in your debut album DIZZY particularly the struggle of staying positive and creative in modern society?
Hate to even bring it up but writing songs for ‘DIZZY’ began during the UK lockdowns in honesty. As for many, life as I knew it shifted and flipped on it’s head. Leaving large elements of life completely out of my control and being surrounded by uncertainty and other pressures. However, it was bitter sweet. I gave a lot of my new found free time to writing music and demoing song ideas. I look back on this part fondly, I learnt a lot about music during that period.
In a way ‘DIZZY’ is a snapshot of that period up to the present. Lyrically it’s hopeful, mature and understanding of what’s important. It’s introspective at times, almost diaristic yet it can also rage, it can be anthemic and celebratory at times as well as quiet, intimate and fragile. There’s a real need more than ever for practicing arts, allowing yourself to be lost in creativity and activities you’re passionate about. Especially at a time in the UK when the quality of life is in a decline. Art and escapism feel's like the last real act of defiance.
How did the collaboration with Kris Crummett come about and how did his mastering contribute to the overall sound and vision of DIZZY?
Sam our singer and guitarist discovered Kris’ online educational resources and tutorials for audio production and really valued his methodology and approach to projects.
Hi work speaks for itself, he's mixed and mastered bands we love alongside as well as some large acts within Alt-Rock, Pop Punk and Emo. On a creative level we’re all fans of the band Fiddlehead and when their latest album “Death Is Nothing To Us” was released we took it as a sign to try get Kris on board for this project and thankfully he said yes! We love the final feel of that record. It feels great that Kris would consider working on ‘DIZZY’ with us.
As a band with members who have a background in different music scenes, how did those influences blend together to create the sound of DIZZY?
As the current members we’ve been a band for a long enough to understand one another’s playing styles. We’ve come to understand where our instrumentation sits for certain dynamics to work or for ways to portray a feeling or respond to something lyrically. We are a bit of a miss match influence wise, but that just helps us in creating something unique, it can only allow the songs to stands out from the restrictions of singular musical genre.
The artwork for the album is described as a response to the feel of the music. Can you explain how the visual aesthetic complements the themes and emotions conveyed in the songs?
The record explores many themes of personal change, societal changes, it’s political, it’s diaristic. Touches on topic of taking control, losing control - states of happiness, states of frustration. It’s a real spectrum, it’s human. The imagery had to reflect that. It had to be interpretational and ambiguous in order for it to stand a chance of becoming personal for whoever consumes it as well as timeless.
Your upcoming hometown gig is set to be your largest yet. How does it feel to reach this milestone, and what can fans expect from the live experience of DIZZY?
Yeah! We had so much fun at our last hometown show we’re so excited to do it again. The last hometown show was way over capacity crammed nose to nose.
Really proud of the set curation and the way the new set flows! We’re playing a lot of songs from ‘DIZZY’ peppered with a few older singles too.
Given your DIY ethos, what advice would you give to aspiring musicians looking to embark on a similar journey of self-production and artistic control?
Creating art and music is so freeing and available to many right now, there’s a real positive shift towards home producing, distributing and promoting online. No one wants to hear a what could have been story - if you’re burning to make art and music it’s all on you. Right now writing and recording your own music is probably the purest form it’s ever been, there arn’t many things that exist nowadays which aren’t diluted by outside influence in some way.
That being said there’s limits to what you can do alone, you need a community of friends with a common goal and interest in helping one and other out for the benefit of the community. For years we’ve been musicians and vocalists in other bands, worked sound desks for friends bands, been record producers, turned our hands to being drivers and tour managers, sold merch, booked and promoted shows, been artists, photographers and film makers. Not exclusively for our own projects but for other bands and friends. We don’t know any other way.
DIZZY from Northern Captives is out now and available on all good streaming platforms. Catch the album debut gig at The Komodo in Lincoln on 31 May.
