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Here I am, still talking about The Great Escape, but I promise you this will be the last time. This first experience consisted in a little bit more than 30 gigs in 3 days, in venues all over the city. As this wasn’t quite a workout already, I couldn’t help but send a few emails here and there, hoping to catch up with my favorite acts in the lineup. This ended up being a total failure, between the overbooked artists, Roc Nation replying to every other message only and my requests lost in the abyss of Internet… which actually seemed to be the case for Dan Caplen (formerly known as D/C). I therefore decided to reach out personally on Instagram and my prayers have been answered! Except that, the evening before, I still had no idea what time we were to meet and I was already expecting the whole thing to turn into a fiasco.
On the very day, after a DM announcing his soundcheck, my friend convinced me to drop him a line and try my luck at the Shooshh (where he was set to perform), between Seramic and Kevin Garrett‘s concerts (the latter being scheduled on the other side of the planet/Brighton). This reduced my luck to 20 minutes, all in all. And just when I was about to give up and leave, I saw Daniel coming out, holding two beers. I rejoiced in that unexpected but kind thought… which was absolutely not meant for me, as it’s been quickly revealed by his cheerful walk towards a friend nearby the entrance. I unashamedly interrupted their reunion to ask for an interview after the show, on the pebbles, the wind dancing with our hair and our laughters dancing with the wind.
Fortunately indeed, the zygomatic muscles don’t need 8 hours of sleep to work at full capacity, even when heavy dark circles are trying to put pressure because you only closed your eyes for 1h30 the night before, which turned out to be quite short for Daniel too, he told me. Against all odds, these fifteen minutes spent together are now part of my favourite musical tête-à-tête, as the uncertain organisation allowed for more spontaneity. See, last-minute isn’t always bad. Content-wise, you’ll notice that the British singer can be very talkative one minute, and quiet as the grave the next one. It appeared I’m not the only victim of this behaviour: at the end of our discussion, Dan Caplen thanked me once again for my All eyes on… feature published earlier this year, admitting that my article contained some information that his own mom had never heard of!
Mystery is definitely the keyword when it comes to his upcoming projects, although he did let slip one juicy detail… But as a good confidante, I agreed to edit out and keep that secret safely. Yet I can still assure you that Dan Caplen is one to follow the beloved quote “Work hard in silence, let your success be your noise”, going as far as refusing, back then, to share a release date for his Badman EP, which is now officially set to July 29th! I think it’s safe to say that it will include his latest track Longing For You (produced by Hoost), as well as his brand new single available released earlier today: Beautiful & Fragile, featuring Jay Prince and produced by the great Dave Tozer. “Nothing ever stays the same. ‘Beautiful & Fragile’ is about trying to appreciate what you had and concentrating on the good things that happened when you look back on your past”, Dan Caplen explained on NME.
While waiting for this official debut EP, I’m giving you the opportunity to get Dan Caplen’s TUNES, an exclusive EP that you won’t find on the world wide web as it is only available as a physical copy. The tracklist includes Longing For You, Fall and two demos. 10 copies, 0 question, 0 random winner: the only rule is “first come, first served”! To receive this little gem from the vault along with a love note (written by moi), you just have to follow me on 2 social networks @urbansoulmag (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat) and then send me an email to alison@urbansoul.be with your name, address and username on the chosen websites/apps. The contest is open to all European residents, including from the United Kingdom (we gotta comfort those cool peeps who voted Remain)! And stay tuned for PART 2…
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