Capital Soirée hail from the southern suburbs of Chicago. Although just barely leaving their teenage years behind them, this three piece band has created songs with mature lyrics followed by well constructed melodies. Their penchant for relatable love songs will definitely lead them to becoming regular fan favorite amongst the young pop-rock world.
MWN: We’re here in Dekalb outside the Heartland Cafe with the cool dudes of Capital Soirée !!
Capital Soirée: Oh shit!
MWN: Haha! Alright, so who’s who of the band?
Capital Soirée:
Rej: Hey I’m Steven Rejdukowski, I play the keyboard and guitar.
Rom: Hey you sing!
Jimmy: James Kourafas, oh yeah he sings too.. I sing and play guitar
Rom: I’m Max Romero, I play Bass, and sing.. Sometimes. Haha
Griffin: I’m Griffin Shaw, I play drums live
MWN: So my first question is, you guys are coming out from Chicago, and most of you are still in College, so are there any Chicago Bands whom you look up to?
Capital Soirée: The Walters! We love The Walters. The Walters are fucking great
MWN: OH MY GOD DON’T GET ME STARTED. That band IS fucking great. And they’re all such fun guys, like the other day I commented on Luke’s instagram to sign my Croc at Lolla.
Capital Soirée:
Rom: Haha! Funny story, I was just in Jail for a few weeks, and all we could we as shoes were Crocs. So I was wearing bright orange Crocs for two weeks, and it only made me think of Walter.
MWN: But nothing will beat Walter’s Chewbacca crocs.
Capital Soirée: Oh my God Yeah!! Ahaha!
MWN: So besides The Walters, is there any bands that pushed you to want to be a band?
Capital Soirée:
Jimmy: I mean we started doing it like such a long time ago, that at this point it’s like new music that inspires us to put out music.
Rej: I feel like a big influence we’ve talked about before is Phoenix
Rom: Phoenix. Pretty much since day one it’s what we’ve been listening to and it kind of only becomes more relevant as we create more records and keep on doing shit
MWN: Phoenix!? Probably another one of my favorites. So since you mentioned you’ve been doing this for such a long time, when did you all meet?
Capital Soirée:
Rom: So like the Romantic Story is so.. Well actually if we’re taking it way way back, so me and Jimmy met in like fourth grade on the kickball field, and so we became friends. Then a few years later I was like “Hey! Do you wanna be in a band?”
Jimmy: That was like in fifth grade
Rom: Yeah yeah, so we were like in this imaginary band and then we started to do acoustic stuff, and we were an acoustic duo up until eighth grade, like we actually played some shows and did somethings
MWN: So are any of your first album songs from that time?
Capital Soirée:
Rom: Yeah like a decent amount
Jimmy: Yeah they were from like the youthful days
Rom: Then Freshman year, me and Steve were in the same biology class and we got grouped together, and he was pretty bummed because he thought I was Gay. Until we started talking and he realized I really was..
MWN: Oh?
Capital Soirée:
Rom: Haha! No! So we became friends and I introduced him to Jimmy during Lunch and it turns out they had met in like…
Jimmy: In second grade
Rom: And they were like buds and everything
Jimmy: When I talked to him it hadn’t been since second grade. It was sorta strange because of how long it had been
Rom: So then we were like “Hey! Me and Jimmy do this like music shit we need a drummer, you should play the drums”
Rej: And I was like “I play guitar”
Jimmy: So you can’t have a band with just three guitarists?
Reg: So they were just like “yeah just play drums” and I was like “alright I’ll just play drums”. Then I just bought some drums off of craigslist, so then from there it started
Jimmy: And then Rej was playing drums for us for a while and we were doing a three piece thing and then we started making “Next Weekend” our one EP, we were like “Dude this is fucking stupid, Steven doesn’t even like to play drums as much” like he was tracking some guitar on that EP and we did that one live show and that was the last time we had Rej do drums. So we had known our good buddy Griffin Shaw from his band The Dead Seeds.. The did us the good service of whooping our ass in a battle of the bands.
Griffin: Haha! True!
Jimmy: So we were like “Damn, Griffin kicks ass at the drums, so if Steven wants to play guitar why don’t we find ourselves our own Griffin Shaw Drummer” so we messaged him like “Hey could you join us?” So coming up in August it’ll be a year since he joined the band
Rom: And my birthday!
JImmy: Yeah August 28, wish him a happy birthday.
MWN: Will do!
Capital Soirée: But yeah since then we’ve been rocking it out in this formation
MWN: How about the name Capital Soirée?
Rom: We were originally named “Community Service”. But when we started actually making music, and releasing it , we found out that this rap group from New York already had the rights to the name so we had to change it. We couldn’t all agree on a name for the longest time, but we had just finished a recording so we needed a name. Steven and I were watching Regular Show, and Pops says something about how this party was a “capital soiree”. So I go how about that and he’s like it’s not bad, then we told Jimmy and he had a similar reaction. Then we had a show we were asked what our name was and we were like “well shit, Capital Soirèe I guess”
MWN: Ahh, yeah I think it’s cool how bands draw their names from things that stood out to them whether it’s from a show or from songs. So with your new stickers, I’ve noticed a transition from your colorful stickers to a solid monochromatic print of your bands logo, why is that?
Capital Soirée:
Rom: So the first stickers were album specific, the black ones are just general ones
Jimmy: My girlfriend Sammy Conrad did the graphic design of the past two albums.
MWN: Ohh, but like with your actual music, I sense this consistency within your sound like as if your continuing some story. So in terms of your next music release, what should fans expect?
Capital Soirée:
Jimmy: I think it’s gonna be a little different, we’re gonna try to switch it up
MWN: How so? Will Steven be going back to the drums?
Capital Soirée:
Jimmy: Haha no!
Rom: We’ve been talking about it and having it as a discussion because it’s becoming like a real thing and we’re getting started. It’s not like we’re changing things drastically
Jimmy: It’s more like we’re naturally growing up. Like we’ve been doing it us guys for a while at this point, so you know we progress and it takes shape
MWN: Sorta like boyhood to adulthood.
Capital Soirée:
Jimmy: Yeah, I’d say generally we have like a certain effect to the songs we make, it’s not like we’re changing the songs we write, we’re just experimenting with the production techniques because we’ve done all the production stuff ourselves.
MWN: Oh Cool, where was that?
Capital Soirée:
Rom: At sunnyside studios
Steven: My basement. I’ve been building this studio for the past six years for this reason. Like we’ve been to places to record and we would think it was cool but then months later we felt like it sucked.
Jimmy: Like we’ve always had the idea of how we wanted the music to be, but when you’re getting recorded by like producers you kind of are at their mercy so to speak, so we hadn’t found a producer that understood what we wanted, so that’s why we started doing it ourselves. So on the next one we’re trying to get more creative with those production techniques.
MWN: When do you see that coming out?
Capital Soirée:
Rom: Hopefully Fall
MWN: Birthday release?
Capital Soirée:
Rom: Haha for sure!
Jimmy: Nah, definitely not August. More like late fall. Let’s say 2017. We’ve got many demos we’re excited to get started on so we’ll see how that progresses.
MWN: Yeah, rumor is tonight’s set is 40 minutes, so I’m definitely excited to hear a longer set next time
Capital Soirée: Haha that definitely is the rumor.
MWN: So how do you manage Capital Soiree? Do any of you have dayjobs or is it full time dedication to the band?
Capital Soirée:
Rom: Well we have day jobs to pay the bills
MWN: Yeah, always hustling
Capital Soirée:
Jimmy: Yeah working that 9 – 5
Rom: I work usually 7-3, and then I spend my nights rocking and rolling
MWN: So who would you want to be rocking and rolling with as openers?
Capital Soirée:
Jimmy: Well if you know Phoenix let us know haha.
Rom: I’d love to open for The Growlers but that would probably be a weird mix.
Rej: Porches, if you’re more lowkey “we’ll open for you also”
Rom: So if you know any of them, tell them to hit us up.
MWN: So how did you get your music out?
Capital Soirée:
Rom: We would do soundcloud and make CD’s and hand them out at shows
Jimmy: Now Rom just annoys people to check us out on Tidal haha
** Guy in car drives past us**
“YOU GUYS SUCK!!”
MWN: HAH
Capital Soirée:
Rom: heyy thanks man!!
Jimmy: Please tell me you got that haha!!
MWN: Sure did! Well thank you so much for you time!
Capital Soirée: Haha! Thank you!
Interview By:Jennifer Machuca |Instagram @jen_machuca| Exclusively for @Music, Why Not! -All Rights Reserved-