Fat Wreck Chords and singer-songwriter Joey Cape, frontman of iconic punk band Lagwagon, are excited to release the music video for “It Could Be Real,” the first single lifted from the Friday, August 13 release of his brand new solo LP, A Good Year To Forget. (Order HERE) A song written from the perspective of a disenchanted single person — a person who has experienced the highs and lows of multiple failed relationships – “It Could Be Real” was directed by Sean McCue and Nina McCue and features comedian Joe Sib. Cape had the following to share about the video:
“Making the video for ‘It Could Be Real’ was so much fun. Directors Sean and Nina McCue are so talented and really do it all. I was in good hands with them. The plot was based on the woes of the busker. Sean McCue has busked all over the world, something I have never done before. I respect those who do. It takes true dedication and I imagine the benefit is meager. Still, you see those people out there everyday, everywhere in the world. I think one day was enough for me. Ha ha. A few old friends including comedian Joe Sib showed up. He is hilarious and made us all laugh the entire day.”
Watch the music video for “It Could Be Real” on YouTube HERE
An album that was written during a year that saw Cape lose his father, separate from his wife of 20 years, contract COVID, and move back in with his parents as a result of a livelihood lost, Cape’s forthcoming solo album, A Good Year To Forget, is a warm and beautiful record that encapsulates all the trials and tribulations over those challenging 12 months.
Joey Cape will also be hitting the road this September and October performing songs from A Good Year To Forget, additional cuts from his solo catalog, and Lagwagon classics. The tour will include West and East Coast appearances, beginning at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco, CA on Thursday, September 23, and culminating in a performance at SONIA in Cambridge, MA on Sunday, October 3. Tickets are on sale now, and a full listing of dates can be found below.
The time Joey Cape spent with his parents over the past year didn’t just allow him to reconnect with them; it also afforded him time to write songs. Because recording studios were shutting down everywhere due to COVID, Cape got creative and turned the “cabana-type thing” he was living in into a home recording studio.
“I just decided that if I was going to make a record like this, I should make it in full isolation,” he says. “I have a Murphy bed, so every morning, I’d push up the bed, pull out the studio stuff, have some coffee or tea, get out my little chair and off I went.”
Despite Cape’s isolation while writing A Good Year To Forget, his fans will hear much more than just a voice, guitar, and bass on this record. Indeed, he ended up playing a plethora of instruments when recording the album, including electric and lap steel guitars, piano, mandolin, and drums. “I almost made a solo record alone,” he laughs. “But that great fun you have in collaborating with other people in the studio is just priceless. There’s always something positive you can find, something of redeeming value in an experience where there’s a struggle of suffering. I played everything because I reached a point where I realized that’s something I’d have to hold onto if it was going to be the record I wanted and set out to make. It forced things to be very basic, but I’m okay with that.”
A Good Year To Forget seeks to find the positive in the negatives to become a record of pure triumphant beauty. Hushed and haunted, there’s an almost Nick Drake-ian poignancy to these 12 songs, especially on the wistful “The Poetry Of Our Mistakes.” “Come Home,” a song inspired directly by the words his mother had spoken on the phone, is a beautifully melancholic, slightly folky tune full of hurt and longing that also manages to be reassuring at the same time. Elsewhere, “Under The Doormat” is a harrowingly beautiful ode to a lost love of the past. “Check Your Ego At The Door” is a ballroom lament steeped in timelessness, while “Fictional” is a scornful take on the false images and lives that proliferate on social media.
“By any standard, 2020 was a bad year,” Cape says. “This record has truly distilled my own experience of the past year, what I’ve learned, and what I’ve felt. It feels right ,and I’m very proud of the result.”
Joey Cape will be making the following U.S. appearances in September and October. Dates below.
SEPTEMBER