El Capitan

El Capitan is a group based in San Francisco that begins in 2003, when two Nor’Easterners and two NorCal natives come together there. The project develops from quiet, acoustic settings into a louder live sound, while keeping a focus on harmony, melody and a strong groove. Its music draws on Americana, soul, reggae and blues, and the members also bring in influences from punk rock, funk, dub/reggae and old radio-pop and country traditions.

Formation and sound

The group forms out of four musicians who grow up in different places and with different backgrounds, including family links to healers, airmen, woodcutters, hunters and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Their early musical memories include Simon and Garfunkel, the Beach Boys, the Beatles, old country, lite rock, Christian nursery rhymes, jazz and AM radio. As children they are described as unusual and adventurous, spending time in choir and band, skating, playing in punk and blues groups, and moving through van life and club circuits before arriving in San Francisco.

El Capitan starts as a quieter project, using acoustics, banjos, piano, violins and brushes, with early recording work done in a Mission District kitchen and on an 8-track analogue recorder near the Presidio. By 2005, the sound expands to include Gibsons, old Fender amplifiers, lap steel, Rhodes and Hammond keyboards, harmonicas, melodicas, synthesisers, large drums and heavy bass. The group is known for changing volume and texture within a set, moving between restrained and raucous passages.

Recording and repertoire

The album What Ails You is written to a one-inch tape machine at Bart Thurber’s House Of Faith studio in Oakland, California, and mixed down to two-track without automation or a computer. The record presents roots music in a direct form, with songs that move from intimate folk storytelling to louder, feedback-driven passages with layered vocal harmonies. Its themes include firefighters on the Stanislaus, man versus nature versus machine, and songs about women, including idealised, unsuitable and lost relationships.

Live performance

The group plays both folk festivals and rock clubs, adapting each performance so that songs build from one sound and dynamic to another. Its live approach combines quiet and loud material in the same set, with an emphasis on vocal harmony, rhythm and a broad instrumental palette.