WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The WRFH Interview: Dean Sinclair

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

Dean Sinclair, a professional drummer based in Chicago and Hillsdale alumnus, joins Gavin Listro for a conversation.From 11/04/24.

You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale on 101.7 FM. I'm Gavin Lestrow, and I'm joined today by the band Capital Swaree, or part of it, this early morning. They're very kind to come and talk to me, so who do we have here? My name is Dean. I play the drums. Stephen, I play guitar and keys. My name is Max, and I play bass and do backup vocals. All right.

So I listen to your guys' music a little bit, and I really enjoy it. I think it's great. Thank you. Could you do a little bit of a history lesson for Kaviswold? capital swaree. So I'll let these guys take that. Yeah, I can run it from the jump there. So me and James, that's the rhythm guitar player and lead singer. We met in the fourth grade and we became quick homies and I was like, hey man, I think we should start a band. And we just pretended to be in one up until like eighth grade. And then we like learned some instruments and started writing

like acoustic songs together. And then we got to high school and I met Stephen in my freshman year biology class. Nice. And we became fast friends as well. We went to lunch one day and I was like, hey, you got to meet my buddy James. Like, I think you guys really hit it off. Apparently, they knew each other before we even met. Oh, wow.

Yeah. So we got together. Stephen was like, yeah, I play a guitar. And we were like, no, you don't. You played the drums, man. So we were a three piece for a long time. Started to hire people out once we realized that Stephen was a much better guitar player. That drummer.

Yeah. Should have listened to him. Yeah. The first day. And then about like seven or so years ago, we met Dean Sinclair, and he's been rocking and rolling with us, making it all the much better. Man. That's great. And Dean, you're a Hillsdale grad, right? Yes, I am. All right. What year?

Class of 2018. 2018. Nice. And what's your kind of story leading to meeting up with the Capitol's story, I guess? So while I was in school, I still had a different band back in Chicago. that would go kind of back and forth before and I would still play with them and we in the past we were on the same bills you know just like dumpy Chicago venues we'd be like my old band and these guys would be playing together and and I always liked their stuff right away I always I thought there was something a little bit different about their songwriting compositions compared to some of the other local bands like even what I was playing in yeah I remember like you know when I had like a radio show here like I I would play these guys on it. Oh, nice. That's probably why they got big.

Yeah, absolutely. Of course. Yeah, it's like out, because it was like music shows. It had to be like on SoundCloud. Yeah. Pre-ro-worked. Like we couldn't be like live, I guess. But anyway, and then a friend of mine saw that they had like a post.

Like they were looking for a new drummer. And this was one, I was like pretty recently graduated. Yeah, a couple months after graduation. I saw the post. And I knew I wanted to start going into more like freelance drums and percussion. more. So, yeah, shot them an email and a DM, I believe. I wanted it. I think it was a Facebook message. Facebook message. Probably, yeah, yeah, at this time. And, yeah, actually, that's probably more accurate. But yeah, and I've been with them since they extended the official offer to

join, I think, five years in. So I had a five-year-long audition process. Nice. How's he doing? Is he still holding up? We'll see. coming. There's still under review. Wait, when's the official review? I'm still the new guys. It'll be about five years from there.

Oh, man. All right. Well, I mean, as a band, you guys are probably always writing music. You're always performing. What do you guys listen to? What's being played in the van and stuff? We've been,

um, we've all been listening to some different stuff in the car. It all gets on each other's nerves, definitely. Our difference in taste. Yeah, it's like, over in the car we have like a game where it's like every turns there's a drive so every driver switch the driver's in control of the reason right that's kind of i think that should be a given yeah i think

that's some yeah uh but everyone's allowed a skip but you can also block the driver can't block themselves like you have to get so say i'm playing a song that's getting on max's nerves he could say skip i'm kind of you know in trouble here unless step he blocks it got Yeah. Okay. But that's his only skips. We have to use your skip wisely. But yeah. Yeah, I've been listening to, what have we been listening to?

I've been listening to a lot of Fontaine's DC on this trip. I think they're super cool. You know, like, they sound kind of 90s-ish Irish band. Nice. They're sick. Nice. That's been yours. I think they've been coming out a lot, the new record.

Yeah, they have. Yeah, you wouldn't enjoy it. I've probably been a lot of 90s stuff also. I feel like that's been my big thing as a recent. a lot of shoe gaze and random like power pop stuff from that era was very cool. I'm wearing a my bloody Valentine's shirt.

Exactly. Oh, yeah. And I'm pretty all over the place. Like I'll listen to like a lot of like hip hop and stuff like that. But I really do gravitate more towards like the singer-songwriter stuff. So like Father John Misty is one of my favorite artists.

Stephen always gives me. Every year he's on my Spotify rep. This guy's crazy. He just does when he's driving, he just lets X from sports. Spotify. Yeah. Oh.

How do you guys feel about that? I love it. I don't really like it. I hate the way he says my name. He's like, What's up, Gavin? Yeah. What's up, Max?

It's your DJX here. Ready for another day? No, I like it because I'm not a playlist maker. Okay. So I just let X do his job. And even if I'm not feeling it, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip. Yeah. Yeah.

Prior to this, I had to make a 39-hour playlist. So I could shuffle through if I want. I only just started doing X. on the trip because I ran out of my playlist. 39 hours. Maybe I'll do X later. Yeah. I don't know, because sometimes it will be like early morning and it'll be X and he's like, let's start off with some hip hop. I'm like, no, no, no.

This is way to it. I don't think it reads my mind at all. So, you know, can't blame it for that. But yeah, you guys have been a band for almost how long at this point? These guys have been out for quite some time. We call 2011 the technical start. Yeah.

So then 13 years. Nice. Yeah. Okay. So let's say the last five years. Mm-hmm. What do you think the biggest points of growth musically have been for the band?

In terms of like if you look at what you were releasing and writing then to like now. I would say the reruns EP, I think, kind of solidified things kind of like, this is what we sound like. And this is kind of where the direction were... It's kind of set maybe like a guideline of sorts, if that makes sense. For a long time, we had been just kind of like putting out generally what we thought was cool. And like, I feel like that's always a good, just trust your gut with what you're doing. But that was the first time we were like, this is the sound we're going to go for once.

And I felt like it was a good process. Also, I'm in a band on campus, nothing serious. But we're starting to write some music. And I'm very curious how other bands do that. What is your process for writing? Is it like two guys with acoustic guitar? Are you guys setting up as a full band and just jamming? I think we kind of work backwards a bit.

I mean, they can speak on it a little bit more, but it kind of starts in like a DAW. Okay. Actually, I think builds from there. So, yeah, we don't really do the whole let's jam sort of thing. And then, like, oh, that was cool. It was a cool guitar idea. It kind of just starts from like the, as if you're recording.

Gotcha. Right away. So maybe there's like a guitar riff. and then you'll lay that down and then kind of build around it. Yeah, the computer is part of that process. Gotcha. From the start. I think it really depends kind of like it's a song by song thing.

Sometimes the song can start on like acoustic and then it'll become like a demo and then the group will get into the room and kind of move things around, you know, add things, kind of make it on own. Gotcha. Okay. Yeah. I feel like where a lot of bands have played the song live before they record it, we are the opposite where it's recorded

and then we have to learn how to play it. We learn our own songs. Do you ever get to the rehearsals after you've recorded it and be like, oh, we should have done it that way? Now that we're playing it live. The shows, we're thinking that. Yeah, yeah. Oh, that felt was nice. Could have put that on the record?

Yeah, so we do try. Okay. To learn them before we do the final one. Oh, I see. So then we can play through them and maybe kind of get a feel of those extra things we might throw in. Gotcha. And are you guys, I mean, I'm not sure exactly how it works, but when you're recording, are you ever limiting yourself in the way that like, oh, well, we only have two guitar players, we're only able to put two guitar parts. So you just kind of, okay, you just kind of doing what you need. Absolutely crazy.

Yeah, yeah. Doubles and the sonics. Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah. Gotcha. Yeah, there's multiple songs where it's like, we've got like five guitars going on. Nice. Different.

I mean, just weird layers in there as well with main parts. But I think the big thing about our process is, and the nice thing with the way. way we built it out is it's all about the song. Okay. There's no ego with like who's, oh, like, I got this sick part. Okay. If it's really obnoxious, it's not going in. It's all about serving the song.

Gotcha. Okay. And so that will be like, even depending on who's playing what parts. Like, even like, I'm lead guitarist. You don't necessarily need to play the lead lines. Right. Okay. Yeah.

That's great. So I know Dean, you have a jazz background from Hillsdale, right, a little bit. Yeah, I did like combo and the big band here. Did you come in playing jazz or? as much as you could from like a sub like a yeah like a suburban Chicago high school yeah I mean yeah I can't say

I feel inauthentic saying I have like a jazz background I feel like it's one of those things where the best I'll ever be at like jazz or swing is like a foreign language speaker it's not the music I grew up playing I could I could you know I was able to to do it here and I'm grateful for that. I learned a lot here for sure. It's not something I pursued. I'm not playing like jazz clubs back home. I'm not really seeking out jazz gigs or

anything. No, right. And like if I got asked to do it, I would have to be very honest to it. But like, hey, like, you know, I can do it. But if you're looking for me to do some Elvin Jones type stuff, you know, that's, you know, I'm not a bop player, you know what I mean? But, you know, I can play a mean cocktail hour at a wedding for sure. That's great. I mean, that's a good skill to have. And I guess do you guys have any other backgrounds in different styles of music than you're playing now? I grew up doing musicals and choir and stuff like that, so I guess I am classically trained to some degree. And then we did music majors in our college as well. So we did oral skills, music theory.

Nice. We got a little bit of training in there. Gotcha. Yeah, for a while, I started, I was mainly guitar for a while, but then I, I was mainly guitar for a while. but then I, around like 17, I started learning piano, and I got really into that. So for a while, I was just, like, focused only on piano music for a long time. And I feel like that's influenced a lot of things later on, even just playing with synthesizers and keyboards and trying to integrate that into stuff. Gotcha.

That's great. That's great. I guess I have to, because we're at a college radio station, I have to ask this question. What's your college? Is it overrated or underrated as a musician now? Oh, thoughts on college? Thoughts on college period. I mean, we'll have to keep it PG. But, you know, I mean, obviously all of you guys are touring musicians.

So do you think, and you went to school for music, what did you graduate with? I was a history major. Okay. I have no music. Yeah, I have no degree in music. I didn't minor or anything like that. So I guess all these opinions together, do you think college was worth it or not? I, yeah.

Okay. So, yeah. So I don't think for me as a drum set player who knew all I wanted to do was play pop and rock music. I think the biggest education came from here outside of the classroom, like forming bands and things like that independently. And just learning how that works, right? Learning, you know, like for example, like Pep band even was a huge, you know, just how to learn songs, how to be ready to play. play and things like that, like quickly and be on your game. I would say, for me, the reason, I would say this,

the reason I did not get a degree in music is because I felt I would have been doing more class time than actually playing. I did every single ensemble that was offered here. I think with the exception of the musical, just because physically I could not do it. It conflicted with another, I think, like percussion ensemble. I couldn't do the musical. Don't lie, you don't like musicals that much. And it's fun.

want to watch it. I don't want to watch one, but they're fun to play. But it's, um, and to me it just felt I, why would I be doing class time learning how to like conduct or like, you know, learn about like a bach cantata or whatever if that stuff predates the existence of the drum set. I'm a drum set. I'm a drummer, like drum set player before I'm a percussionist. Sure. Okay. For sure. Um, so for me, that is why the idea of going to like a Berkeley or something like that, like a music school or a conservatory. I never, I don't know, it just never really hit.

In my mind, it was like, I think I can do this regardless. Gotcha. Okay. So, yeah. But I did get an immense work ethic here. I think I wouldn't have, I wouldn't be at this point where I feel I am at this moment, if not for getting my butt kicked in just classes here. Nice.

Does that make sense? Yeah. I just got to ask a follow up, who's your favorite history? professor. Dr. Stewart was my favorite. He's my favorite as well. He's still here? Yeah, he's great.

Sick, yeah. I've taken probably like four classes with him just because a great guy. Yeah, he's, yeah. You just wore his like wearing like the yellow or blue t-shirt every day. And the white sneakers? Yeah. Classic. The go.

All right. And then. So we both took like at our community college, whereas we never got any farther than barely getting a few credits towards an associate. its degree. Yeah, I don't want to, you know, make anyone think that I graduated. Yeah, we do. I didn't know. It wasn't a prerequisite for answering the question. We did it. But I think where we were at at the time, the music theory, like the music program at our community college was actually really good. We had some amazing teachers and people there.

But just even the starting music theory courses and everything, you know, we knew how to write songs. chord progressions and stuff like that. But having that extra push, I think, really helped us really get to the next level. Yeah, I definitely think, you know, there is something to being immersed in your thing, right? For us, it was music. And so, you know, we were talking the other day about how they just have practice rooms. And you can go in there and just rip up a piano for two and a half hours before, you know, between classes or something like that. And for me, I think college is definitely way more on you on what you want to get.

get out of it, you know? Yeah. That's why I think taking time off is really huge. I think some people coming fresh out of high school, you don't really know what you want to do. So you're just going to throw away some time and money at a place. You know, I think hot take learning is cool, you know? Nice. And so, yeah, I think if you can be passionate about, you know, your thing and you really want to actually spend the time to learn, then it's, you know, invaluable. Gotcha. I think, you know. But we didn't finish. But I didn't finish. And I got all I wanted out. There you go. I think that's probably more important, right?

Yeah. You took what you needed and then you went on your way. Exactly. That's great. What were your childhood influences? Like when you were starting a band, what were the songs you were trying to copy or, you know, cover early on in the band? I mean, these guys were also, oh, sorry.

I was going to say you guys were also crazy because, like, you didn't even, like, start with covers. No, yeah. Oh, wow. A lot of. Yeah, like, when we were first coming up, it was just, like, writing originals and stuff. Nice. But I remember being a kid and, like, Like, me and Stephen are huge Beatles fans, right?

You know? And I mean, hey, which musician isn't? Yeah, you know what I mean? But I remember being just like a kid and just like being like so enthroned with the idea of like being a singer or like, you know, being in a band and like doing that whole thing. That I remember like going in like my closet and I would like record like strawberry fields forever like over like the laptop mic. And I'm like listening back to it. But it's just stuff like that where, you know, it's just always been something we're trying to do. Yeah, at least for me.

When I first started with you and Jim, you know, I know they had been doing stuff for a little bit when we were in high school. That was all very classic indie stuff. Like we were like, we love the shins and like modest mouse, things like that. And I always remember, I wish James is here to talk about it. But we were the antithesis of being like, oh, yeah, we're going to arrive. it's like, no, we need to be quiet. We're going to be a quieter, quieter band. Because we thought it was doing that.

No one's doing it. Because we thought it was uncool to be big rock. Yeah. Which is now we've, we're very much the opposite now. So I don't know if we made it cool. Yeah. Yeah. Sure.

No, I mean, that's the thing that I was like appealed like that. Intriguing me about them. Even like when I was still before I like knew them to, to this point, you know. It's like, yeah, I was like, I don't know. They were just different than the other bands because perhaps they wanted to be quiet. Because we were quieter and you could hear the lyrics.

Yeah, yeah. True. That's great. Yeah, it's interesting. Okay, this is the one clip I saw of you guys not from just like following you was the clip outside of a Jewel Oskah, I think. Yeah.

So what's the story of that? Back in 2019, I believe. someone at a jewel osco which is a Chicago land grocery store chain they for whatever reason they're like what

like PR department or whatever was like oh we gotta do like an Earth Day celebration and like they picked the store in Naperville Illinois to have one and some cashier something somehow knew of the band and recommended us and they're like

sure. It's like a Celebrate Earth Day? Yeah. So that led to us playing I think five separate Jewel Osco's over the years. We straight up did one again this year

just because I kind of for the bit. I saw that way. It was inside, right? Yeah. Yeah, they let us back inside. But the- because you're a quiet bend. Exactly.

But the video you're referring to took place in, I believe that was 2020 or 2021. in Gurney, Illinois, home of Six Flags Great America. Gotcha. And there was just a certain character in the parking lot. Well, you know, when you're playing outside in the parking lot, anyone can roll out.

Anyone can get there. And this gentleman came up and he was very excited about the group. No, he was kind of causing a ruckus a little bit between some of the people that were hanging out there. Yeah, he was like drinking beers in the parking lot. Yeah. And just, you know what I mean? Kind of doing his thing. And then he kind of got into it.

Like one of the dads that was like hanging out there. And then, yeah, we were playing. And then he pops his shirt off. He just fake arrests himself on the street. Yeah. Okay. And this is a groove. There was no cops there to arrest him.

No. So, yeah, any misconception about that, no police were involved. That was fully. So it was a self-citizen arrest. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Our singer just like was just like going.

through old videos and like, sure, came up with a silly caption and it kind of changed a lot for us. In a weird way, we have a manager or something out of that. Nice. Yeah. Man. Weird. Is that annoy you a little bit at all?

Or like, you're just extremely grateful that that happens? You were grateful. Yeah. I think, you know, however you're going to find the mind, it's okay. Yeah. That's why I figured. I think we had an opportunity to where we could have perhaps at bigger, how do I say this? we could have really leaned into it much more than we did.

I think we really could have beat that to death. And I think we chose to accept it. Like, you know, we'll still do the jewel thing every now and then, you know. But we were very conscientious, I think, to not make it our brand. I think perhaps we could have gotten more, quote, quote, success by doing that. But I don't think we didn't want to be the jewel band. Gotcha.

That makes sense. You get like a brand deal with them and do, commercials and stuff. Right, exactly. All right, well, thank you for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Gavin Listro, and that was Dean Sinclair, class of 2018, and his band Capul Suarez on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.