Captain Dangerous

Originally the brainchild of Adam Clarkson (guitar and vocals) and multi-instrumentalist Miles Clark (guitar, trumpet, melodica, accordion, violin, and vocals) Captain Dangerous soon enlisted the talents of bassist Mark Houlgate, drummer and percussionist Jamie Elliott and accomplished jazz/classical violinist Rob Rosa to create a bristling energy and richness of sound that is said to ‘knock audiences for six’ at every gig.

Being branded as ‘consistently brilliant live’ by BBC Introducing’s Dean Jackson and gaining fans at support slots for Ash, Marina and The Diamonds, The Magic Numbers, The Rumble Strips, The Holloways and many more – we wanted to find out more about the band.

The name of the band is one which obviously stands out, what is the story behind how the band got their name?

Adam – I had to come up with a name and wanted something to stick out so thought the best thing to do was name the band something that would jump out on a poster. I’m not sure if it’s any good, but its our name now and it would feel weird playing under a different name and for that reason it’s a keeper – but it does divide people. At one point I nearly named the band the Odessa Steps after a scene in the Sergei Eisenstein’s film Battle ship Potemkin. That would have been dumb.

For those who haven’t yet heard the band’s material, how would you describe your sound?

Adam – I would probably say we make slightly skew-whiff pop music, but with heroic arrangements.
Mark – Pop music that has a punk spirit running through it with lots of lyrics.
Miles – Yeah, it’s definitely pop music at heart.
Jamie – Off kilter pop.
Rob – melodic, edgy and occasionally melancholic.

How do you go about the writing process in the band?

Adam – I find the song writing process pretty instant as in they either just come and fairly quickly or not at all. There’s no obvious formula for me in terms of writing. Mostly I’ll tend to have an idea, write down some lyrics, stick some chords with it and then improve it over the next few weeks until it’s ready to bring to the band. We then work out the arrangements, harmonies and final structure as a band. It’s a positive experience because we’re all very vocal – if something doesn’t work and no one takes any criticism as a personal insult. Everything is discussed and no ones opinion is seen as less valid than the anyone else’s in the room. For bigger shows we often swell to an 11-12 piece and play with a string quintet. In terms of writing for strings Rob takes the songs away then writes and scores the parts away from the band and brings them back once they’re done. The thing we all agree on is that the song is the main focus and sometimes simplicity is better than complexity. We all know our role and it tends to work if we stick to it.

Out of all the support slots, for the likes of Marina and The Diamonds, Ash, Dirty Pretty Things etc, which has been your favourite?

Adam – Marina we played with years ago before she got signed and was obviously brilliant, Ash were very nice and friendly and we didn’t meet the Dirty Pretty Things. I think Ash was a really cool gig to do because I had 1977 on tape when I was really, really young and used to listen to it on repeat.

How do you feel you were received on stage at UK festivals?

Adam – So far so good. We try and make a big effort for festivals and that generally means swelling to a 12 piece including a 5 piece string section, the odd trombone, a glock player and we’ve even been known to have a dancer on stage with us. I think we tend to be very energetic at festivals and the audiences seem to feed off that.

Miles – I think my favourite so far has been Y Not Festival last year. Robs brother Roger who sometimes plays violin for us played bass as Mark was in Morocco riding camels. The tent was rammed when we played. It was a great weekend and a very friendly atmosphere.

Rob – yeah Y-Not was fun. It’s always nice to be met by a half-warm crowd that by the end are clearly enjoying themselves.

Jamie – Unfortunately, I tried to kick a football into the crowd at the end. I tried 3 times and not one of them made it. I looked a right Willy Knibbs.

You’ve played a decommissioned nuclear fallout shelter – can tell us more about that experience?

Adam – Our tour of the Czech Republic was one long ridiculous story, but yeah the Nuclear Fall out shelter show was the weirdest. Firstly it was in the middle of a park in a terrible district of Prague that the taxi drivers didn’t know- which was scary enough. Then when were playing our gig suddenly loads of huge men in dark suits and sunglasses with scary looking big dogs stormed in and started demanding money off the promoter and trying to sell us women. We found out later that those men were members of the Czech mafia and were in charge of security and the promoter owed them money. The place looked like somewhere where people had died slow and painful deaths. The sound man was happily smoking a crack pipe while all this was going on too. I think it’ll take a lot to beat that story for weird gig experiences.

Your new release is set for July 4th, how would you describe the single in 5 words?

Adam – Difficult question…dunno how about “A song for 4am alcoholics?”

Jamie – In 5 words…..Off Kilter Catchy Pop Mayhem.

Which track of your own would you encourage our readers to listen to?

Adam – Aside from the single check out ‘Merrow Song’. That’s personally my favourite one I’ve written. Terry Steele is a good song as well.

Miles – I think ‘Boozehounds’, we need to re-record it. We demoed it a few years ago but it kind of gets forgotten about. It’s a great song and should be given a new lease of life.

Mark – Yeah Boozehounds is a great track. Our first album ‘The House That Jack Hayter Built’ has a lot of good tracks on there. ‘I Miss you cos its Monday’, ‘A Little Bit of Home’, and of course ‘Merrow Song’.

Rob – Catchy, relevant, epic, buy it.

Jamie – Think the Terrorist has been given a new lease of life live and I love that song.

You can visit Captain Dangerous website here now!

One response to “Captain Dangerous”

  1. […] caught up with the band to find out […]

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