Interview: CAPYAC Talks the Art of Opening Portals and Transporting Audiences through Empowerment

Following their album release party at Empire Garage, Afterglow talked with CAPYAC’s Eric Peana about returning to Austin, incorporating visual art with their music, and bridging the distance between performer and audience.

Written by Atticus Mixson

Photo courtesy of Thissongissick

CAPYAC is a Los Angeles and Berlin-based project composed of Delwin Campbell, Eric Peana and Obie Puckett. The band originated in Austin, putting out their first extended release, Movement Swallows Us, in 2015. CAPYAC has notably collaborated with artists like Reggie Watts, Def Sound and Ciceley Fullylove while constantly evolving their own high energy performances. Celebrating the release of their newest album Sobbing Ecstasy, CAPYAC returned to Austin for a release party at Empire Garage. Afterglow sat down with vocalist Eric Peana to discuss CAPYAC’s live show and the group’s beginnings.   

Afterglow: How did it feel having your release party in Austin, considering how far CAPYAC has come in the last 10 years or so?

Eric Peana: It was quite special. We started in Austin around 2014, playing tiny shows, house parties with broom sticks as mic stands, co-ops stuffed with way too many humans all bouncing around and dancing on the furniture … once, we played at the Quicky Picky grocery store to an audience of people, semi-annoyed because all they wanted was to shop in peace. We cut our teeth in Austin and that experience helped lay the groundwork for the next chapters of our musical journey. Coming back is always a nice time, always a touch of nostalgia mixed with some of that good old Texas magic. 

The live shows are really tight with the way you utilize improvisation and crowd engagement. How do you bring that authenticity and energy out of more reserved crowds?

It is such a curious push and pull to me, the relationship between performer and audience. At times, it’s a fantastical dance, of illusion and surprise, the tide of energy swelling in and out as we move through the songs, creating these lush landscapes and then all of a sudden a cliff, we all fall off together, one person awakens in a garden of alien slugs, conscious and curious they suckle on our legs as we wrestle towards the next song. Sometimes it works, you touch some grandiose feeling, emotions become amplified as the audience dreams into a collective mind, and sometimes it doesn’t. Especially doing these opening tours for other acts, ones who don’t quite play the same genre, bring the same energy as us, we find somewhat reserved crowds. There’s a difference between reserved and just simply uninterested. This is an important distinction. Reserved crowds are a fascinating phenomenon to me; they are interested and engaged, sometimes deeply, and yet their movements, their vocalizations are limited. As a performer you see this, the stiffness, and sometimes you think, “ah, they aren’t very into it.” But oftentimes it’s not true, the body language just doesn’t necessarily reflect the enjoyment. That’s a nice one to learn. What is to be done? Every show is an opportunity to open a portal somewhere. It doesn't matter who is watching, so just try and not think about it.

You finished a tour opening for Marc Rebillet, your album Sobbing Ecstasy came out, and a few weeks later you celebrated the release in Austin at Empire Garage. What's next for CAPYAC? 

In the immediate, we are resting. Next year, we are hoping to put some singles out, a remix or two, and hopefully another album. We’ve been working on it off and on for a bit now. In May, I think we’ll return to Austin and put on “Bug Prom IV.” After that, probably some things in Europe in the summer, looking like some UK plays but we’ll see. 

You played a new song, “Love Situation,” alongside Reggie Watts at your album release party. How did this song come into existence? Is a release on the way?

The song came out of our tour we did last December in the UK. We played five shows with Reggie to celebrate our EP we made together called ‘Songs from Celestial City.’ These shows were really fun,as they were all improvised with the exception of one or two songs. We would perform with Reggie for a couple hours each show, and the “Love Situation” idea kinda just popped out. We’ve been flirting with the idea of writing a yacht rock inspired album with that track as a single, but we’ll see.

You also combine your music with visual art, puppets, celery, and the occasional RC goose, snake, creatures. How did this aspect of the live show come to be and what might you want to add in the future?

We’ve always had a theatrical flare. I personally just love building props and Delwin is very into fantasy sci-fi stuff, so in the early days we always built a bunch of random shit for the shows. It quickly became a part of the whole thing. I think a lot of it is to subvert expectations. Once Obie joined us it was game over. They come from an art department background. I go back to the idea of a portal. You create the opportunity to walk through some threshold, empower yourself and the audience with the doorway to a beyond, an unknown. When the signal is strong it can be profound. 

Your voices reach a wide range of people. What about CAPYAC makes you able to connect with people of all ages and backgrounds in such a fundamental way? 

People love a show! Old as time, really. The best thing to do is get out of your own way. 

You can follow CAPYAC on Instagram and TikTok and stream their music on Apple Music and Spotify.

This interview has been minimally edited for clarity and length.