At Shaky Knees Music Festival, SCAD Radio Music Director El Smith met with Evan Westfall from indie folk band CAAMP, an Ohio-based trio.
What’s your favorite kind of bear?
Evan- Polar. We could use more of them.
You guys have a new record coming out on July 26th. What inspired it?
[Lead singer] Taylor [Meier] writes the lyrics, lyrically it’s a lot of stuff that has been goin’ on in our lives. Tour life and relationships. I suppose musically, we’re kinda boppin’ around the country… We’ve got some desert-y sounding songs mixed with some folk-y where we’re from, kind of like Appalachia. Some woodsy sounding songs mixed in with some surf-y rock-y songs. It’s a nice blend of different genres.
Other than places, are there any other specific artists that inspire you?
Some of our friends’ bands like Crooked Spine, Speaking Suns, Gaptooth Grin. In our hometown, we’re very supportive of each other. I also like a lot of older stuff like Neil Young, Big Star, the album’s a nice mix of a lot of what we’ve been listening to as well.
You mentioned a lot of friends’ bands. Do you guys have a big music scene locally?
It’s gettin’ there. Our friends are doing great things up there in Columbus and Ohio. It’s not competitive, you hear one of them write a good song and you’re like “Aw, I wish I would’ve written that song”, and it makes you wanna try and write a better song. We kinda push each other to write good music, but it’s very supportive at the same time. We’re all going out to each other’s shows.
What’s next for you guys?
Just keep puttin’ out records and touring… It’s been going at a nice, gradual pace. It hasn’t been too stressful.
Is there a festival specifically that you’d love to get the opportunity to play at?
I don’t know, we’re not really big festival guys… It’s not a big dream of ours to be playing Bonnaroo or anything like that… Speaking for myself, I love the club gigs, just our own shows. That’s my favorite, to be in a grimy club playin’ a rock show.
Do you have a favorite show you guys have ever done?
I can’t really pick one off the top of my head right now… The crowds just keep surprising us, getting bigger and louder, they sing every song… We don’t have a radio single, we’re not one of those bands that people come out to see the one radio single, people explore our whole catalogue. Every single person has a different favorite song… That’s really special for us to be able to pick and choose different songs every night to play.
To visit the band’s website, click here.
