Exposed Vocals Interviews Kaptain Krook
Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
Kaptain Krook: I was born in Torrance, CA but relocated to Orange County, CA within a few months before I was even a year old which is where I stayed until I was 20. I had always taken an interest in hip-hop/rap, but I shied away from ever trying to do something productive in my youth due to divorce and other family issues. I fell in with all the right “wrong people” and was swept up in something that took over my life. It wasn’t until I had moved to the Bay Area in Northern California that I really began to focus on my life and bettering myself over the purpose of the homies and the squad. I had originally heard some co-workers freestyling at work and spit a few bars to them… they were shocked and one of them showed me audacity so I started recording just playing around. My business partner, Kaveh Newmen with my clothing company “Executive League” has a lot of connections and brought me out to Krazy Bone’s studio (of Bone Thugs N’ Harmony) where I recorded my first cover song but the distance made it unrealistic…. Ultimately though the whole music thing stemmed from what was supposed to be a joke in my living room. I spit a few freestyles pretty much criticizing other artists and one of my friends who was there pretty much said that I needed to pursue music…. That was Joshua Crutchfield aka “Crutch” and he is the one who introduced me to AKA Frank and that whole squad. Everything just fell into place and multiple people played important parts in it, but I wasn’t serious about it until I met frank… The rest is currently becoming my own history you know.
Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?
Kaptain Krook: So the story behind the name is this… I loved pirates growing up! I mean I was obsessed with them so much so I damn near watched the movie Hook every single night or I couldn’t go to sleep. Now Captain Crook was already owned and trademarked by McDonalds as the Evil Pirate of Fish Filet so I couldn’t use the c’s and coming from southern California with the whole Bro scene and the Tag Banging Klicks (not cliques) everything is spelled with K’s… So I swapped the C’s out and wallah! Pretty much took some inspiration from the Kottonmouth Kings, and from my own Klick…
I actually made a dope video in Bermuda that was true to my pirate comedy style when I started that y’all could check out… Pretty much showing that I’m the modern day pirate just having a good time out on the open sea… Keep in mind this was meant to be funny:
Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
Kaptain Krook: I think it has definitely changed the music industry to the point that anyone can steal your music at any time so you might as well give it away for free. It really levels the playing field and creates a standard that people will buy your music if they feel you deserve it. Even if it’s up for sale and not up for free download people can steal the music. I give my music away for free for the most part, but one or two songs I refuse to give away for free due to the cost to make the song or get the artist you know. Ultimately though anyone can stream the music or steal it off my soundcloud at any point so you know…. Go be pirates and do as the pirates do… I’m not gonna be mad.
Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
Kaptain Krook: Be tenacious beyond your own belief of how hard you can work. If you feel like giving up, good… you’re almost there… keep going! Keep pushing… Keep making music…. Don’t listen to the haters because honestly even if people don’t comment and give you feedback someone out there will like your music. Haters are just fans who don’t know how to compliment you anyway. As long as you are about your music and believe in yourself the haters will eventually convert to bandwaggoners. The more active you are in the social media community the quicker you’re going to get noticed. Just stay on your path and don’t lose sight of your goal honestly. I haven’t played all too many shows, but I’ve definitely turned down far more gigs than I’ve played. Stay true to yourself and if a deal seems bad let it go… More opportunities will always arise.
Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?
Kaptain Krook: Honestly my brain runs at 1000x the speed of normal brain activity. I have extreme ADHD so I literally have a cascading waterfall of endless thoughts. All it usually takes is me saying something catchy or funny out loud and I’ll text myself what I said…. I can turn a single phrase or word into a full song in a few hours. I have drastically changed my writing process though as I used to write song after song without the beat, but they came out sounding forced and robotic (Pirate Pimpin), but after that I told myself to slow down and only write when I had the beat in front of me. I have been releasing my music in the order recorded, so now that all the original stuff with my old writing style is out, everything you’ll see going forward is fun, energetic, and plays off the different momentum buildups of the beat.
Take Bills on tha Couch for example – I was talking about how I didn’t want to go to the club because I’d rather stay home and make money… this was the result:
Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?
Kaptain Krook: My website is KaptainKrook.com or GumbohouseEntertainment.com which both lead to the same end result. As far as the platforms go, Soundcloud is my go to guy, but I am all over the place. You won’t find all of my music on Soundcloud because I don’t want it all being ripped but it’s definitely all on Spotify. Keep your eyes out on Pandora too as I just went live with my station, but I have like 20 songs accepted that aren’t live yet…it’s about to get real. iTunes, Google Play, Amazon MP3, Deezer, Tidal, etc.etc it’s on all of those outlets though….
Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?
Kaptain Krook: I’d spend every dollar working on more music and bigger projects… I don’t know what time off is… I’d enjoy having time off from my day job, but I’m always working no matter what. That’s my biggest flaw as of right now… I don’t know how to relax anymore.
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
Kaptain Krook: My most effective form of promotion is working with other artists and building legitimate relationships with people. I also like to utilize forums and social media. I have definitely used some of the bigger media outlets, but I don’t really believe in the way they operate. Music should be about being heard and helping others get heard… Charging someone 250 bucks to put one song up or 750 for a video is just robbery. I am very outspoken about this too so some of the larger outlets kinda hate on me for speaking my mind.
Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
Kaptain Krook: I have been working on Pirate Pimpin Vol. 2 which is going to be epic… Pirate Pimpin was alright, but like I said I used to write my music before having beats and when I recorded Pirate Pimpin that was my official start of music… That was me learning how to rap and do all of this while I was recording. I wanted people to see my legit starting point. I have evolved vastly and I think it will show in the upcoming single releases as well as through the album. Also, I have a new video coming out for OUTLAW prod AKA Frank off of Pirate Pimpin which is one of my favorite songs because it is themed to be an old western song regarding the Wild Wild West that is California. In major news though… I am shooting a music video with the Neon ICON (Riff Raff) for Sleepy Boy prod AKA Frank in June and they are putting me on the Los Angeles show as an opener. That is going to be epic.
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
Kaptain Krook: Well I would be on the same path I was before the music… Bettering my life and doing everything in my power to undo the damage I did to myself in the past. On top of that I’d be working with Executive League regardless to spread a message to troubled youth. All that crazy party gangster shit is fun and wild, but it never ends well. You can still keep it gangster while minding your own business and enjoying yourself, but there is no need to put other people in harm’s way or ruin someone else life by being a total POS. Life is all about making a positive impact on the youth you know so I try to do that in every aspect of life. That’s what EXL is all about – having a great time and living life to the fullest but still giving back. Love Life baby!
Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?
Kaptain Krook: Lots and lots of post-it notes! I make lists so even if my head is spinning I’m still on track. I don’t necessarily finish each list every day but I carry the items over. If you tell yourself to do something enough or remind yourself enough you’ll get it done even if you don’t want to. It’s hard work and I definitely have pushed myself so hard that I’ve crashed and burned, but you gotta just pick up the pieces and get back to it. Don’t let anyone or anything stop you.
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?
Kaptain Krook: I have some epic collabs coming out… Not necessarily with huge artists, but with epic people. All I can say is I’m working on creating more visuals that are higher quality and I’m working on reaching out and collabing with anyone I can. This past year was really hard and I almost gave up multiple times, but I have solid people around me who support me so it keeps me going. Expect 2016 to be a year of quality.