Sometimes, it’s hard to envision any thing other than winter weather this time of year, especially while road tripping through snowy mountains with little cell reception to transport you away from the dreary drive. However, Captiva can easily pull themselves out of the winter blues to reminisce about summertime festivals and the Captiva vibes that go along with them.
The group of four-Jackson Ries (vocals, guitar), Pat McQuaid (guitar, vocals), Nick Riffle (bass) and Hank Wiedel (drums)-was brought together after Wiedel, McQuaid and Ries all had to serve high school detention for various reasons-one of which being a text conversation about making music together. They have since dubbed the band Captiva, made name for themselves in the Midwest college scene as a band and have expanded far beyond it.
“It was pretty punk rock and we decided that we were going to take over the world and so we did,” McQuaid said.
The Kansas City natives have had a song featured on the Spotify Fresh Finds playlist, opened for some big names and made the rounds at festivals and venues all over the country from southern Illinois to Texas. Captiva has big plans for themselves, and while Missouri is technically their home, they don’t necessarily feel stuck there.
“Some people are less inviting to other bands so it kind of pushed us just to expand beyond the Kansas City music scene,” they admitted. “We broadened our perspective and our horizons on music I guess just because we don’t feel tied down to Kansas City.”
That being said, they have still had lots of great memories in the Kansas City music scene. They have been able to land spots on quite a few big festivals like SXSW, Backwoods Music Festival and others, and they were also able to open for one of their very favorite bands, twenty one pilots, in their hometown.
Not only was it amazing for Captiva to be able to have their friends from home experience opening for a band they’ve looked up to with them, putting on a great show is always a top priority regardless of who they are playing with. As a band, Captiva aims to be positive and energetic-both of which they hope radiates through their music and performances. The band knows it is important to emphasize their commitment to creating a memorable experience for everyone in their audience each and every time they take the stage.
“We like to give an experience for people so that they walk away having taken something both physically and emotionally away from it-because that’s who we are,” they said. “We are people that kind of don’t give a shit and love to make music and do what we love and give it to as many people as possible. We’re trying to have other people step into our shoes and experience the joys of that as well.”
Last month, the band dropped their debut EP, and they were very excited to reintroduce themselves with the self-titled release. After having quite a bit of music on their Soundcloud, they worked extremely hard on this collection of songs and feel it represents exactly who Captiva is.
“Our sound was really different, we kind of redefined ourselves musically and we were excited to put a new Captiva out there-like a new band completely redesigned. The new EP is way more produced than our last EP. We put a lot of time and effort into it and really just tried to make it a new fresh debut,” they shared.
Even with brand new music under their belt, Captiva is not giving it a rest. They have tons of plans for the year that hopefully involve bigger festival spots and more shows. They have even begun writing for a full length that they hope to have finished at some point during 2016. But, at the end of the day, they just want to progress as a band and bring their music to new ears.
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