Minneapolis-based Mae Simpson released “Cap Guns” today, the first song off their upcoming album.
There’s a lot of buzz around the song and this 7-piece band that features saxophonist Brian “Snowman” Powers, who also produced the album.
The Current made the single its Song of the Day today. The song is available on streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music.
Guitarist Jorgen Wadkins talked with Jam in the Stream yesterday about the single and the band’s upcoming album and touring.
“Cap Guns,” Wadkins said, was written by Simpson.
It’s a pop song with a nostalgic feel to it.
“If I could wake up in a song.”
“I remember Mae showing me about 2 years ago,” he said. “This is one that we recorded before we ever played it. It harks back to the innocence of childhood and your youth. … The idea that things keep changing and are always different. Some of us have come into parenthood. Feeling that. Time creeping up. ... There is a natural progression of that reality coming to a head and what that means for us.”
Both Wadkins and trumpeter Paul Pederson both became fathers recently, Wadkins mentioned.
“I have another one on the way,” he said.
The band started playing the song about four or five months ago, Wadkins said.
There was a lyric video released with the song (embedded above), and Wadkins said a full music video would be released soon.
There is an album release party scheduled for Sept. 9 at Fine Line in Minneapolis. Nur-D and The Get Together are opening the show. Get tickets here.
The new album is called Chandelier & Bloom.
Wadkins said it will be a special night with some “show production that we haven’t done before.”
“We decided to do more than just the music, make it more than a special night,” he said. “Not only are we going to be debuting these songs, it is really our mark of what our band is and what it stands for.”
Wadkins said he is extremely proud of the album.
“This is the first project piece that I have done with no asterisk,” he said. “There is no but. … Sounds good but. This is the first project where wholeheartedly I would show anybody it and have no buts about anything on it.”
He said working with Powers was an incredible experience.
“It was me and him in the studio,” he said. “He would rough in the mixes. I would say this is the idea. I eat music like it’s fucking air. I don’t try to speak like this needs more reverb or whatever.”
Wadkins would have an idea and Powers would show him how to make it happen in the studio.
“He is the first person we have worked with that captured the sounds of the band that is exactly how we sound on stage,” he said. “I feel like we were able to do that with this and still make it viable for national play. It was such a pleasant experience. It took longer than any of us expected. That is not necessarily a bad thing. It is what it is. We would spend 12 hours in the studio. We had a good time.”
Mae Simpson has a pretty busy schedule of live performance yet this summer, including a show today at Riversong Music Festival in Hutchinson, Minn. They are scheduled to play today at 4 p.m.
Take a look at their full tour schedule (and also find ticket links) here.