Punk veteran and singer-songwriter Joey Cape, frontman of iconic punk band Lagwagon, releases his new solo album A Good Year To Forget.

LISTEN TO “A GOOD YEAR TO FORGET”

An album that was written during a year that saw Cape lose his father, separate from his wife of 20 years, contract COVID, and move back in with his parents as a result of a livelihood lost, Cape’s forthcoming solo album, A Good Year To Forget, is a warm and beautiful record that encapsulates all the trials and tribulations over those challenging 12 months. 

The time Joey Cape spent with his parents over the past year didn’t just allow him to reconnect with them; it also afforded him time to write songs. Because recording studios were shutting down everywhere due to COVID, Cape got creative and turned the “cabana-type thing” he was living in into a home recording studio. “I just decided that if I was going to make a record like this, I should make it in full isolation,” he says. “I have a Murphy bed, so every morning I’d push up the bed, pull out the studio stuff, have some coffee or tea, get out my little chair and off I went.”

Despite Cape’s isolation while writing A Good Year To Forget, his fans will hear much more than just a voice, guitar and bass on this record. Indeed, he ended up playing a plethora of instruments when recording the album, including electric and lap steel guitars, piano, mandolin and drums.
 

“I almost made a solo record alone,” he laughs. “But that great fun you have in collaborating with other people in the studio is just priceless. There’s always something positive you can find–something of redeeming value in an experience where there’s a struggle of suffering. I played everything because I reached a point where I realised that’s something I’d have to hold onto if it was going to be the record I wanted and set out to make. It forced things to be very basic, but I’m okay with that.”