Since forming in 2018 Garrett T. Capps & NASA Country have been steadily growing their fanbase by continuing to create sounds that push them further into outer space.
“There is no lineup stuff that changes,” says Capps. “Everyone’s personality is really strong and there’s no replacing anyone in that band.”
Capps & NASA Country are returning to Houston to play on Friday, February 3 at Last Concert Cafe with Galveston psych rockers India Tigers In Texas for what is sure to be an evening of incomparable rock and roll on the sandy dance floor of the historic venue.
Their latest release People Are Beautiful, released in the fall of last year, only continues the Capps & NASA Country’s journey into creating their own sound which clearly celebrates Texas’s musical roots while propelling the band into the future with Justin Boyd serving as a mad scientist for the band with his synthesizer magic.
“We are still figuring it out,” says Capps of the band’s collective creative process which really began to take shape during the writing of People Are Beautiful. “We are just now touching on some pretty important songwriting type stuff.”
The title track is a hear-it-once-and-sing-it-forever kind of song that serves as an aggressively optimistic anthem of love and really captures the band’s punk rock roots while examining the complexity of humanity and dynamics between the good and bad in everyone.
People can be tricky but sure enough, even the most unlikely of individuals possess at least one admirable trait. “I agree totally but also I don’t know how much I thought of it at the time,” says Capps.
“I love songs with universal messages of positivity, that’s just a style of song that I find myself writing a lot and I try to branch out but when I hear a song with a universal anthem that resonates with me and I feel connected to other people through that kind of stuff.”
“I love songs with universal messages of positivity.”
One way Capps stays connected in his hometown is through his venue The Lonesome Rose and his intentional efforts to pay homage and provide a space for San Antonio’s rich musical history.
Last year with the help of Beaumonster Jesse Dayton he worked with accordion legend Santiago Jiménez Jr. on his release Still Kicking! giving the old timer a whole new audience with the release.
Currently, Jiménez will play every first Friday of the month at Capps’ club in San Antonio. “San Antonio’s musical history is really interesting and we try to celebrate it,” says Capps.
Capps is also nominated for his first Ameripolitan Award for the Honky Tonk Male category and will be traveling to Memphis in February for the Dale Watson-created award show taking place at Graceland. “It’s going to be my maiden voyage and it’s going to be a trip,” says Capps with a laugh.
Though often seen as a solo artist in a world where the front person can suffice with a band that just “plays the right notes”, Capps knows he wouldn’t be able to do what he does without the help of his band with each member contributing their own special energy which is undeniable during their live performances.
“When I formed NASA Country, I formed them just to be my psychedelic country backing band on In The Shadows Again and since then, we’ve really become quite a band, much more than I had expected it to be. Now that lineup is really special to me because I hadn’t really had a band like this since I was a teenager where we are all just friends and in it for all the right reasons. It isn’t just some job.”
Garrett T. Capps & NASA Country will perform with India Tigers In Texas on Friday, February 3 at The Last Concert Cafe, 1403 Nance. $20-65.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
