Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelli Canada, lead singer of the local cover band Capital Chill.
Hi Kelli, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
I am the lead singer of a cover band that formed in early 2020, just before the pandemic took over. Myself and Jake reached out to musicians to put together a band that had to (1) be able to stay productive while we are all locked down at home and (2) wait for a very long payoff in terms of getting on to a stage in a post-pandemic world. All of the members, including myself, have been playing music since we were very young, and we have all played in cover and original bands before. Jake and I had always joined other people’s bands but had never started a project on our own. We decided to start a project with the main goal of playing music we like and getting paid for it (enough anyways to cover the bar tab at the end of the night ;). Jake has largely been the nuts and bolts in getting the band’s infrastructure set up and I corralled everyone in sticking to a schedule for the online content we made and projecting future plans. Our goals and vision were realized in early 2021 when we were fortunate enough to get picked up by Starleigh Entertainment to get us on the local stages we originally set out to play. Starleigh has put us in some really great venues and we’ve had a blast ever since.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Over the short 2-year life of Capital Chill we have definitely had some bumps and bruises. Trying to get the right mix of musicians that have the talent, the personality (“Chill” is in the name for a reason), and that we genuinely enjoy playing with was a challenge, but we definitely have that perfect combination now with our lineup. (Kelli Canada – vocals; Rafael Andrade – guitars; Wade Ridenhour – keys; Bojan Novevski – bass; Jake Deal – drums) Just about every show, you are going to have some sort of technical hiccup no matter how much you plan and invest in reliable equipment; stuff happens, and we’re getting better and better at adapting or brushing it off. However, the biggest glaring challenge of course was trying to start a band right when bars, events, and stages are completely shutting down due to the pandemic. We were essentially a band for over a year before we even played a live show, but we used the opportunity to create a social media presence and put out a ton of “quarantine” covers on YouTube. It was a great way to learn and test out songs we wanted on our setlist in future, and have some fun while we’re all going stir-crazy in our homes.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
One of the reasons why we didn’t really get serious about putting the band together until we were well into our 30s is because it is extremely difficult to be a performing full-time musician, especially living in such an expensive part of the country. I think most cover bands would agree that it takes a huge time investment and monetary investment to have a functioning band. So Jake and I had to have a bit of stability in order to pull this project off – and more importantly – find like-minded folks with similar situations. Needless to say, when you add up all the time spent doing “music” planning, rehearsing, loading in, performing, and loading out… compared to the monetary payoff, most bands are not breaking even, much less even scratching minimum wage ;). So, while all of us certainly have a life-long passion for music, for most of us, it’s not our full-time gig. Our band includes environmental scientists, project managers, post-doc academic researchers, and dads with kids who get together on the weekends to hang out and make a little beer/toll money. There are a lot of competing things in our lives that we have to work around to put a solid product on stage, but it’s incredibly rewarding for us, and also not without some luck along the way, to have found a good balance.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I know each of us has our own memory of when our love of music first kicked in and our early days of picking up an instrument and starting to play. A mixture of terror, nerves, adrenaline, but in the end pure joy and a hunger for more!
Contact Info:
Email: capitalchillband@gmail.com
Website: https://www.capitalchill.com/
Instagram: @capitalchillband
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapitalChillBand/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/capital_chill?lang=en
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZD0x-DaSGtv63ObSSZrSbQ
Image Credits
Emmy Jean Photography LLC
Katerina Trajkova