Caper Clowns are from Denmark. They just released their debut record, The Buca Bus, a pure pop delight. Sweet Sweet Music talked to Rick Kingo about hygge, songwriting, Oasis, The Divine Comedy and about too many ballads on a mix-tape.

 There is a “Hygge” hype going on over here in the Netherlands. Does that in any way relate to your music? Or is that a stupid question?

You could argue that there is some “hygge” to our brand new single All We Ever Do Is Run (out Monday 9^th of January), but that’s pretty much it. It wasn’t actually written that way either, but as soon as we added the banjo, “hygge” just sort of magically appeared.

Does that pure pop sound come naturally to you? Who are your musical influences?

It does. Not always though, and we do sometimes make rockier tunes, but quite a lot of the stuff we write is just pure pop, which is great, ‘cause we love it.

As far as musical influences go there’s of course The Beatles, The Beach Boys and other 60’s bands, but there’s also bands like Oasis, XTC, The Kooks, Panic! at the Disco and many many more.

Lyrics or melodies, what comes first?

Of the 12 tracks on The Buca Bus words only came first once, and that was on Dressed In Flaws, which started out as a poem by our bass player Christian. On the other 11 tracks the music came first, and the words for Dressed In Flaws were actually even heavily re-written after we wrote the music. So usually it’s music first, though we do consider the words equally important.

A Tale of Romance & Magnetic Trains is my favourite song (for now). How did that one came together?

Thank you. That’s one of mine (we are four different songwriters on the album, so it’s always nice when someone picks one of mine as a favourite).
It was actually written very quickly. I just picked up the guitar, started playing and singing and 30 minutes later I had the chords and melody down, and maybe another 30 minutes later the words were done too. Took a few days in the rehearsing room and studio with the band to get the arrangement quite right, but it was definitely one of the fastest to make.

She tells you she will decide on a 5-song-mix tape if there is going to be a second date. Which 5 would you put on?

That’s a tough one. So tough.

I think I’m going to have to pick Don’t Look Back In Anger by Oasis, ‘cause that’s the song that got me into playing the guitar in the first place.

I’d probably have to pick a Beatles song as well, ‘cause they were just pure genius, and I think I’m gonna go with In My Life.

To The Rescue by The Divine Comedy would be on the tape as well, ‘cause it happens to be my favourite song at the moment. I first heard it on Alan Haber’s Pure Pop Radio about a month ago, and I just haven’t stopped listening to it since.

That’s three semi-ballads so maybe I would need to pick something more upbeat like Chelsea Dagger by The Fratellis, ‘cause that one is just a lot of fun.

Finally I’d probably pick one of our own tunes, ‘cause rumour has it chicks dig guys who play guitar. Probably an upbeat one, ‘cause there’s definitely too many ballads on my mix-tape already.

If you could tour the world with two other bands, which two would you chose?

If I could pick anyone that ever existed I’d pick The Beatles and Oasis, both because they’re great and because I think it would be all kinds of fun.

Sadly none of those bands exist anymore, which means I’d pick The Kooks, because they have some quality tunes, are a great live band and I think their fans would really like what we do as well.

I’d also pick Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, ‘cause I go to a lot of their shows all over Europe anyway, so it would save me A LOT of money not to have to pay to get in!

What will 2017 look like? How will you promote The Buca Bus?

We’re going to play a lot of concerts and festivals. At the moment, we only have shows planned in Denmark, but we would of course love to travel and play all across Europe (and the world, but we’ll settle for Europe this time around).

In addition to that we’re going to release a few more singles over the next 6-7 months, which means we will hopefully continue to be on the radio a lot, like we have been with our lead single Pockets.

And we will of course continue to write and record new music, and it actually just so happens that we’re headed back in the studio on Saturday to start working on our next album, which we hope to be able to release some time in 2018.

Listen here  and buy  here