Having recently wrapped up a seven week European tour, Lagwagon frontman and certified Bonanza fan Joey Cape briefs Truepunk on the group's future prospects.
Interview by Steve Tauschke with singer-songwriter Joey Cape.

Hi Joey, I read there's a little story behind the band's name?

Joey Cape:

"It was just something my brother and I used to say to my Mum when we were too young to drive and she was driving us around and dropping us off from school and stuff. She actually had a station wagon and we used to say she was the conductor of the lagwagon because she was always late. But you know before we did our first record we were called Section 8!"

Tell us about your hometown Santa Barbara?

Joey Cape:

"Well, there's the Santa Barbara soap opera but I want to point out that it's nothing like that. It's a cool town, really nice, an on the beach kind of Riviera town. Really beautiful and with decent surf. I don't live there anymore but I grew up there. Right now I'm not living anywhere, I have my stuff in storage because I got sick of paying rent when we're touring."

We know you've just toured Europe .. how about domestically in the US?

Joey Cape:

"We've been playing here a lot, in fact we're going back out again in about two weeks. We did the first half of the Warped tour and then we did our own States tour. The shows we're about to do are with Millencolin. In Europe we played with just about all the Swedish bands, tons of 'em. We've been to Scandanavia a lot and played with a Swedish band called Randy around Europe."

Is there room for Swedish punk bands in the US market?

Joey Cape:

"I think it's going to be difficult for those to make it here because the one drawback for them as far as America goes is that a lot of the sounds coming out of Sweden are based on sounds that have been happening in California for I dunno how many years. And because of that they're nothing new to people who live here."

Your new album Hoss has some great tracks such as Bombs Away and Sleep, songs that might appeal to first listeners.

Joey Cape:

"Sleep is actually my favourite song on that record but it was the song I was most disappointed with in the way it came out. As a song, I think it's one of the better ones but they don't always come out the way you want them to when you record them."

Has the band recorded anything recently, since Hoss?

Joey Cape:

"I'm in the studio right now actually, but not for Lagwagon. Lagwagon is going back to record an EP in December. We've got a lot of songs so we'll do another full length album by next summer."

On Fat again?

Joey Cape:

"Oh yeah, we couldn't be happier with them. You know, we hear horror stories from people and I'm sure at this point we could be on a major label if we wanted to and I'm sure it's going to be an option for a long time but it's just always been good with Fat. The positive thing is that we were the first band on Fat. It's a good thing, thereare maybe eight people that work for them now and they're all good friends of ours. We always know what's going on."