Today we’d like to introduce you to Tony Kapel and Maitejosune Urrechaga.
Tony and Maitejosune, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
We were both born and raised in Miami; I (Tony) embraced the concept of playing drums since the 6th grade. My first concert was Bruce Springsteen ‘Born in the USA’ at the Orange Bowl. The first local live band I saw was at The Kendall Lakes Country Club. That day I was blasted with riffs you only heard on the radio. Unbound by imagination, years passed and several bands and daydreams of being a drummer soon became much more than that when Pocket Of Lollipops formed.
Our band Pocket of Lollipops which is Maitejosune on bass/vocals/synth/noise making and I started coming together in the winter of 2008 and made its public debut in 2009 at the Hollywood Art & Culture Center when we collaborated with the TM Sisters. It started as a soundscape with visuals projected along reflective material and mirrors to manipulate a projection/animations found or created.
Maitejosune Urrechaga from the Basque region in Spain launched over here by catapult mid WWII as a spy and was dosed with a med that kept her young for 40 years, expecting she would’ve been captured, she outlived the med and began a normal life mid 1980s as a kid in Kendall, she woke up one day in a garage surrounded by crayons and jellybean eating snails. She became a visual artist and bassist, singer for the band Pocket of Lollipops. She says One of her my biggest cheerleaders has always been me, Tony Kapel. We have always encouraged each other to do anything and never limit any idea.
Honestly, when singing came into place for Pocket of Lollipops, it was very organic. When we started making music, it was more noises and atmospheric and then after our first tour and a few songs we agreed it was missing something. So Maite just started putting words together from books I had written and other whatnots that run through my head.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
The creative practice for Pocket of Lollipops allows us to incorporate whatever method of “art” we choose to use for whatever project we are organizing. We record out of our home studio aka HoundsToothCottage, space within is organized to establish a conducive environment which is outfitted with the tools we need. For the intro to “Face Value” from our current Album Be My Non Friend Friend (album release date April 10, 2019) we wanted to bring the listener into our house, so the intro skit is a small composition of what our house sounds like if you were approaching when we’re working.
At our studio home, projects processes are filled with happy accidents leading to alternative results. Maybe we have appropriate material at the moment, or maybe we dive into collected stuff. Projects are also site-specific; I think the adaptability is its own form of art.
Some of the artworks that we make end up being art for t-shirts, pins, albums or prints. Some of the titles of our artwork or writings from our novels may also be a title of a song or album. We draw inspiration from many places. We are both grateful to be able to translate our ideas through mainly art and music, but we have involved ideas into installations, collective gatherings, and interactive shows.
For Pocket of Lollipops what comes out is what comes out. Our influences are situations, relationships, communication or the lack of these. We would rather someone tell us what we sound like or what our sounds generate in them.
Artists face many challenges, but what do you feel is the most pressing among them?
Being honest with your message.
Everything has challenges. I don’t know if you can fully be prepared but as long as you keep making things I think you will be fine. We all have our paths, and lessons, and people to meet, and the universe has us placed.
Inspiring someone can be dangerous sometimes.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
To support our work you can purchase our album directly from us on Pocketoflollipops.com. Other cool items like the T-shirts, pins, patches and other whatnots that should be in your collection can also be found on our online store.
You can watch our latest music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzEQfnYPHrQ.
You can come dance and celebrate with us at our album release party at Gramps on April 10, 8 pm during Haute Happy Hour.
If you rather the album digitally we are available on every online music platform such as Spotify, Apple music and so on. I do suggest if you do that, then you should leave the album playing for three weeks non stop. It takes about 5000 streams just to add up to one sale of a cd or vinyl.
Our individual personal websites and our recording studio links are as such:
Pocketoflollipops.com
Houndstoothcottage.com
Maitejosune.com
Tonykapel.com
Follow Pocket Of Lollipops on all social media platforms: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook.
You can also listen to our monthly radio show on SHAKE 94.3fm. ‘Turntables in the Treehouse’ every 2nd Saturday at 3 pm. Maite and I talk about music, share music and have invited guests.
Soon you can find on youtube a collaboration with PureSalem guitars titled ‘Transmission from the Cottage.’
Contact Info:
- Website: www.pocketoflollipops.com
- Email: pocketoflollipops@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pocketoflollipops
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pocketoflollipops
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/pocketlollipops
- Other: https://pocketoflollipops.bandcamp.com/music
Image Credit:
Pesh Punk
Marianne Spellman
Jessie Askinazi
PAXY
Getting in touch: VoyageMIA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
