"Most popular music today is all fluff with no substance. No one sings about love, and I think that is what's been lost on today's music. People sing about fucking, their giant asses, how cool they are, who they beat up, raped or killed, how gangster they are, calling women hoes and bitches."

George Kapitanellis: Bergenfield Blues

New Jersey's very own Cosmic American Derelicts have been performing up and down the East Coast of the United States, and all over the UK, for the last 25 years, playing their own earthy mix of rock and roll and honky-tonk blues to loving audiences everywhere. The Cosmic American Derelicts have recorded five albums, with their sixth, ‘Bergenfield Blues’ -which follows their last UK album, ‘The Twain Shall Meet’, coming out on July 21st, 2023. The album celebrates the "Derelicts" 25^th Anniversary, and features former and current members as well as British singing legend Terry Reid, whose vocals are featured on five songs. The Derelicts have been backing up Terry and touring with him in the US &UK for 15 years. 

(Photo: George Kapitanellis of Cosmic American Derelicts)

Over the years, the Cosmic American Derelicts have performed on many of the world's most famous stages both here in the US and abroad, as well as performing with quite a few musical legends, including Graham Nash, Buddy Miles, Vassar Clements, Buddy Cage, Tony Rice, Mick Taylor, Derek Trucks, Commander Cody and Peter Rowan. ‘Bergenfield Blues’ - featured musicians: George Kapitanellis (Bass/songwriter-founding member and bandleader); Ed Rainey (guitars, B-bender guitar, dobro & lap steel guitar, mandolin, drums and harmony vocal); Scott Lauro (vocals, guitars); Terry Reid (vocals and guitar); Joe Wilkinson (vocals, guitars); Sotiri Karlis (drums); Galinos Kapitanelis (Drums); Rob Clores (Organ and pianos); Cindy Cashdollar (Electric Dobro); Dixie Lee Rainey (Harmony vocals); The Terrettes - Lajuan Carter-Dent and Audrey Martells (backingvocals).

Interview by Michael Limnios          Special Thanks: Dave Hill (Tenacity Music PR)

How has the Rock n’ Roll Counterculture influenced your views of the world and the journeys you’ve taken?

As soon as I heard rock and roll, I was hooked. I first fell in love with early rock and roll from the 50s, my mom would spin Elvis, Fats, and Chuck Berry mostly, dancing and singing in the kitchen every weekend, then as I grew into my teens, I got into the 70's early 80's hard rock and then when I got into high school, I got really into the 60's scene both the UK and US scenes. I pretty much based my life on sex, drugs and rock and roll from the age of 16 when I picked up the bass. I was always antiestablishment before I even knew what that meant. I didn't do too well in school because I despised authority and would often clash with teachers and principals. I read all the great beat authors of the time as well as Orwell and Huxley and the classics, Homer, Milton, Shakespeare, Marlow, Melville, James Fenimore Cooper, Emily Dickinson, Shelley, etc. These literary figures and musicians definitely helped shape my thought and world view.

How do you describe CAD sound and songbook? Where does band’s creative drive come from?

The Cosmic American Derelicts are an old school rock band that leans heavily on our Anglo/American roots music, ie: Blues, Mountain Music, Country and Western, Irish fiddle music, and rock and roll from the 50's to the early 80's. Even when we were all growing up in the late 70's and 80's we didn't really dig the 80-90's music with a few exceptions, Steve Ray Vaughan, Jeff Healey, Van Halen, Ozzy & Randy. Our influences vary from Gram Parsons, Townes Van Zandt, Hank Williams, to Yardbirds, Zeppelin, Stones, Savoy Brown, to Skynyrd, Allman Bros, to Bob Marley, Black Uhuru, to Ralph Stanley, Tony Rice, Bill Monroe, and of course the Motown, Chess and Stax vibes of r&b. We are also influenced by Spanish/Latin music and Greek music as Sotiri (Karlis) our drummer and I are Greek.

As for our creative drive, I guess it stems from all the band members having a deep passion for the music we love and wanting to carry the torch of our forefathers to the next generation. We proudly wear our influences on our sleeve and live and love what we do everyday. It's not a job, it's a lifestyle.

"There will always be an audience for soulful blues music as long as people still have hearts and souls, and feel the human experience deeply. Bonamassa, Eric Gales, Kingfish, Marcus King and many others are taking the music to new audiences every day. Now will the genre ever be what it was in the 50-60-70's, I doubt it, the machine doesn’t want people to feel or believe in a soulful God led spirit. The machine wants disposable, soulless crap to feed the young." (Photo: Cosmic American Derelicts)

When did the idea of name Cosmic American Derelicts come about?

Originally our name was The Derelicts, after our original singer Brian Murray made an offhand remark about our large circle of friends, seeing us hanging on the street corner smoking and drinking outside a venue. When we put a band together shortly thereafter, I decided the Derelicts was a perfect fit name wise for our newborn band. After a year or so of gigging I received a phone call from a lawyer saying that his client owned the Trademark to the name Derelicts and we should cease and desist from using it. So naturally I wasn't going to let it go without a fight. We are all huge Gram Parsons fans and he used to hate the term country rock, he coined the term Cosmic American music to describe his music, so as we do countrify certain non-country songs, Immigrant Song, Second That Emotion and others, I felt that adding that term to our name would be a fitting salute to our style of music.

Are there any memories from gigs, jams, open acts and studio sessions which you’d like to share with us?

There are so many memories of gigs, fans, road adventures and recording sessions. One of my favorites is when we recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York City back in the early 2000's. We are all huge Hendrix fans and having the honour to work in his studio was like a priest performing mass at the Vatican. We were all in awe. We slept for four days in the studio and recorded our second album there, The Product.

What do you miss most nowadays from the music of the past? What are your hopes and fears for the future of?

What we all miss from the past is just the scene. People aren't as passionate about music as they used to be, at least not the under 40 crowd. In our youth the club scene was happening 7 days a week, now you're lucky if you can find live bands on a Friday night. We miss hearing popular music being made by real artists and musicians, not producers and mediocre faces. There are still many great bands, but the powers that control the airwaves give little to no time to the real honest music, the people that pay their dues for years honing their craft in seedy clubs, living in vans and sleeping on couches.. They don't want artists, they want faces and brands which they can control and exploit for money, until the next pretty face hits the scene. Honestly most of these new acts would have never been signed in the 60's or 70's. there was a much higher standard back in the old days. with protools and auto tune it is much easier to fake it.

"I read all the great beat authors of the time as well as Orwell and Huxley and the classics, Homer, Milton, Shakespeare, Marlow, Melville, James Fenimore Cooper, Emily Dickinson, Shelley, etc. These literary figures and musicians definitely helped shape my thought and world view." (Photo: Cosmic American Derelicts & British legend Terry Reid)

What is the impact of music on the socio-cultural implications? How do you want the music to affect people?

Most popular music today is all fluff with no substance. No one sings about love, and I think that is what's been lost on today's music. People sing about fucking, their giant asses, how cool they are, who they beat up, raped or killed, how gangster they are, calling women hoes and bitches. All very low grade and trash subjects. Also, since so many people don't go to Sunday worship, we have lost that soulfulness and feeling in our music. The best singers of all time, learned to sing in the Church. The greatest works of art were inspired by the all might and the beauty of nature/Earth. If you listen to music from before let's say 1990, most songs were love songs, hell the Beatles became rich singing about love. Now there is no love, only lust and feeding the human beast, not the human soul. These negatives in our music and TV/Movies have seeped into our society and have impacted it in a very negative way. You can see it in the way the youth act and in the way, people raise these kids. We as artists should be bringing the message of love, peace and understanding back to the masses. I'm sick of artists pontificating about politics on stage, people go to shows to escape from the world, to let loose, to lose themselves for a few hours in the beauty of rhythm and melody. If you have something to say, write a song about it, let the music speak, I don't want you telling me who to vote or what to believe in, in between songs.

What are some of the most important lessons you have learned from your experience in the music paths?

The lessons learned over our musical career/paths has been that most of the people that work in the industry, that aren't musicians are full of shit, con men and liars. Promising the world for a piece of your soul. We've had many ups and downs in our 25 years as a band, but thank God we are all brothers/family and we have never sold out or had to kiss anyone's ring. We do things our way, no compromise. I am very proud of that fact, we may be outsiders sometimes, but at least we can look ourselves in the mirror and not be disgusted by what we see. We play what we love and feel, not what some pencil necked lawyer/accountant geek in a suit wants to hear. Be true to your music and vision.

Do you think there is an audience for Rock n’ Blues music in its current state? or at least a potential for young people to become future audiences and fans?

There will always be an audience for soulful blues music as long as people still have hearts and souls, and feel the human experience deeply. Bonamassa, Eric Gales, Kingfish, Marcus King and many others are taking the music to new audiences every day. Now will the genre ever be what it was in the 50-60-70's, I doubt it, the machine doesn’t want people to feel or believe in a soulful God led spirit. The machine wants disposable, soulless crap to feed the young.

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(Photo: George Kapitanellis & Sotiri Karlis of Cosmic American Derelicts)