Thanks so much to David Rapp for the interview! I wrote about Shy Camp some time ago and he got in touch! Even better he was up to answer all my questions about his 90s band which was part of the same scene as Mad Planets and My Favorite in New York!
++ Hi David! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Still making music?
Thank you! I’m very well, but I’m not still making music. The last time I wrote a song was about 20 years ago. It’s strange to think about it after all this time!
++ Let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen at home while growing up?
My parents were musicians, so there was always music playing. I remember playing an LP of the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour over and over as a kid, and in the late ’70s, I was a big fan of the band Kiss. I saw them live in concert around 1980 or so, and it’s still one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Guitar was my first instrument, and my stepfather taught me a few chords when I was young, but I didn’t really take it seriously until I was in college.
++ Had you been in other bands before Shy Camp?
The only serious band I was in before Shy Camp was called Bloomsday, in New York City. I wrote most of the music, and my good friend Adrian Bewley wrote the lyrics and vocal melodies. He still plays music as a solo act, I think. The bass player was a great guy named Matt Rettig, who ran for state assembly in New York last year. We self-released a couple of EPs and played a lot of shows locally. The music was jangly pop, influenced by bands like 10,000 Maniacs and early R.E.M.
++ How was your town at the time of Shy Camp? Were there any bands that you liked? Were there any good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?
I was living in Stony Brook, New York, when I recorded most of the Shy Camp songs. This was in the mid-to-late ’90s, and there were some great bands there, including My Favorite and Mad Planets. I bought most of my records from the local Borders. I can’t remember the names of any local venues, though.
++ When and how did the band start? What made you go solo?
The “band” was always a solo project. On all the Harriet Records stuff, it’s just me and my four-track recorder—that’s me singing and playing all the instruments. I did like playing live shows every once in a while, though, when I could convince people I knew to play a set. Todd Karasik of My Favorite played drums for a couple live shows in Stony Brook and New York City.
++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?
I’d practice at home, generally starting with a chord progression, then adding a vocal melody. Sometimes I’d start with a title, but the lyrics would usually come last. They were never really the focus. I really just liked to play guitar.
++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?
A friend of mine suffered from extreme shyness when she was young, so her parents sent her to a summer camp for kids with social anxiety. She called it “shy camp.” I found the whole concept fascinating, and the term stuck with me. When Bloomsday released an EP, I started a short-lived label called Shy Camp Records to distribute it. “Shy Camp” just seemed like a logical name later on—especially given the solitary nature of the whole thing.
++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?
The Smiths were an extremely important band for me in the 1980s, and a bit later, I discovered the Jesus and Mary Chain and Galaxie 500. There’s a little JAMC influence in “Flowers Every Hour,” I think, and “Best Friend” is more or less an attempt at a Galaxie 500-type song.
The Primitives’ “Lovely” and the Darling Buds’ “Pop Said” were also huge influences on songs like “Alison Song #4” and “Call in Sick.” The Primitives’ song “Crash” is just amazing, and I still love the Darling Buds’ “Burst” and “She’s Not Crying.” I was also listening to Holiday’s “Ready, Steady, Go!” and Belle and Sebastian’s “If You’re Feeling Sinister” quite a bit.
++ I was thinking that during the mid and late 90s there were quite a few American indiepop labels and bands. Did you feel at all part of a scene? What were your favourite bands from that period?
I knew a few members of My Favorite and Mad Planets, and it did feel like we were all connected to something, but it might be a stretch to call it a “scene.” We all had our own interests. There’s one band that I adored around that time called the Binsey Poplars, whose music was very much in the vein of the Cocteau Twins. Their guitarist was an amazing musician named Kirk Douglas, who I knew slightly. I believe he was once in My Favorite. He’s now a member of the Roots, and he’s on the Tonight Show every night! It’s kind of crazy.
++ You only released one record, a 7″ in 1997. Why just one? Was there no other chances to release more records?
I would have released more, but Harriet ended not long after “Call in Sick” was released. I sent a few tapes to other labels, but nothing stuck.
++ This 7″ came out on Harriet Records. How did you end up working with them? How was your relationship with the label?
I sent several tapes of songs to Harriet’s Tim Alborn in late 1996 and early 1997. I was a big fan of Tullycraft and the Magnetic Fields, who’d put out 7-inches with Harriet. So had My Favorite and Mad Planets, so it seemed like a good fit. I think he first wanted to release “Alison Song #4” as a 7-inch, but then I sent him “Call in Sick,” which took its place. “Alison Song #4” was on Harriet’s Friendly Society compilation later on.
++ I am curious about the sleeve. That photo showing an envelope, what’s the story behind that?
I can’t remember the initial inspiration for it, to be honest. I do remember, though, that the address that I wrote on the envelope was “Leeds St.,” which was a direct reference to a lyric from the Smiths’ song “Panic”: “the Leeds side-streets that you slip down.” As that guy in The Doom Generation said: “He was really into the Smiths.”
++ Aside from this 7″ you appeared on two compilations on the Magic Eye Singles label. I believe these tapes used to come with a magazine called “Sex Sells”. I don’t know nothing about this label or magazine, I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about them?
Magic Eye released a tribute album to my father’s band, Pearls Before Swine, and I contributed two tracks to that. The band Flying Saucer Attack was on that album, too, which was cool as hell. Around the same time, Jeffrey Alexander, who ran Magic Eye, did a cassette compilation for his magazine, and I contributed “Lesson.” That’s a very early Shy Camp song—possibly the very first one I recorded, in 1996.
++ I read that you recorded many songs and you recorded some of them with Joel Thibodeau, Nate Shumaker and Mike Weiskopf. How was this collaboration? How did the recruitment process work? And where are these songs?!
In the late ’90s, I worked at the record label Rykodisc, where I met Nate Shumaker and Joel Thibodeau. They played a couple Shy Camp shows with me in Boston and Philadelphia. I also met Myke Weiskopf there, who helped me record 4 or 5 tracks with Nate and Joel, sometime in 1998, I think. They were all swell guys, and gifted musicians, as well. One of those tracks, “The Biggest Secret In the World,” appeared on a Japanese cassette compilation by Rover Records in 2000 called “Starring Nao.” Those songs are all on a DAT tape in my closet somewhere, and there are a few other unreleased tracks knocking around the same closet. (I’ve attached an MP3 of a very late, unreleased Shy Camp track, which I recorded in 1999, called “When the Revolution Comes.” I’m playing everything on that one.)
++ My favourite Shy Camp song is “Call in Sick”, was wondering if you could tell me what inspired this track?
I really just wanted to write a song about two people ditching work and having fun on a day off. I also love going to the movies in the daytime—I still do—and that idea made it into one of the verses. It also provided an excuse for me to record a long, jangly guitar break. I’m a sucker for those.
++ If you were to choose your favorite Shy Camp song, which one would that be and why?
“Flowers Every Hour” was a lot of fun, because it came together so fast. I love the loud guitars and the big, dumb guitar solo on that one. It’s like an Oasis song or something. I’m not really sure where that came from, really.
++ What about gigs? Did you play many?
No, not many at all. Maybe 5 or 6, total.
++ And what were the best gigs you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?
I played a Harriet Records show in Boston with some other bands, including Tullycraft. That was pretty cool, as I used to occasionally play a cover version of their song “Josie.” It was also the only show where there were actual Shy Camp fans in the audience. After the show, one of them asked a question about a lyric, and I was amazed that anyone cared enough to ask about them. (I’m amazed that you care enough to ask about Shy Camp, if I’m being honest.)
++ And were there any bad ones?
There were so few shows that there were really no bad ones. The venues were always top-notch, and I always liked the guys I played with.
++ When and why did Shy Camp stop making music?
Well, it probably has to do with the fact that I met my super-cool future wife, Kristen, at the end of 1999. I was a lot happier, so I didn’t really need to find my joy in music. When I was doing the Shy Camp stuff, I was often struggling with feelings of anxiety and loneliness, and music provided a nice distraction from all of that. And it was a good distraction! But when I was happy in my everyday life, I didn’t really need that outlet anymore, so the urge to write and record music just kind of faded away. My wife and I have been married for 18-and-a-half years now, which is mind-boggling, and I’m still just as happy, so there are no more Shy Camp songs on the horizon. But to me, that’s not such a bad thing!
++ Other than Shy Camp I know you had played guitar with your father Tom Rapp. How was that? That must be quite an experience?
Yes, I played guitar on a song on his 1999 album A Journal of the Plague Year, and on a cover of Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush” that he did for a compilation around the same time. It was a lot of fun to play music with him. Also, Galaxie 500’s Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang recorded it, which was pretty cool. They’re wonderful folks.
++ Were you involved in any other bands afterwards?
In 2002, I did very briefly play guitar with a band called Noisy-Le-Grand for a few of their shows. But my wife was pregnant with my daughter, Trixie, at the time, so it didn’t last long. That’s it, though.
++ Did you get much attention from the radio?
Not much at all, that I know of. I did hear “Alison Song #4” on the college station WUSB in Stony Brook once, though. I remember the DJ thought that the song used a drum machine. it did not! I just keep very strict time, I guess.
++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?
There were a couple mentions here and there. I believe CMJ reviewed the Friendly Society compilation and said some nice things. I also did an interview with now-defunct Long Island Voice.
++ What about from fanzines?
Nope, none at all.
++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?
That’s a tough one, but the release of “Call in Sick” single was pretty damn great. It made it all seem real, somehow.
++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?
Hmmm. Is hanging out with my family a hobby?
++ Anything else you’d like to add?
I’m truly glad to hear that people are still enjoying that music from all those years ago. Thanks again!
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Listen
Shy Camp – Call in Sick
