Born and raised in Poland, Kapri moved to Hollywood, California to pursue her dream of becoming a singer, songwriter, and performer.
She always had a dream to become an artist ever since she could remember, however, Kapri spent many years becoming a competitive dressage equestrian. After an accident that broke her spine, she was forced to retire from her sport but refused to give up on her passion for music.
Kapri teamed up with platinum producer Anthony J. Restaurant for “Dollar $ong,” which was also engineered and mixed by Karyadi Sutedja and produced by Ajax Ray O’vague.
Her willingness to collaborate with experts in the field allows for unique input for her songs, making each track stand out for its originality. One of “Dollar $ong’s” best qualities is its uplifting musical production.
The drum set and guitar beat itself is a lighthearted melody that continues throughout the whole track, as a hand clap is peppered in to highlight key moments. Kapri’s gentle voice is welcoming and endearing as it seamlessly travels up and down in pitch, creating her hooking melody.
Lyrically, Kapri seems to paint a picture of how materialism can negatively affect relationships. Throughout “Dollar $ong,” Kapri gently reminds us that money isn’t everything, and will surely have the listener taking a second look at their priorities.
Listen to "Dollar $ong" here.
Growing up in Poland, your family originally thought of your musical dreams as "just a dream"! Surprising them by moving to Hollywood and pursuing your career took extreme courage. Can you tell us about this journey, and how it shaped you into the artist you are today?
I am such a quirky person, and I am also as stubborn as you can get. You can't tell me something can't be done, because if I care to do it, I just will go and do it, eventually (once I'm done procrastinating, haha). However, just like every big production, this one also required the team. The whole idea of moving to LA to have a better scope to work on my music with top industry people has, and always has had a huge supporter - my mom. She is the person who taught me to persevere and pursue the goals no matter what, whether in my previous equestrian career, then in my musical career and move to LA, as well as a lot of other stuff that came later.
The whole courage thing comes from my mom because there are plenty of things that I'm afraid of, but I eventually do them anyway, and I think this is the most important thing for not just my music, but for life - to THINK about everything I want to achieve, how to get there, and how to troubleshoot those scariest hurdles, and sometimes pull back and gather the focus on just one thing at the time when I get overwhelmed. It applies to everything, and I always carry those lessons with me, and it helped me do so many things in life and gather so many experiences that allowed me to grow as a writer.
I also think that being international and growing up in a totally different world gives me a huge advantage in seeing different perspectives. It gives me a much broader mindset. Before I moved to the states I grew up in Poland, but in the meantime, I also lived with my mom in France, and off the coast of Africa for a little while, and then in England by myself, and I have a very eclectic group of friends, who have different views on life, come from different backgrounds, social cliques, economical and family statuses, and it allows me to better understand what people are going through in life, and also see that we all feel and bleed kind of in a very similar way, despite our differences. While nobody's really objective, and we all eventually filter through how we personally feel on the subject, I believe that understanding the other side helps me write better lyrics and better music.
Could you describe the lyrics of “Dollar $ong,” and what they represent? What was your inspiration when writing the song?
Dollar $ong is a funny story. A guy told me that I'm too poor to date him (spoilers: I wasn't trying to), and it just got me SO mad. You'd think that in the 21st century we've evolved beyond the economics of relationships into choosing someone we like and appreciate for WHO they are rather than what they can get for us. I came back home that day and I was walking around the kitchen, SO angry. The person who said it also wasn't just a random guy, it was someone I know quite well, and I was thinking to myself "oh if only I had a dollar for every time you've ever been mean to me, I'd be way too rich for you", and the more I repeated that in my head, the more it was coming together into a line, finally ending up as "If I had a dime for your every betrayal, I'd be rich enough for you to date me". Then, I sat on that line for a while, because I couldn't come up with anything else that was just as good to match the song.
I had several different ideas, and I re-wrote that song 3 or 4 times before it got to its final form. I thought to myself that this ridiculous approach to life and dating (which, by the way, is not an isolated case, I have seen that in many men, especially in LA) really deserves a strong punch in the face, so I wrote out all the idioms and sayings about money and started putting together a story, about how being genuine is better than being rich. While it is nice and easy having money, it's never going to do you any good if you're not a genuine person, and buying yourself spouses will always leave you unhappy. While this song came out of what this one particular guy said to me, it isn't really about him, nor is it any sort of revenge - I got inspired by this horrific approach to life, and I'm a very sarcastic person in general, so I just wanted to laugh up the entire mindset. Money should be important in life, but there always should be something more important than money, cause at the end of the day, they're just a vehicle that will deliver you to what you really want to accomplish in life.
You teamed up with a variety of musicians, producers, and engineers to create “Dollar $ong.” Can you tell us a little bit about your team and how they contributed to your work?
I was very lucky and extremely happy with my team on this song, and hope to repeatedly work with them in the future on more music I'm going to have. I met Anthony J. Resta (the producer) in 2017 and I have wanted to make a song with him since. Anthony is an artist in every meaning of that word - and he is extremely dedicated to his projects. He also has a lot of integrity as a person and has very healthy attitudes towards real-life values, which I think gave him a deeper understanding of the song's architecture and soul. He heard the songs during one of my live streams which I've been doing since the beginning of the pandemic each Saturday at 8 pm via my Instagram @kaprisings, and he loved it. Our schedules worked out together perfectly to get together (partial thanks to pandemic), and we met to work out the song together. Karyadi Sutedja, who's been working with Anthony for years is absolute magic. I know a lot of engineers, but honestly ever since I saw Karyadi at work I would think twice about letting anyone else work on my stuff. He has a fantastic ear for details, and when engineering my song he really understood what Anthony and I were going for. I was immediately in love with the mix and I was very impressed with the final product, and of course very proud. The final master was done by Brian Lucey at Magic Garden Mastering, and Brian is basically a legend. I really wanted him to master my song, because everything he does just blows everyone else out of the water. I want him to master all my stuff from now on, and it was incredible to have that opportunity this time around.
Now on the fantastic musicians who helped me make my record special. When Anthony first heard my song, he actually thought it was a cover, and he even asked me if this was a song by Butch Walker. I am a huge fan of Butch, and he and Anthony are also friends, and Anthony invited Butch to lay a track on the song for us, and surprised me with it! I had no idea he'd asked Butch about it, so I was thrilled when I found out. Butch really knew how to hit it with the electric guitar (you can especially hear it in the interlude and towards the end of the song). I am always impressed with his talent, skill, and sound and it was a huge honor, and a dream come true for me to be able to invite such an iconic musician to participate in the recording. Anthony also collaborates a lot with Bruce Watson (Foreigner), who tracked the acoustic guitar for the song. He got a very dry version of the song to play over, and I was very happy with how he captured the playfulness of the music, and kind of read my mind on what I wanted to hear for his guitar parts. Sadly, all those tracks were recorded remotely due to COVID, but hopefully, I'll be able to actually collaborate in the person with those incredible artists, and many others.
How does “Dollar $ong” compare to the rest of your music? Has your music changed or evolved over time?
Dollar $ong is something completely different from everything I have done before. I also work with a rock project Side Effect, and I always sang and wrote rock music. The demos that I make myself in my bedroom also rock, and pretty much all the upcoming stuff has a lot of rock influences and sounds. This song, however, kind of wrote itself, and I was trying to think about arrangement and production for a long time, but nothing was really "clicking" at first. I don't believe in overproducing things, but especially I don't believe in forcing things. So when we started working on it in the studio with Anthony and brainstorming the song's final form, I realized that this can't sound like a rock song, because it's not a rock song! Once it crystalized in my mind it was much easier to focus on the actual sound that we wanted to achieve just for this tune. It is nice when an artist's sound can be very consistent, but the truth is it's better to have a GREAT song out of your sound than end up with a mediocre song just to force it into a box of what you think (or what others told you) it should be. This song is a pop/alternative/AAA song, and I didn't want to take that identity away from it.
As far as the evolution of my music over time I still love my older songs, and I still love the bands that inspired me back in the day, but I think I evolved a lot as a writer to gather more from the emotions and create the stories based on that, rather than the other way around. My songs now are way less literal than they used to be back in the day, and I think it's beneficial to me, my "subjects" or people who inspire the songs, and to my listeners as well. I still write more literal songs, but that's just how every artist is - we have to take the emotional load of certain milestones to put them into our art.
What has been keeping you inspired in 2020?
As always - people, and life! Don't get me wrong - I absolutely HATE the pandemic. I am very extroverted, and I need my people time to function normally, so the lockdown when I can't see my most important people, I can't fly home to see my family, and I can't really have too many interactions that I value so much, is very difficult for me, just as it is for many others. But it is also totally striking my curiosity because we are in a completely unique situation that happens only once in a lifetime (hopefully). It is very interesting to see how people manage to maintain their social relationships, and how the limitations of pandemic really clear who the most important people in their lives are. I have been writing a lot about the challenges of isolation, about not being able to see someone we really miss, about newfound borders of what we can't do (and how to cross them), about finding out what we do/think/eat just because of the boredom, productiveness and lots of other things that weren't so apparent before the lockdown. People, their emotions, and their motivations have - and always will - inspire my music the most.