Joe Kaplow – Sending Money and Stems

“Profoundly haunting and affecting”—POP MATTERS

“The first 20 years is just to see if you like it or not,” iconic surfer Jerry Lopez jokes.

It’s not something Joe Kaplow thought much about until recently, mostly because he’s been too busy to stop and think it all through. At age eight he was being reprimanded by his Uncle Jim for playing out of time. A few years later found him passing his evenings after school getting stoned and playing with his first band in his friend Bondar’s basement. Before he knew it, he was studying music in Boston and having to sink or swim in the sea of talent at school and in the clubs. Rest assured, he learned to swim, and he’s been doing just that since 2016 – plugging his amp into the outlet of American music heritage, driving from town to town while figuring it out along the way.

These days, Kaplow describes music as his “currency for life. We all have something, or a few things that we do, we work at, we commit to and that’s how we pay for our time here. It’s like a Ferris wheel. Every 4 times around you have to stop at the bottom and pay for another half hour”.

Upon listening to Joe Kaplow’s forthcoming second full length album, Sending Money and Stems (release date, April 30 via Fluff and Gravy Records), the first thing that strikes you is his voice. Over the course of 10 affecting indie folk tracks, his shimmering falsetto seems to dance with the strings of his guitar as it pulls you in and takes the lead. Recorded largely in his own bedroom, Kaplow plays most of the instruments himself, including guitar, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, keyboards, percussion, and trumpet. When it came time for mixing though, he relied on the trusted hands and ears of Portland fixture, Mike Coykendall (M Ward, She and Him, Blitzen Trapper, Richmond Fontaine) as well as Lucas Heinel.

The first single, “Little Sleep” was released on October 30,2020. With his vocals awash in reverb, and prominent electric guitar riff, the track leans more toward Indie Rock than some of the more folk based tracks on the record. “Little Sleep” was written about the type of romantic connection that can happen between a nervous homebody and a free-spirited gypsy. As she (the free-spirit) pushes the narrator to be more spontaneous, he wonders where a “little sleep” might fit into the picture. “

February Prorated Rent”, the second single, released on February 18, is a playful acoustic track with a melody and upbeat feel that belies the bleakness of the narrator’s reality. Kaplow relays that the track deals with the gentrification of the Bay Area. “In the 8 years I’ve lived there, I’ve seen so many artists and musicians move away. Hundreds of them. The song also confronts my attachment to the Bay and how I’m the lingerer who’s left living in a garage to make ends meet.”

The forthcoming third single (March 26), “How Old Is My Soul”, is an introspective indie folk gem, that kicks off side B. “Sometimes you get overcome by the feels” Kaplow says. “Memories, faces, connection, love, sadness, the stars, wonder, and fear all blending into one overpowering mood when big life choices are made, walks through city streets until sunrise begin, or songs are vomited out. I don’t remember writing “How Old Is My Soul”, I just remember it feeling like as soon as I started, it was finished.”

There are always new challenges for a working musician, and now that challenge becomes how to move forward during what is looking more and more like a new reality. Joe Kaplow will figure it out though, just like he figured out figure-8 mic placement or how to write a concise booking pitch. Because that’s how you keep going. He’s pretty sure he likes making music, and he wants to ride the Ferris Wheel all night.