Dance-Pop Trio CAPYAC Announce New Album ‘Sobbing Ecstasy’ Out November 7; Share New Song + Video “I Won’t Ever Leave You Behind”

Today, LA-via-Austin queer dance-electronic trio CAPYAC are proud to announce their new full-length album, Sobbing Ecstasy, due out November 7th via Nettwerk. The follow-up to 2021’s CAPYAC FOREVER, Sobbing Ecstasy marks the band’s first album in a trio format after adding Obie Puckett as a full-time collaborator. Their unique playfulness and knack for melody mesh perfectly with members Delwin Campbell and Eric Peana, who have always had a penchant for oddball expressionism. 

In addition to the announcement, CAPYAC release another summer banger with “I Won’t Ever Leave You Behind.” It was written to combat feelings of existential dread that constantly pervade our world. Their weapons? Infectious grooves made for dancing, of course! The accompanying video sees Campbell roaming around a sad city street until he finds mysterious glasses that turn his world into a colorful playground. It plays out like an homage to John Carpenter’s 1988 cult classic film, They Live, turned inside out. 

Campbell elaborates: “This song is about the end of the world. After 2020, I became obsessed with the idea of the subjective apocalypse: the world is ending all around us, all the time; it just depends on who you ask. War, natural disaster, genocide, and colonialism are the obvious world-enders, but any kind of loss can feel like the end of the world. No matter what horrors you’ve endured, however small or large the apocalypse, there is someone who will meet you there, in your personal hell, and immediately understand you. These people are worth everything. The track is bright, energetic, and made for dancing, though, because life is a constant juxtaposition of tragedy and jubilation. None before the other!”

“I Won’t Ever Leave You Behind” follows the poolside groove “Keep Me Close, Pt II,” the body positivity anthem “Sexy in my Bodyyy,” and the club-ready “U Know Y,” which will appear on their new album out this Fall.

WATCH & SHARE “I WON’T EVER LEAVE YOU BEHIND” OFFICIAL VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjKKz_HxGfw

Sometimes a title is so good that it changes everything. Peana and Campbell stumbled across the phrase “sobbing ecstasy” whilst living in LA, when their roommate Sam Schiffer read aloud the liner notes for ABBA ‘Gold’ on Apple Music and were taken aback by the album’s emphatic write-up. Something about those two words immediately made sense to the trio, and they began batting them back and forth, tagging songs that elicited a similar response. A playlist was created, and a stylistic framework began to materialize; Giorgio Moroder, Talking Heads, Bronski Beat, Yazoo – the kind of soul-stimulating, hook-laden sound that crystallized in the early ’80s and shattered before the decade had expired. “What are the songs that absolutely overwhelm you with emotion on the dancefloor and you can’t stop moving?” asks Puckett. “That was what we used as our guiding force for this album.” The band’s eclectic tastes from techno, funk, bluegrass, and beyond informed both the sonic and aesthetic palates that would come to define “sobbing ecstasy” as both an album and a term.

Once they had their title and theme, CAPYAC wrote the album relatively quickly, taking an extended summer in Berlin to brainstorm, jam, and iron out any cracks. The first single from the album, “U Know Y,” is possibly the best introduction to the band’s concept, looping hypnotic, melancholy vocal harmonies around a taut bassline and a sparkling lattice of vivid, disco-pilled chords. A mash-up of two of Peana’s demos, it flips in the final act, snowballing with distorted riffs and heavy, dancefloor-ready kick, never quite resolving the melodic or emotional core. The mood shifts radically on “Sexy in my Bodyyy”; CAPYAC’s attempt to bottle the energy of Talking Heads’ iconic ‘Speaking in Tongues.’ Puckett’s confident, cool-headed vocals lead the way.

On “I Won’t Ever Leave You Behind”, the first song CAPYAC wrote for the album, they fully roll out all the aesthetic references that make up the ‘Sobbing Ecstasy’ mood board. It’s the first song that Campbell has recorded singing in an entirely different register, yelling like an ’80s balladeer to lean into the vibe. “Everyone in pop music was singing super loud back then,” he explains. “It’s honestly the most comfortable I feel singing. It’s a lot, it feels more natural.”

“It’s a celebration, it’s the full spectrum of emotionality and empowerment,” adds Peana. “It’s a joyful album, ultimately. Joy as resistance.”

CAPYAC IN THE PRESS…

“This will make you feel like dancing.”

–The FADER

“…Making Blissful Music Together”

– American Songwriter

“…tight electronic beat, airy atmospheric synths… soulful falsetto.”

– FLOOD Magazine

“Always genre-bending, they captivate their audiences with a bit of jazz and funk, along with a mix of more modern sensibilities.”

– SPIN

“An explosion of dancefloor-ready decadence”

– Wonderland