Guy Capecelatro III and Michael Winters sit at a conference table in The Sound’s office. Capecelatro, a wordsmith who rarely (if ever) declines a project, is stress-free and eager to get started. Winters is more reluctant at first, but as the conversation gets rolling, they both relax into an easy back and forth.
The two have known each other for some 20 years, and in that time they have become known to just about everyone even mildly familiar with the Seacoast arts scene. A landscaper by day, Capecelatro writes songs as easily and frequently as most people make coffee. Winters, when not guiding students as a school counselor, is a photographer whose work has adorned local album and book covers, newspaper and magazine pages, and more.
Each has collaborated with countless other Seacoast artists, Capecelatro in numerous bands and on hundreds of recordings, and Winters with regular photo shoots for various projects. They’ve also collaborated with each other — Winters has taken photos for several of Capecelatro’s bands and albums.
And they have something else in common: Each will be featured in a pair of upcoming events at 3S Artspace in Portsmouth. Winters will release his first book of photography, “Friends and Muses,” with a launch party on Saturday, Nov. 7. The next night, area musicians will put on a tribute concert for Capecelatro on the occasion of his birthday.
In advance of the big weekend, The Sound invited Capecelatro and Winters to interview each other. Their casual conversation touches on their work, their inspirations, and the nature of collaboration.
Guy Capecelatro III: So a book, Michael.
Michael Winters: A book, Guy.
GC: Holy cow, it’s finally happened. I’ve been selfishly kind of pining for this to happen, just to have a place to look at all your things. Obviously it’s scattered about the Internet, but…
MW: Soon, soon. It’s at the bindery right now.
GC: What prompted you to decide to make a big book.
MW: Matt Ralph kind of badgered me, from Plainspoke (design company), the guy who designed it. Probably badgered is the wrong word; he kept asking me about it. And I was like, “Get me some numbers and stuff.” And I look at the numbers and I’m like, “I’m not doing that.” It was crazy, how much that stuff is to do, you know? And then, the more I started thinking about it, you know, why not, I guess is what it came down to. Why not? It’s just money.
GC: You certainly have a big enough body of work.
MW: Right. And I rarely get stuff printed out, so why not? … They’re really good graphic designers over there at Plainspoke. And this was kind of a good thing for him, because they normally do college catalogs and that sort of thing.
GC: So, what made you start taking pictures? You kind of came to it late in life.
MW: I don’t really recall except that I bought a camera because I went on a vacation and I came back and I started taking pictures of bands down at the old Muddy River, and a couple people liked them and wanted them for their bands, and then it’s just kind of grown from there. Once you get a camera, you know, a point-and-shoot camera like I had, you sort of figure out what you can and can’t do with it, and then you start wanting to do other things, so you get the equipment and you get more equipment, and pretty soon —
GC: Slippery slope. Soon you’ve got a baby.
MW: I have a baby?
GC: Money-wise. And you’re sending that baby off to college.
MW: Yes. I actually have probably close to a semester at Harvard at this point (laughs). Or maybe UNH.
GC: Well, I know you were really into film and very cinematographic films. Those visuals were obviously probably what brought you to photography.
MW: Yeah. I’ve always liked particularly old film, before the blockbusters happened like “Jaws” and all that, like ’40s and ’50s stuff. Even the silent movies, they just had an aesthetic that I really liked. They’re forlorn, you know, kind of lonely. Sort of like your music, Guy (both laugh). I think I met you like 20 years ago, probably, when you were probably at The Elvis Room. Or maybe before that even.
First meetings
GC: Probably longer, yeah.
MW: Probably at Rock Bottom (Records) or something.
GC: Yeah, it was pre-Elvis Room, for sure.
MW: Yeah. Was your first sort of musical thing Bob and Guy (with Bob Sprankle)?
GC: Yeah. I mean, I played in high school and college in some bands prior to that, but definitely in this area that was the first thing.
MW: That was sort of like the first thing that kind of put you on the map, as it were.
GC: (laughs) On the tiny, tiny Seacoast map.
MW: Oh no, that’s totally not true, because I met The Mommyheads through you, that indie band from, what, 1990-whatever. You know … Mary Lou Lord. You know all these people.
GC: It’s true.
MW: And that’s from the extent of time you’ve been doing this. You and Bob played Boston, didn’t you, quite a bit?
GC: Yup. Yeah, we were hooked up with the Ed’s Redeeming Qualities folks, and they started doing a weekly night at The Rat, where there were some amazing, amazing bands. The Breeders had their first show there, and I saw Giant Sand there, and Robyn Hitchcock, and River Phoenix’s band Aleka’s Attic. So, we used to play a lot at that in Boston and got to see bands that were definitely out of the norm.
MW: And you just re-released all those (Bob and Guy albums), right, like a couple years ago?
GC: Yeah, they (Ed’s Redeeming Qualities) had a reunion show and asked us to play, at T.T. the Bear’s. So we did. We went back and some of the old tapes that we did with Jim Tierney at the Bunkhouse, and on four-track with our friend Ray (Halliday), we put them on a CD and digitally transferred them and mastered them.
MW: Those places don’t even exist anymore, do they?
GC: I know. T.T.’s was a big hit. Yeah, The Rat man, we used to see Pixies there, and Mission of Burma and Throwing Muses. It was an awesome spot.
MW: That was before my time here, I think.
GC: Yeah, maybe just barely.
Body of work
MW: You’re prolific, to say the least.
GC: Who says?
MW: I do (both laugh). The only person I know that might have put out more music than you might be Billy Childish (laughs).
GC: Yeah, there you go.
MW: How many recordings do you think — let’s just do solo recordings. How many solo recordings do you have? …
GC: I haven’t the foggiest. I really don’t.
MW: Come on! You must have some idea.
GC: I lose track. I mean, for example, this year I did eight albums for the RPM Challenge.
MW: Let me get out my calculator.
GC: I did an album that was 18 songs on Star Island. I did a record with Tiger Saw, put out a Cape Snow record, a Landladys record.
MW: But, that’s what I’m saying. The Landladys, that’s you and other people. I’m just talking about Guy Capecelatro records.
GC: Yeah, I have no idea.
MW: No idea.
GC: No idea (laughs).
MW: Well that just ruins my whole line of questioning then. And then — let’s put those aside for a minute — and then, all this collaboration with like every musician that has ever existed in the Seacoast si