My brother Josiah helped me out with some interviews this year at Creation Fest East. One of the groups he spoke with is Gotee Records’ Capital Kings. We talked to the group about their relationship with TobyMac, their upcoming record “II”, and the growth of hip hop and EDM in Christian music

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Josiah: I understand one of you guys is TobyMac’s nephew. How is it working with him professionally?

Cole Walowac: It’s been pretty good. Toby is very professional. He’s a smart guy…he knows how to go about things. We’re just really cool with each other. It’s actually really cool! I wouldn’t want it any other way!

Josiah: You guys do a lot of original music and remixes. Which one of those is your favorite to do?

Jon White: That’s a good question! I don’t know… It’s tough to say that we have a

Capital Kings

favorite because it’s always fun to come up with your own music from scratch. But at the same time, it’s a lot of fun when you can mess up someone else’s songs. Remixes are really fun to do!

Cole Walowac: I kinda look at remixes as originals too because where we live is the EDM (electronic-dance music) world. In that world, remixes are taken just as serious as original music.

Jon White: Yeah!

Josiah: You guys have a new record coming out soon. Tell us a little bit about that… Is it going to be remixes or mostly original stuff?

Cole Walowac: Yeah, we’ve got album number 2 coming out this fall! It’s going to be all originals on our part. We might get some people to do some remixes for us for bonus tracks. We’ve been working really hard on this album and I think we’ve matured a lot since our last record. We really like the music so we’re excited to get it out there!

Josiah: Are you collaborating with anyone on the new record?

Jon White: We have a collab with Toby…right?

Cole Walowac: We can’t give it all away! (laughs)

Jon White: Well, he’s family so… Yeah! I’m trying to think if we have any others… I don’t know that there’s as many collabs as our last album. But you never know what might come up at the last minute!

Josiah: You mentioned you live in the EDM world which has recently started to take off. Do you see a place for EDM in Christian music in the same way as hip hop which has taken off in Christian music these last few years? 

Cole Walowac: We’re trying, man! We definitely want to create that scene for this. I just feel like a lot of the kids that come out to our shows have a really good time! We really look up to guys like Lecrae who has paved an avenue for all these rap artists to come in and share their music with people. So, we want to do the same for EDM music for other artists. We’re working our way up…it takes time!

Jon White: The more EDM producers and DJ’s come into Christian music make it better off! That only helps!

Capital Kings

Josiah: You said kids have a lot of fun at your shows…How do you use that as an outreach? Kids can come and dance and have a good time but how do you work in the Gospel through that?

Cole Walowac: I would say that we are not good speakers. I’m not a preacher. The majority of our preaching goes on in the studio before we play shows. You know what I’m saying? Everything we pour into our music comes from life experiences and stuff like that. We try to let the music speak to the people. A lot of times people can connect big time by themselves when they get the album and listen to the words. Hopefully it strikes a chord with them. We like to let the music do the talking.

Josiah: We are at the Creation festival (east)… How does that translate with the sound? Is it any different?

Cole Walowac: It doesn’t really matter where we are at. We go hard wherever we are for how ever long they let us play. As far as sound, we have a great sound system here. We’re never in front of the house (speakers) so we only get to hear what’s on stage. And that sounds pretty good to us! We just like going hard!

Josiah: Do you guys do a lot of outdoor festivals?

Jon White: Yeah, for the most part! Every summer we do. We normally get to do about 4 or 5 a summer.

Josiah: What’s your favorite…You don’t have to say Creation just because we’re here. (laughter)

Jon White: I actually really like Creation.

Cole Walowac: It’s one of our favorite ones! LifeLight is one of our favorite ones too! We like Sonshine festival too!

Josiah: How many years have you played here?

Jon White: We’ve played here two years so this is our third!

Cole Walowac: Festivals are probably our favorite thing all year. Some bands and artists dread going to festivals but they’re our favorites.

Jon White: Yeah, people are always ready to go crazy!

Josiah: Thanks guys!

Cole Walowac: Have a good one!

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Find out more about the upcoming Capital Kings record by following them on Twitter: @capitalkingsusa. And check out their new record II coming out on October 2nd!