Ears Wide Open: Roe Kapara

Kevin Bronson on November 5th, 2023

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St. Louis-born Roe Kapara deals in off-kilter, pretense-free indie- and power-pop. His kinetic songs are just as likely to have in their crosshairs topics such as corporate greed or mortality as the travails of twentysomething romance. Overall, there’s nothing that isn’t ear candy or food for thought, or both.

Early this year he signed to Epitaph Records, for whom he released the EP “I Hope Hell Isn’t Real” in April. It was highlighted by “The Dead Come Talking,” which embraces a kind of sing-songy morbidity. “Once the person who was supposed to love you most in this world becomes the thing you fear the most, there will never truly be a successful escape,” says Kapara, born Austin Sellinger. “Even their death could never end the lingering pain that comes to haunt your mind. ‘The Dead Come Talking’ is a reminder of why you needed to escape abusers from your past, because they could never learn to love you without destroying everything that you loved about yourself. They are better off as ghosts.”

Group that with “Everybody’s Dying (Grandma’s Drunk Again)” and “Before We Croak” (feat. Chevy) and you’ve got a artist with one eye on the party life and the other on the afterlife.

He speaks to a possibly horrifying path to the latter in the single “Preacher,” which he released this spring along with Raul Rosco Guerrero’s video for the song.

“As someone who grew up as community member of the Catholic church in Missouri, I want the listener to step into the shoes of a young, impressionable kid that is being manipulated and molded by their religious upbringing,” Kapara says. “When it comes to the video, I’m really inspired by ’90s movies like ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Pulp Fiction.’ There was a level of freedom to push the envelope in that era of filmmaking, and my approach similar: ‘What’s some crazy shit we can talk about or do?’”

Kapra’s latest single, “Fajita!,” is thematically lighter fare — s song “for the people that feel too silly to be loved or taken seriously as a romantic partner,” he says.

||| Watch: The video for “Preacher”