Grab your s’mores, your bug spray, a shot of Malort and pack your bags as Riot Squad Media is returning to Northeast Pennsylvania to take over the West End Fairgrounds in Gilbert, PA with Camp Punksylvania! The 3-day festival with multiple stages and amazing national and local acts like 7 Seconds, The Bronx, Less Than Jake, will take place from 5 July until 7 July tickets are available here. Oscar Capps IV, vocalist of Philly’s Vulture Raid, have joined TGEFM to discuss this year’s festival for the latest installment of our Camp-centric interview series: Happy Campers. Check it out below and I’ll see you at the campfire!
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview! What should our readers know about Vulture Raid; your mission, your sound?
Thank you a ton for reaching out! Our goal is to be the best version of ourselves as possible, whether it be recording, writing, or playing live. We hope that people resonate with what we are doing and that it might affect them in a positive manner. We set out to have as much fun as possible, while delivering as honest a perspective as we can.
What does Vulture Raid have planned for us beyond Camp Punksylvania?
More music and more live shows. Each will come in due time. We want to be as deliberate as possible and are ok with taking our time to make sure everything is the best it can be.
What have been some of the most memorable moments or experiences with the band so far? What’s been the most unexpected? The weirdest?
I think our first hometown show opening for Scowl in Philly has been my personal favorite so far. Just a great time with friends. Genuinely just writing, playing, and hanging out together has been the greatest treat.
This isn’t your first time at Camp. What made you want to come back and do it again? How has it felt being able to watch this thing grow from the inside?
Laura and her team are some of the most competent and hardworking people I have ever met. We share a very similar ethos and I have nothing but the utmost respect for her personally and professionally. It’s been amazing watching all her and her team’s hard work manifest. No one sees the long days of burnout, sickness, or fatigue. Laura works EVERYDAY on Camp, trying to make it the absolute best it can be for bands and patrons. It’s inspiring to watch. Every year the festival gets better. I cannot wait to see how it grows in the coming years.
Speaking of your live sets, what are you most excited to bring to the Camp Punk audience? What do you want the campers to say about your set when they write home from camp this year?
My goal every-time we play is to try to give people something unique and genuine. Something that might either inspire them to start their own band, grow as a person, or forget about their troubles for a moment.
We’ve all got a few, what is your biggest regret? A gig you turned down, advice you didn’t take, what one thing do you wish you handled differently as a musician?
I wish I was more patient and kind with myself in the past; something that also bleeds into relationships with others. I suppose that’s growing up though. Values shift, things/people change. It just takes time, community, and serious self reflection. I think everything can be turned into something positive if you have the right mindset. Each decision one way or another requires some sort of sacrifice, just depends on what you value.
The punk and ska scenes have almost always been at the forefront of inclusion and diversity within the music scenes. The flipside of course is that the gatekeeping in the scene is also very prevalent? Why
do you think the genre brings in such a welcoming community and is so happy to let everyone in and also seems to shut the doors so quickly behind themselves?
I genuinely just think that’s how subcultures/people work. We’re very communal creatures at our core from an evolutionary standpoint. Shutting down new things can keep you safe in a crisis, welcoming new things can benefit and enrich your life. Both come with their own set of risks. I think whenever you get a group of people together there are going to be differing temperaments within. It explains why we are so accepting of people/things we are familiar with, and so dismissive of those we view as “different from us”. While I fail at it constantly, it’s important to remember to treat people how we would want to be treated. We have much more in common with each other than we realize.
Many of the Camp Punx artists have not been afraid to get political. If you had told me a decade ago we’d be looking at a campaign trail made up of a pair of clueless octogenarians set to a backdrop of legal
proceedings, foreign wars and record profits I’d have told you there’s no way things could get so bleak…but here we are and it turns out you’d have been underselling the shit-show happening inside the dumpster fire of American government. How is the already absurd presidential race and performative legislation playing into your writing, the live experience and your mental health?
I forget where I read it. Perhaps in a book called “muse-sick”. There’s a line that reads something along the lines of: “The most political music does not set out to be overtly political”
I’d recon that applies to my writing also.
What album or band or significant singles made you go “Yeah, this is what I want to do” Not just an influence but who or what was the catalyst? On the flipside to that one… Who are some bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should know about?
DRAIN absolutely made me remember what doing this is all about, having fun and giving it your all. They’re the band that got me into modern hardcore. Definitely life changing for me to have seen them, in many regards.
I’m inspired by so many influences though. In all of our songs there are hints of new school hardcore, old punk, and modern pop. Sometimes I want to listen to heavy breakdowns, and sometimes I want to throw on Olivia Rodrigo. I want to be in a band that has elements of both.
Some of my favorite new bands would include Turnstile, Mindforce, and Magnitude. All very rhythmic bands….an area of my songwriting I didn’t realize was lacking in.
If Punksylvania were a real camp, what activities are each of you leading?
I think I’d stick to calm fire pit activities, Adam would take people on adventures to look under rocks for little critters at 3am, Papa would be in charge of food, and bgoldy would be involved in some sort of insane swimming hole rope swing haha.
Thinking of post show jams… what song are you performing around the campfire this year?
Personally going to sing some of my own songs that are a bit too melodic for Vulture Raid. Maybe some Weakerthans…..I don’t know, I guess we’ll have to see!
Camp Punksylvania is a smorgasbord of fantastic acts. Which bands are you most excited to see?
I think I’m most excited to see The Bronx, Escape From The Zoo, and Catbite.
Was there anything I missed that you’d like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?
I think these were great questions and I hope that people enjoyed this article!!! Thank you again for having me! Wicked excited for camp weekend.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
