We had a chat with Paul Caplin and Zeeteah Massiah about their genre-crossing, fun new single ‘Dance To It’
With a tonne of experience between them, and the winning duo of Zeeteah Massiah’s soulful vocals and Paul Caplin’s production, immersive duo Caplin & Massiah are an exciting force in the UK music scene, boasting an honest and powerful appeal that feels as upbeat and danceable as it is vulnerable and earnest.
New single ‘Dance To It’ is the perfect showcase of this duality, melding a stunning afrobeat and disco-infused sound with a narrative rooted in reality, utilising their sound and the ability to use dance and creativity as a shield and welcome distraction from hardship and struggle. This cocktail of style and substance makes for empowering and invigorating listening that burns with a sense of passion and charm throughout, we loved the new release and had a chat with the duo to find out some more about it.
Hey! We love your single ‘Dance To It’, what more can you tell us about it?
Thank you! So glad you like it.
‘Dance To It’ tells the story of Zeeteah’s life (with a little artistic licence). It’s about survival and the ability to laugh at misfortune. It pictures dancing as a form of redemption.
What was the process like putting it together?
We wrote the song quite recently, and it came together very quickly. The inspiration came to us one evening when we were talking about life and all the things it throws at us. At one point Zeeteah said, “Can I dance to it?” and Paul said, “That’s all that really matters, isn’t it?”. Suddenly it seemed like a great metaphor to build a song around.
Paul wrote most of it over the following few days, and we recorded it over the next few weeks in our home studio.
What were your biggest influences when creating the track?
We’ve been listening to a lot of afrobeats over the last couple of years (we particularly love Wizkid, Aura Starr and Kizz Daniel) and that has definitely flavoured our sound. We’ve really enjoyed the retro disco-flavoured vibe of recent releases from artists such as Miley Cyrus and Sabrina Carpenter, and we’ve gone back to the source and taken inspiration from Chic. And rhythmically a bit of hip hop seems to have crept in there too.
What inspired you to experiment so much with genre in your sound?
We’ve both been making and listening to music for a very long time, and we love so many different genres – soul, jazz, rock, afrobeats, reggae, house, electro-pop, hip hop, reggaeton… they’re all wonderful. So we tend to draw on a wide range of influences.
As a mixed-race couple, mashing up different cultures comes naturally to us. And the best music so often arises from an unexpected collision of styles.
What else do you have planned for the near future?
We’re just finishing off our new album, ‘Chemistry’, which will be out in February. We’ll be releasing two more singles before then.
We’re currently finalising the music video for ‘Dance To It’.
Zeeteah is about to travel to Tokyo to sing with Japanese “King of Rock” Eikichi Yazawa on his upcoming stadium tour, and then we’re going be spending time in Japan, China and Vietnam soaking up the culture.
When we return in the New Year we’ll be back in the studio, and getting ready to perform the album live at venues in the UK.
