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Published: 15 March, 2012
by ROISIN GADELRAB

Caan Capan is deeply entangled in the branches of Camden’s musical family tree.

The former member of Ou Est Le Swimming Pool grew up in Tufnell Park, is long-time friends with Man Like Me, used to hang out with N-Dubz’s Dappy and Fazer and is great mates with Tribes, whose latest single is a tribute to Caan’s late bandmate Charlie Haddon.

When we meet at The Crown and Goose he’s bigging up Rosie Oddie and Mr Hudson’s latest project Big Kids (another Camden-Kentish Town collaboration).

It seems like things are coming together for Caan.

After Ou Est disbanded following Charlie’s suicide in 2010, Caan and bandmate Joe Hutchinson took some time out.

Now Caan has returned as a solo artist, managed by Joe. His debut album is out in September and single Every Little Thing on March 19, with a remix featuring Islington rapper Benny Banks in the pipeline.

He said: “I’m very excited. The song does exactly what it says on the tin – Every Little Thing – a person, an emotion, something you’re fighting for in life, or someone you’re fighting for. It comes from a very emotional time in my life and from my heart. It’s a big part of me.”

Caan’s writing is deeply related to his own reality.

He said: “A lot of people I know can write from third person. I’ve tried but I find it hard. I’d rather put my heart on a plate and say, ‘this is what I’m about’.

“I just think it touches more people if you’re not being too smart about it sometimes.

“A lot of it is biographical, my views on life and the world, a little bit of me.”

If any of his songs are about losing Charlie, who died at Belgium’s Pukkelpop Festival in 2010, Caan is not telling.

He said: “I’ll leave that to you to try and understand which songs may be.

“When your friend and bandmate commits suicide it’s not easy. But since that happened I’ve learned a lot about myself, life, love everything.

“You take that and it makes you a stronger person.

When I’m writing, performing there’s always going to be a part of Chaz in that because he was a massive part of my and Joe’s life.

“It’s given me a fire no one can put out.

A tsunami can’t put out a fire in your heart when you’ve been through pain like that.

“It makes you realise life is serious, precious, so I’m going to put it into my art. I’m not going to do anything mediocre. You’ve got to have nothing but love and compassion and just be real. I’m not saying I’ve had it the worst, but it’s given me a lot going forward.”

He describes himself as an original Camden boy, having attended Eleanor Palmer, Acland Burghley and LaSwap, and counting The Crown & Goose, The Wheelbarrow and The Lock Tavern as his hangouts.

“I love it,” said Caan. “There’s something about Camden. I love the vibe and people don’t take themselves that seriously.

“It’s a great place to grow up – the people, the vibe, lovely community, it influenced me a lot. I love Camden, it’s so supportive.”

And he’s well in with fellow Camden musicians.

“It’s nice to have music friends,” he said. “You can play something and they can give an honest critical view instead of someone just saying it’s great.

“It’s nice to see friends like Tribes doing really well. It’s encouraging for yourself. It makes you think, ‘I can do it’, and makes you happy that before they’re musicians they’re your friends.

“It’s nice to see friends do well, you see someone writing about them, they’re on the news –  you think, ‘that’s my boy man, you were in the pub five minutes ago’ – it’s a big family tree and they’re the same as anyone.”

Caan is addicted to his juicer, which he takes on tour everywhere.

“Beetroot, celery, carrot, ginger, apple, lemon and sprouting hemp seeds soaked in water, they’re the best thing for you, man, can save the Earth,” he said.

“Juice is the best thing, we took it on tour, got really drunk and I brought the boys juice and they were like radiant, revived.

“So from then on the juicer comes on tour. It’s all about Bumblebee, the shop in Brecknock where you get all your hemp seeds and organic local fruit and veg.”

Although it may seem unlikely, Caan had a lesser-known early career as a rapper/grime MC in his teens under the monikers MC Fuse and Caanival.

He said: “In 96-97 it was all pirate radio, garage, everyone in Acland Burghley or Kentish Town thought they could rap, so I gave it a little go and everyone said I was really good.

“I used to do a few rap battles in the Oh! Bar and there was a battle in Dingwalls, I won a couple of hundred quid.”

But the attraction soon wore off.

“Then everyone started rapping and I was like, ‘hang on a second, I was good at this and then everyone started to do it’.

“It got a bit watered down. Dizzee Rascal and Wiley and all the old MCs came up and I was like, ‘this isn’t for me really’. It was a bit too negative and all focused on crime, wasn’t my thing.”

Aside from an arrest for a crime he did not commit – Caan was locked up for 12 hours after being accused of throwing a placard at a police officer during a student protest but later proved innocent by CCTV evidence – he is a clean living citizen.

“I’d hate to be in a cell for 23 hours a day,” he added. “If you got put in a prison for something you had not done then God bless your soul because that would be a hard place to be.

“That’s the only time I’ve been involved with the police, I’m law abiding.”

• Caan plays The Garage on May 30. Further info from www.iamcaan.com or follow @iamcaan on Twitter