Since its creation in 1992, the Sacramento-based band CAKE has produced quirky alternative rock songs like “The Distance” and “Never There” that have become radio mainstays. In January the band released its seventh album, Showroom of Compassion, and has been touring the U.S. in support of the record. North by Northwestern spoke with Vince DiFiore, who is responsible for CAKE’s unique trumpet sound, in anticipation of the band’s stop at Chicago’s Riviera Theatre on May 14.
On becoming involved in music:
My mom was a piano teacher, so I had a feeling that something was in the works. I had older siblings, and they were all taking instruments and had taken piano lessons from my mom, so I knew that I was going to be involved in music somehow — it seemed inevitable. My older brother was given a trumpet and it just didn’t stick with him, and I was four years younger and I picked it up when I was approaching the fourth grade.
On his musical influences:
I grew up watching Doc Severinsen lead The Tonight Show. You know that song that was really big — Chuck Mangione, “Feels So Good” — when I was in junior high school? And then Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, and a really deep appreciation for Louis Armstrong and Wynton Marsalis. He’s pretty much about my age and is this incredible trumpet player — I listen to him all the time.
On the Sacramento music scene in the early 90s:
While I was getting a master’s degree [at California State University, Sacramento] I found myself distracted by music a lot. It was something that would make me feel good about life, [when I was] just getting really tired of studying and putting myself through the academic rigors in search of a career.
I played with a band that was sort of like the Sex Pistols with a horn section, and another one that was kind of like a hard rock thing, like AC/DC with a trumpet. All that stuff was happening in Seattle –you know, the whole grunge thing with Nirvana and Soundgarden and Pearl Jam and all that, it was really big, and you could feel the ripple effect. That really set the scene.
On how CAKE found its sound:
I think the unique sound came from the people that [singer] John [McCrea] chose and this idea of a scaled-down approach. That scaled-down approach was cemented by where we rehearsed, first of all, by the amps people brought, by the drum style that was played, the smallness of the room. They all made natural what the dynamic of the band was going to be. There was an emphasis on the song and having a structure around the song. We came up with ideas by being loosey-goosey but eventually things needed to tighten up. I think that’s really how we found our sound, by who we were, what kind of equipment we used and a good work ethic and idea of organization.
On early tour shenanigans:
We were traveling in a van through the Southwest, the distances are so far between like El Paso and Phoenix — really long drives, not like the megalopolis on the eastern seaboard. A guitar was left overnight. We went back in the morning, and they had a big plywood door that was padlocked. We had to break in and it felt like we were boozehounds, bootleggers stealing someone else’s moonshine or something. But we got the guitar without too much damage to their door and we were on our way.
On more recent tour shenanigans:
Our drummer has been locked in the bathroom when we had all made it back on the stage for the encore in Baltimore. It was just four of us on stage and we went to look for Paolo, and he had just broken out of a metal bathroom door on his way to the stage. It was pretty Spinal Tap. Or should I just say Tap?
On recording with CAKE:
John comes in and plays a song, he has the words and melodies and comes in and strums it. He has maybe a suggestive rhythm on guitar or always something to bounce off of into the arrangement. Then we start arranging, coming up with parts, drumbeats, bass lines, trumpet parts, guitar lines. I think a big part of it is the guitar lines. John keeps his notebook in his back pocket and if he hears an interesting couple of words together he’ll jot it down and maybe we’ll weave it into a song later on.
On recording Showroom of Compassion:
We had a solar energy thing going, which I think chilled everyone out. We’ve gotten a little older, and John’s dogs were always around, too. The combination of those three things made it [so that] whatever potential we hoped the sessions would have we certainly had the chance to do it. We were done with it when we were sure that we liked it.
We worked hard the whole time, we just took a long time to do it. It wasn’t like we were taking it easy and chilling, but it was necessary for us to not have blowouts. When you’re recording, everybody’s in a small room together and you can tend to have some things that end up rubbing you the wrong way and guys might not get along. Since we were working so long on this, we needed to get along — it was really an imperative. As far as the music goes, it is what it is, and we are really happy with the response to it and people seem to like it a lot. We felt like we went through the process the right way.
On CAKE’s new children’s book, Bound Away:
Somebody wrote in and said, “Hey, I work for this book center in San Francisco, do you want to make a book from scratch, from one of your songs, an illustrated children’s book?” We thought, “Sure, why not?”
It’s really taken a lot of our energy, but I guess it’s important to us in some sort of symbolic way because we travel on buses and take jet planes — all because we play an instrument. Everything got really bloated and it’s good to do something that’s grounded — it’s like gardening.
On CAKE’s crowds:
They seem like people, you know what I mean? The same people that you would bump into anywhere in your life are there at the show. Maybe that sounds really obtuse, but it’s really true.
On where he is now:
I feel like I’m more involved in music than ever, even though I’ve been playing music just about my whole life.