Santa Barbara’s Uncle Uncle kicks off their first tour at the Golden Bull in Oakland on May 7. The four members of this fledgling folk-rock group will take vacations from their full-time jobs to hit the road north, with additional gigs in Healdsburg, Portland, Eugene, and Santa Cruz. Before returning for a homecoming concert at SOhO Restaurant & Music Club in June, their last stop is at the Shabang Festival in San Luis Obispo. When I asked Uncle Uncle’s lead singer Kevin Cappon how it felt to take time off from work to work as a musician, he was genuinely confused. For Cappon and his bandmates, going on tour doesn’t feel like work. He told me, “It’s fun, and I get to spend time with my friends, making music.”
Formed back in 2017 in Santa Barbara, the band started as a duo with Cappon as the lead singer/guitarist and Dominick Burnham on the drums. Cappon met Burnham in college and knew him as the “the music guy.” Although Kevin himself hadn’t been part of a band in more than 10 years, he would regularly write lyrics for songs and come up with melodies as a hobby. One day, Cappon asked Burnham to jam and quickly realized their musical backgrounds complemented one another’s.
Both started playing at a young age: Cappon grew up on a ranch playing recreationally, while Burnham played music in school. Burnham elaborates, “I learned music through school — I was always in orchestras while moonlighting in rock bands. Connecting with Kev was special because he approached music in a lyrics-focused way, whereas I wasn’t from that world. With our unique backgrounds, we started to make music together.”