The eclectic nature of the Asbury Park music scene allows for bands of all sound to call it home. Third from the Sun, a harder rock band composed of Asbury scene vets has found themselves a home in the City that Bruce built and its allowed them to find their sound and build a new album.
We caught up with Jason Caprioni of Third from the Sun to discuss the band’s origin story, the long journey to creating their debut record, being a harder edged band in Asbury Park, and more as they get set to play Telegraph Hill’s What a Wonderful Year at The Wonder bar on Saturday December 27.
Please tell me all about this new record coming out, and why it has you so excited, outside of the fact it’s your first record.
It’s been a very long time coming. So actually, me and Dan were in a previous band called A Door with No House. That band broke up and went their separate ways, but we continued working with each other. That band ended in 2020, and that’s really officially when Third from the Sun started. We didn’t have a name for it. We just kept writing together throughout COVID, then kept on jamming and eventually kept finding the right members to join this project. We’ve been at this for quite a while so seeing this all really take shape it’s exciting that it’s really kind of evolving. We didn’t imagine having horn players, but it was like, ‘Okay, now we have a horn section.’ This is really cool.
The recording process has been slow, but it’s also because we’re doing it all in-house and making sure we’re doing everything we can to make it the best we can. We’re very much pushing ourselves.
So, what you’re hearing now from these mixes, when this band first started almost five years ago at this point. You’ve added a horn section, but is this what you imagined it would be when this project first started? Is that another reason why it excites you so much? Or does it excite you because it’s taking you on a journey you never expected?
I love the fact that it’s kind of both. I love the fact that it just evolves, because we’re adding in new members, and then we add a whole realm of influences which only adds to the music instead of subtracts. It’s very cool seeing where everything naturally joins in. When we added Josh we wanted somebody that could bring that hip-hop and funk and he allowed us to really go that path. We’re evolving, using everyone’s strengths, and so seeing that was really cool.
When we first started, we were really just jamming because we were used to having two other members, and there was a drummer and a singer. I didn’t do vocals on it that previous project, so we were just trying to refine our sound again. It took us quite a while, and we’re gonna probably never release anything we were coming up with early on. But, it was just the natural evolution of the project to where we actually wanted to sound like, and where we naturally ended up.
So, naturally, that included becoming a ska band, which I think is the answer to so many problems in the world today.
We’ll take those influences. We’ll tell Spencer that our trumpet player will keep him in the band…
Horns are not a natural addition to a harder edged band, so what was the inspiration to add them?
When we did our first album with A Door With No House we would write music to the best of our ability even if it wasn’t something we could do on stage with the members we had. And that really drew influences from, well my favorite band Avenged Sevenfold. If you’re familiar with their music, they pushed the envelope with blending genres, adding in different influences, and writing whatever they felt was correct to them and what they enjoyed. So having the ability to add in these horn sections and to add in more controlled chaos was really cool. Dan’s always been a fan of horns so he’s always been wanting stuff like that, and when we actually were able to do it, especially live, it just added so much more to the show.
When can we expect the new album, and what are you calling it?
The album’s gonna be self-titled. We figured since five years in the making I’d rather it just be ‘This is the best we can do so it’s just gonna be self-titled.’ Our single ‘Death Stance,’ we are pushing to get it done by the end of the year. It still might happen, but that’s just, depends if everything meets the par. We’re close but we have a couple things we have to touch up on. Then we’ll have to go through the mastering process. We’re looking to get the album out, which will take a lot less of a process so February, March, maybe.
How has it been trying to be a harder edge band within the Asbury Park scene as it’s currently constructed?
I mean, honestly, I personally love it. We’re already a niche, and we already are always gonna be your own thing, and I love the fact that people ask us what we are, and we have trouble describing it. I like the fact that we do our own thing, and we don’t have to blend in with anybody, and the cool thing about us is we have that variety and ability to blend in with whatever show we were. We were at that, Asbury Lane show (Skanksgiving) which was just a reggae show, and we covered Bob Marley’s “Could You Be Loved” and we had our own kind of spin on it.
We have that versatility to sneak into whatever show they want to throw at us, like, we were booked by the Pony for that show, and they do hate people that mosh, and thankfully, we could sneak in as a reggae band and still do our own thing, and vice versa. We played a super heavy show at The Chubby Pickle [in the Highlands], and it was this death metal show, and it was like, “I guess we’re dipping into a Korn again.” That’s my favorite thing, I don’t care about being different. People will like us or they don’t.
So the theme of the festival is “What a Wonderful Year” — tell us about 2025 for Third from the Sun?
We snuck in our first show, as a complete band, at the end of 2024 in December. Then moving forward from that we just kept during this process. We were solidifying the album as far as touching up vocal parts and finishing up on what the songs will actually end up being. They continued to evolve because by the time March hit, we had a horn section, and Spencer, our trumpet player, just naturally became part of our band. I don’t know if we ever asked him officially (laughs). We didn’t exactly officially add either of the horn sections yet. We were just continuing growing and on our third show we actually played Asbury Lanes, which was really cool. We kept growing momentum and feeling super more comfortable on stage. We’re all veterans of the local scene, so it wasn’t anything new for us. It was just really reining in everything that we were doing and that was our goal for this year was to establish ourselves, work on our craft, and work on the album. So, after this year, I don’t know what’s gonna happen.
Are there, you know, grand designs to take it outside of the shore and play more traditional, heavier spots in New Jersey and beyond?
That’s the real goal.Like I said, we wanted to establish ourselves here and really make this our home base. It is our home since it’s where we live. Once we were 100% content with the album we’re gonna see where it takes us. If it stays as a hobby, it’s a very cool hobby, it’s a very cool legacy to look back on, and the best art we could put out.
But if it becomes something else we’re here for it.
Finally, tell me about Telegraph Hill Records, who is putting on the show, and your relationship with them.
We’ve all been friends in town. I’m close friends with Fern and Joe, and they asked us about running shows again in Asbury. They’ve always been there offering help with us and I’m gonna probably bounce a final mix to see if they have any notes on it. Then maybe down the road we’ll look to work and collab together a little bit more.
Catch Third from the Sun at Telegraph Hill Records’ “What a Wonderful Year” Music Festival, Saturday, December 27th. Tickets are on sale now.
