We had the good fortune of connecting with Mike Caputo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mike, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Being a musician, vocalist and writer I wanted to form GOOD STUFF with specific people that I had in mind in order to accomplish being one of the best and most unique tribute bands as well as being able to branch out into original music projects with the skill and versatility I knew would exist with the musicians I chose to be the integral part of this.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Being able to sit at a keyboard and write and create music that conjures mood and emotion and then attempting to transfer that sound to a finished recording is what my creative goals in music have always been. Being able to perform tributes to the musical artists I consider to be pioneers of my generation is an important learning tool to achieve some of my goals. It has always been a habit of mine to learn from the best. The GOOD STUFF tribute show stands out from the others due to the passion and skill levels of the band members and the leadership that puts a great band on the trajectory to success.

As a professional musician I started out listening to artists who were always a bit more complex than the norm. It was fun, but not easy to teach myself how to reproduce some of the sounds that I tuned into as a young man. From what I was able to hear I gradually worked my way into performing professionally at the age of 15 and I began writing tunes a few years later when I was more confident about using what I had learned. Starting on the drums and a little bit of the guitar, I gradually moved onto the piano because the guitar would often hurt my fingers. The piano gave me the ability to play fatter and jazzier chords that would eventually become an integral part of my music.

As a musician who has played in many bands on either, drums, keyboards and always singing leads, or backups, I can tell you that for me, and for most musicians, the many challenges are usually the same. We work hard, we practice, we spend countless hours driving, lugging equipment and setting up, and that is just the way it is unless you are so famous that you have a team of people doing a lot of those tasks for you. The biggest challenges are being able to do more than you think you are capable of and the bottom line to me is always making sure that you give the audience the best possible show because they are the ticket buyers and anyone who labels themselves as a musician, or vocalist should always be cognizant of that.

I have learned so much from working with the current lineup of musicians in GOOD STUFF. Some of these folks have been friends of mine for over 40 years. As a band leader I learned to listen to what the members have to say and their professional advice is often the reasons why we have a particular sound that sets us apart from the many other tribute bands that have flooded the circuit. It’s been 5 years since the GOOD STUFF band brand started and we have done many successful and sold out shows at some major venues. We are still very new to the circuit. When you have the combination of great musicians and singers who really enjoy the challenges of the music they perform along with friendship and respect for each others’ work it is indeed a rare find.

When you come to a GOOD STUFF show expect to hear music that is very close to the original recordings from the great artists Steely Dan, Donald Fagen, Sting, Stevie Wonder and Gino Vannelli. We hope to soon be working in a few of my original compositions that fit the genre perfectly. We not only perform the hits, but many of the deep cuts as well. We are a unique tribute indeed and we take a great pride in always giving the audience an excellent show.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Being fortunate to live in an area rich with great music, excellent cuisine and culture, there are so many places of interest that ;come to mind. I was born in Newark, NJ and was almost always either driving, or taking the PATH train into NYC. You could probably spend years there and never exhaust the many places of interest to go to. The Museum of Natural History, The Hayden Planetarium, The Bronx Zoo, The Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden and Broadway, Little Italy, Chinatown and Greenwich Village are all pretty cool places to visit in the city and there are so many more.

I now reside in beautiful Morris County in a lake community that is surrounded by great restaurants, music venues, nature trails, state of the art breweries, and shopping malls. Many of the restaurants also have a live music component as well. So much going on here too!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Growing up I began listening to jazz at a very early age. The complexity of the music grabbed my ear and after that it was a bit difficult for me to listen to 3, or 4 chord oldies, or common rock and roll. I was influenced by many of the jazz artists of the 1950’s, too numerous to mention them all. My first jazz album was by The Leith Stevens All Stars. It was the movie soundtrack from a Marlon Brando movie called “The Wild One” My next two albums at about age nine were by The Dave Brubeck Quartet, “Time Out” and “Time Further Out”. I started playing drums and enjoyed the experimentation of the various time signatures from those early albums. From that point I was interested more in the groups who had the jazz-tinged sound on their records, which is probably why the GOOD STUFF band is focused on the slick sound of Steely Dan, Donald Fagen and the additional music of Sting, Stevie Wonder and Gino Vannelli.

Website: https://goodstuffband.net/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/good_stuff_band/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodStuffNJ

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodstuff8238

Other: Email: goodstuffconnect@gmail.com

Image Credits
Joe Mack Bob Watts Christian Pflaumer Jackie Lamothe

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.