Keith Caputo wasn’t exactly born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Both his parents died of a heroin overdose and he grew up an only child, living under the roof of his grandparents’ house together with his father’s brother. Throughout his entire life he has had to struggle to get to the exact place he wanted to go and his musical achievements have come from hard work and perseverance, believing in what he thought to be right. His home was a broken one, but also one without any support whatsoever for the things in life he wanted for himself. “There was not much love in my home. I was fed and had a roof over my head, but emotionally I was a wreck, a total atom bomb. It once was my dream to go to Julliard and be a classical pianist, but my grandfather believed that music would never take me to where I needed to go in life and forced me to pick up a trade, ripping the confidence and security right out of me. I was kind of like torn between what I wanted to do, which wouldn’t get me anywhere since I was still only 17-18 years old and living by my grandparents’ rules in their house, and between what my grandfather wanted me to do.”

While living in this loveless house, Keith was fortunate enough to become acquainted with the music of some of the finest artists through his father’s brother who had a wide range of vinyl. “The first record that came into my life was Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. When I heard that, I got some garbage bags from the kitchen and I went under my bed, grabbing all of my toys, stuffing it in the bags, throwing it all away. From there on listening to music became a serious passion of mine, turning me into a radical loner as a kid.”

As the years passed by Keith’s love for music would only become more intense, which would inevitably led to him joining a band alongside his cousin Joey Z. This band was called Capital Punishment, soon thereafter to be changed to Life Of Agony, one of the most influential bands to emerge from New York’s concrete based hardcore scene. Debut album River Runs Red can be seen as the blueprint of any average big city youth, who has been deprived of all hopes and the prospect of a prosperous life and is almost 14 years after its release still considered as one of the highlights of hardcore music. Mainly due to this were the complex breaks that dominated the tension-filled songs and Keith’s stunning vocal performance. Strangely, when first starting out, Keith wasn’t really sure he would do well as a front man. “It was Joey who convinced me that I could sing. At first we did just Misfits’ covers, playing Battle Of The Bands in High School and stuff like that. But there was a wide range of music going on in the band. While I was listening to Pink Floyd and The Beatles, the others would turn to Metallica and Rob Zombie. However, back then I knew less of who I was, less of what I wanted and how I wanted it. I was just kind of going with the tide, never questioning what was going on.

And then we did River Runs Red and the next thing I knew we were living in a van for the next couple of years, living off ten bucks a day and on been bags, sleeping on the roof of the van in the desert, totally like boot camp. Rock ‘n’ roll boot camp.”

Within a short period of time the name of Life Of Agony would be on the lips of every righteous metal head all over the world while the sales figures went sky high. But not all roses were red as Keith was about to find out, for Ugly ( 1995 ), the follow-up to River Runs Red, did not as well as expected, the reason being the sudden change to songs that were more to the point and far less complex than before. The sales figures dropped considerably, but it didn’t stop the band from evolving into an almost melodic nu-metal act on Soul Searching Sun ( 1997 ). However, the already diminished fan base did not allow the band to alienate itself any further from what were considered to be their hardcore roots, simply denying its natural progress. “When we did River Runs Red, we were young and angry and I didn’t know who I was. These days I still don’t know who I am and I’m still angry, but I’m living it in a different way. What we did back then was great for the time we did it, but that’s over now. It’s only natural to be innovative. I would never wanna do the same record twice. I mean when you live, you grow. I feel bad for the bands that release the same record ten times. They probably need some sort of security. Stick to what they know because it’s safe and easy. But I’m not in this business for the money; it’s just something I have to do and I love it. Music is my religion, a way to express myself. But most fans don’t care about what’s going on in your personal life. All they really care about is going to a show to reminisce. They live in nostalgia, holding on to dead memories. You see, what I really don’t get about our fans, is that the same people that have come to love us, have also created our demise, throwing us in a well and then walking away.”

Due to the frustration that followed closely in the footsteps of this unfruitful musical development and because he claimed on numerous occasions not to be in love with heavy guitars anymore, Keith decided to leave Life Of Agony shortly after the release of Soul Searching Sun to devote his time entirely to a little something called Absolute Bloom, which would, however, never really come off the ground. In the meantime Life Of Agony struggled on with former Ugly Kid Joe singer Whitfield Crane at the helm, but the days of glory had gone way past the point of safe return and with the millennium in plain sight the remaining members were left with no other option than to pull the plug.

After the liaison with Absolute Bloom Keith continued as a singer/songwriter under his own name, proving the world with epic albums as Died Laughing and Perfect Little Monsters that his career as a recording artist was far from over. On these albums Keith once again portrayed himself as an extremely emotional human being through his almost poetic lyrics. During this time he also found the European environment suited him better than the American one and without making a big deal out of it he moved over, eventually winding up in Holland. But why this tiny country, tucked away neatly between Germany and the North Sea? Well, simply because he liked the scenery and the attitude of the people living there, although it’s fair to add this idea has somewhat changed over the past few years. “I used to be more attracted to the country than I am now. I used to love it because it was so friendly, but now I find it has become the America of Europe.

I remember one time turning a corner of an old cobble stoned street in one of the villages near Maasstricht and I will never forget how disappointed I was when I saw this Kentucky Fried Chicken lying there. It was like ‘Oh man, you only find these in the ghetto’s of New York.’ I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but everything is turning commercial these days. As a result the awareness for the environment has diminished and also a lot of Dutch people don’t take care of themselves the way they used to anymore and live an unhealthy life. But I guess that’s my personal opinion. It happens everywhere in the world. There are just too many takers instead of givers.

But it’s not all bad. One of the things that still attracts me about Holland is the way the government takes care of the drugs problem. I mean, drugs like XTC is a bad thing, but in Holland you can test it out if you want to and I think it’s a brilliant thing to do. In America this could never happen, because drugs as well as prostitution are just not done in public, especially not on television. Over there it’s all one big media thing. Like when Janet Jackson showed her boob on tv. It’s all kind of fake.”

In 2003 Keith found himself in Miami to join forces with a Brazilian industrial metal band with who he released the self-titled album Freax. The same year also saw the long anticipated reunion of the original line-up of Life Of Agony when its former members regrouped for two sold-out concerts at New York’s Irving Plaza. What no one would have held possible became a fact on January 3rd and 4th as the raven-haired kid from Brooklyn, along with his pack of hungry wolfs, delivered some of his most intense performances ever. One thing led to another. More shows and appearances on European festivals followed in the wake of the reunion and even a new album was recorded in 2005. But the musical climate still hadn’t adapted itself to the wants and needs of Life Of Agony and even though Broken Valley was probably the best effort the band ever came up with, record label Epic almost stopped it dead even before it was out, jerking the band around like some kind of yoyo. And since this was bound to happen, it raises the question why the band even gave it a shot in the first place. “Well, it was a personal thing between the band. Its death was an untimely one and it was corrupted and polluted. There was a lot of resentment between everybody and I guess we just wanted a good ending. So, we just set up a show at the Irving Plaza which sold out within literally 5 minutes. So another show was set up and that one sold out just as quickly. It was unbelievable and we were like ‘Holy shit’. Just couldn’t believe it, thought we were being messed about, because the last time we played there – in the days of Soul Searching Sun – only a 1000 people had shown and now there were like 3500 for two nights in a row. Like I said: Unbelievable.”

When asked if Life Of Agony will ever enter the studio again, Keith just shrugs his shoulders, leaving the question hanging unanswered in midair. It seems very clear that only time will tell and that this matter is not of great importance to Keith. For the moment he likes to focus on his solo career and with a new album waiting by the sideline to be kicked in that seems like a smart move. On this album Keith worked closely with Martyn Lenoble, a well-known bassplayer who amongst others shared the ranks of Jane’s Addiction and Porno For Pyros. “It all started when our drummer Jochem sent him Hearts Blood On Your Dawn, the record we did in 2006. After he had fallen in love with a bunch of songs, Martyn emailed me on myspace and from that point on we were talking shop about going into the studio to make a new record. But it’s not out yet. If I was going to release it on my own, it would have been out already. But I decided to talk to some record company people first. So at the moment I’m sort of shopping it. You see, I could only bring the music to a certain point before running into a wall. Meaning you need a lot of money to make everything happening like getting the band that you want. Unfortunately the educated people in the business – the ones in charge – are stuck in their own ways, wanting to do it all in a certain way. Also there’s a lack of innovative minds out there that prevent certain things to happen. It’s really all a matter of getting people to believe in you, but then again on signing a lot of people will make promises they can’t keep. But I guess that’s just human nature. This generation is really strange.”

For this yet to be released album Keith has once again cooked up a couple of soul searching lyrics that almost come natural to him. “I still got a lot of living to do. Learning about yourself through the process of life is infinite. That being the case I don’t find it hard to find new subjects to write about it. And it doesn’t scare me to let people in on my deepest emotions, although over the years I have learned to protect myself a bit, not to give myself away too much. And I think it’s a healthy thing to do. I have my own interpretation of the songs that I write. Most of my songs are in fact open for interpretation. It’s for you to decide what it is about. All the rest is none of your business. It’s like knowing what you want and knowing what you don’t want.”

This sounds like a man with a lot of expectations and future plans, one who knows exactly what he wants from life, but it’s not as grand as it may seem. “I really don’t have any expectations about anything at all. I don’t believe in that. But I do have visions I would like to fulfil, although I’m not even sure if I’m an ambitious person. I’m just enthusiastic about life. I’ll just make it simple for you: My goals in life are to be at peace, to write the greatest rock ‘n’ roll records that I possibly can in the short period of time that I have on this planet, to make lots of people happy, to live in the moment as much as I can, to live life as fully as I can. Seize the moment, seize the breath. I want to stay in the creative as long as I can. Also it’s important to be healthy, both physically and spiritually. Furthermore I want to understand why I’m here and why we as a people are here. I just wish I had the power to recreate society. Through my music and melody I hope to add positivity to the way one lives his or her life, make them feel good and hopefully this feeling will spread from one person to another like a domino-effect. I just want people to feel good. I want to feel good. Oh, and another goal of mine, I want 7 wifes.”

Truly a man with a vision.