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| Carbon Leaf > Albums & Lyrics |
Barry Privett Words & vocals
Carter Gravatt: Acoustic & electric mandolins, acoustic & electric guitars, 12-string guitar,lap steel, bouzouki, loops & effects, vocals
Jordan Medas: Electric bass, bowed & double bass, vocals
Scott Milstead:Drums & percussion, vocals
Terry Clark:Electric & acoustic guitars, vocals
Indian Summer is almost here -- and for Carbon Leaf, it's a change of season.
Known to fans as America's preeminent unsigned band, the Virginia-based quintet releases its sixth album on July 13. More than the group's strongest effort since its last studio release, the critically acclaimed Echo Echo (2001, 45,000 sold), Indian Summer marks Carbon Leaf's most profound musical and professional transformation to date.
First, the music: The sound has toughened and deepened. Dynamics are bigger -- the quiet parts whisper more intimately, the crescendos climb to higher peaks of power. Each song hangs on hooks that you won't easily get out of your head. The lyrics are more candid than ever; singer/lyricist Barry Privett's unique way with metaphor and word selection draws from the heart of his own experiences, whether in love or in his broader embrace of life.
Just as important is the band's decision to bring its indie days to a close and sign its first label deal. Indian Summer is Carbon Leaf's debut release for Vanguard Records, whose staying power and reputation provide the perfect complement for this band.
All that's come before this moment -- the buzz that established Carbon Leaf as the hottest act on the Virginia college circuit, its triumph over more than a thousand other bands to win the first Coca-Cola New Music Award, its history-making appearance in 2002 as the first unsigned artists ever to perform at the American Music Awards, its opening slots on tours with John Mayer, Counting Crows, Guster, David Gray, and the Dave Matthews Band -- is just the warm-up.
With Indian Summer, Carbon Leaf, in tandem with Vanguard, makes itself heard to an even wider audience than it's built on its own.
In other words, the adventure is just beginning Ö
Rewind a couple of years. Eighty million people have witnessed Carbon Leaf's show-stopping performance on the AMA broadcast. The tour book overflows with a year and a half's worth of dates. Echo Echo is well on its way to selling more than fifty thousand copies -- heavy numbers for an indie album. Fans clamor for more; the band responds in April 2003 with 5 Alive!, a double CD packed with live tracks that bear the Carbon Leaf sound -- tight, taut, and intense.
And the seeds of Indian Summer are growing. 5 Alive! bought time to put together an album that would reflect developments in the band since Echo Echo
As they began sifting through instrumental ideas that Privett could flesh out with lyrics, the guys sensed that their style had broken past the stereotypes that some had imposed on them. "People kept saying we were a Celtic rock band," Privett says. "There was definitely some of that on the last couple of albums and even in some of our new songs. But we were gravitating toward other ideas. Our strongest songs felt a lot fresher to us because we sensed that the time had come for us to explore."
Between segments of its tour the group gathered at its basement studio in Richmond to cut the best of these songs as two-track demos. "We realized that they were becoming simpler in some ways," Privett continues. "The chord structures, the tempos, and the rhythms were more accessible; the vocal parts were more melodic. This made me want to make the lyrics accessible, more 'on your sleeve,' too. It used to be my rule that every line had to be unique. I'm really proud of what I wrote for the second or third album, but it was also a little elusive. This time I wanted to say what I wanted to say more directly."
To achieve that combination of craft, honesty, and clarity, Privett focused on a theme that had real meaning for him. "It's actually the most common theme you could imagine -- love," he says. "But I'd never even tried to write about it until Echo Echo. I guess I avoided it until I felt ready. When you're a kid you don't have a lot of wisdom, so you end up writing stuff that's been said a thousand times already. I've learned enough now to finally draw from real places. The challenge was to approach it from a different angle. For me, that meant not being afraid to sound earnest and emotional."
The rest of the band noticed the change immediately. "His lyrics absolutely blew me away," says Carter Gravatt. "That's how I reacted to 'What About Everything.' I'd given him kind of a vague idea of what I thought the song could be about, but when he brought it back I was overwhelmed. To me, it embodies what goes through my mind when I spend time every winter on the beach in North Carolina, just writing and thinking. A lot of people will relate to it in the same personal way."
That song circles around a litany of questions: "What about when buildings fall? What about that midnight phone call?" Answers aren't spelled out; instead, enlightenment emerges through the asking itself. Elsewhere on Indian Summer <>a more affirmative spirit asserts itself, with humor on "This Is My Song," more gently on "Let Your Troubles Roll By," with exuberance on "Raise The Roof," "Changeless," and especially on "Paloma," which builds to a lyric hook -- "now you're free" -- that pretty much says all that Privett means to say.
"'Paloma' is one of the most literal songs I've ever written," he insists. "It's about a real person; the name isn't made up. Jordan created that bass line a year and a half ago; it has this great flavor, but I couldn't attach anything to it. Then all of a sudden I had a place to go with it because I had come into somebody's life and experienced this thing that became 'Paloma.'"
After working out arrangements, Carbon Leaf regrouped at Richmond's Sound of Music Studios and began polishing these eleven tracks to perfection. Even at this stage surprises happened: Acoustic guitar replaced the mandolin as the lead instrument in the first single, "Life Less Ordinary." "This Is My Song" morphed from a power ballad in 4/4 to an up-tempo gallop in 6/8 whipped by a stinging guitar lick from Gravatt. A bridge suddenly appeared in the middle of "Grey Sky Eyes." Verses were stretched out or shortened as an inspired Privett improvised or jotted down fresh lyrics.
Producer John Morand and executive producer David Lowery, co-owners of the studio, joined the team. Each has strong credits in the industry: Former Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven frontman Lowery has produced Counting Crows, Joan Osborne, and FSK, while Morand's studio credits include Sparklehorse, Lauren Hoffman, Magnet, and Honor Role. Each understood that the best way to work with this reinvigorated band was to offer input at crucial moments but mainly stay out of its way and let events take care of themselves.
After finishing the Indian Summer sessions, Carbon Leaf came to a crossroads: This album was too hot to release through the indie channels that had served the band well. "We'd done five albums on our own and pushed that as far as it can go," Privett explains. "Obviously, anyone goes with a label in hopes of getting a wider audience and a little more muscle. But because of who we are and what we've achieved, our label had to be committed to artist development -- a rarity these days."
As far as the band was concerned, that narrowed the field down to one. "The people at Vanguard are music minded above all," says Terry Clark. "They're autonomous; they're a large indie. We talked with other bands that worked with them and kept hearing the same positive reports. And it's neat to be with a company that's got that much history. In fact, after we'd signed I went through my dad's old 45s and found a bunch of Vanguard releases from the sixties. I want to frame them, hang them up, and tell people, 'Hey, this is my company now!'"
All of which leads Carbon Leaf to its most significant milestone since that precedent-breaking AMA appearance. With Indian Summer life rearranges itself around this band -- new opportunities, wider exposure, fresh musical perspectives. Yet among the five members the critical elements of camaraderie and creativity endure.
"It's already a lot more intense this year," Privett says. "We've always toured a lot, but now we're doing more stops than ever at radio stations and record stores -- three appearances in a day. We're committed to that. But as for the rest of it, nothing has changed. We're working hard and doing what we do, just as we always have."
The proof is in the sound of Indian Summer, the next season in the saga of Carbon Leaf.
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