“I need something soon, I need something soon.”
“I need something soon, I need something soon.”
These words provide the core of Virginia native Car Seat Headrest‘s latest single, the lo-fi treasure trove “Something Soon,” a song that’s been building momentum ever since it was first released back in September. On the surface, it’s an innocuous phrase that seems self-contained within the ideals of the four minute composition, but as you begin to really delve into the music of Car Seat Headrest, the phrase takes on new life as an almost accidental anthem for the Virginia native who’s quietly becoming one of the music world’s most prolific artists.
Car Seat Headrest is the brainchild of Will Toledo, a Leesburg native who’s been gradually building a reputation as one of the best home-recording artists around since his unassuming debut at the start of this decade. At this stage of the game, his Bandcamp page already has well over a hundred songs up that would take about a half-day to power through, if you were so inclined. While it’s certainly a lot of music, Toledo even admitted to us that there’s more that even used to be available. “There’s a few albums worth of early material before Car Seat Headrest, but I took them down because those are things I don’t want people focusing on.” It’s a weird thought, especially considering the bottom half of his Bandcamp page features numbered records with a disclaimer that basically says the same thing, albeit in a more self-deprecating fashion, but it goes to show you the catalogue size Toledo has amassed in well under five years.
Toledo’s catalogue has been building for years, starting in high school in Leesburg before stopping over in Richmond for a quick layover. He spent his first semester in college at VCU, studying art, before transferring to William & Mary where Car Seat Headrest really began to flourish and take off. “In college, I joined a band that eventually became Car Seat Headrest. I had this solo project, home recording thing separate from the band, but we started playing the songs and it of conglomerated into the same entity.”
Despite being a college band of sorts, Toledo’s focus was always on the home recording aspect of being a musician and less on the concert portion of the identity, something he attributes to the lack of exposure to a live scene in Virginia. “I was always more of a recording artist than a live performer. I’d never grown up around a live scene in Leesburg and I wasn’t in Richmond for very long before heading over to Williamsburg. I never had a model to look after that would someday mean I would play this or that venue because I didn’t really know of any in Virginia. It took a while before any sort of invitations came in for us to play, but eventually they did from all around Virginia. They weren’t many, but they were way more than we were capable of doing at the time as college students. It was enough to keep us busy, but it wasn’t enough to be a career at the time and again, my focus was still on the recording aspect.”
It’s an approach to the music that’s not uncommon, but is one that the young musician has now strived to change. “I think it’s more balanced between the two now. Last year, I got more interested in the live aspects of it and what you can do in a live performance that you can’t do on a recording. We’ve certainly recorded a lot this year doing two albums, but other than that, it’s been all live stuff. At the moment, it feels very live heavy. This is the first year where we’ve had a touring output basically. The first actual tour we did was the spring of this year and the first big one is now. There’s still plenty of time to record, but next year, we’re going to have think out the schedule carefully because I do want to record. Honestly, the home recording period is over just because we recorded the second album of the year in a studio and I found it easier so I’ll definitely be going there again. I’ve got to consider setting aside a chunk next year to be recording instead of touring because it looks like it’s a lot of touring next year.”
Becoming “live heavy” as Toledo was bound to happen at some point, but was something clearly rushed due to his recent signing with popular record label Matador. It was a surprise signing for someone who’d made a name for himself against the odds as an artist existing almost exclusively online, but Toledo did admit that joining a label was always the next step, even if he didn’t think it would be one as big as Matador. “I knew I wanted to do some physical copies of it which I’d never done before and I figured a label could help me there. I was thinking something much smaller than Matador and was going to go for someone in my reach. But Matador reached out to me and they were really the only one to contact me. A few much smaller labels took an interest took, but that was after I had already talked with Matador. When they did call though, it just seemed like fate calling.”
Fate calling or not, it was still a decision that Toledo mulled over. On the one hand, he admired Matador’s output and current roster telling us, “they just have so many artists I was already a fan of and I knew they did a good job with them so I’d like to be on that ship.” But on the other hand, Toledo had some doubts over if it was need versus want and if the want would be good for his career. “I definitely questioned myself whether it was something I actually needed to go forward or if it’s something I wanted. I don’t know if it’s something I needed, but I did truly want that for a jump start and that’s what it’s been this year. It’s taken my music to another level and that’s great. I was doing fairly well just self-releasing stuff, but it’s always a slow build and I didn’t want to spend the next five years doing that before I could have a self-sustained career.”
At the end of October, Matador helped Toledo realize the physical distribution side of things with the release of Teens Of Style, an album with strong reviews that actually had anticipation for its release. It was a concept Toledo was almost unaware could happen to his music. “I was just unused to the idea that a song like ‘Something Soon’ would get big at all before the album came out. I was just used to releasing songs fairly quietly and having the album release be the focus and then the reputation slow builds. It was a complete 180 for me where there was all this attention long before the record even came out. I’m still mainly focused on the long term – will this be a good record two years from now? That’s what I always try and focus on when I write a record. I think it will hold up well though and that’s my main concern, but it was a still a great and strange phenomenon for me.”
It wasn’t the only big change Toledo encountered this year as he also moved across country to Seattle, a decision pushed by a desire to build on the touring aspect of Car Seat Headrest’s reputation. “I knew when I moved to Seattle, I first wanted to find a group that was more or less stable and that I could build back on for live shows. The lineup has gotten fairly concrete since moving to Seattle. For the past half year, I’ve playing with Andrew Katz on drums and Ethan Ives on first guitar, but now bass. We also have a fourth member now that’s Seth Dalby. I played with him in college at William & Mary and he graduated earlier than me so we lost contact for a while, but I knew that if I got the chance, I’d want to play with him again. Early this year, I contacted him to see if he would go on tour and he was down. Hopefully if this lineup works out, it will be the way Car Seat Headrest is for a while.”
Building that stable line-up has not only been beneficial for Toledo’s live performances, but the once reclusive musician even revealed that he’s interested in working more with the band going forward on music. “We’ve got a semi-lead on contributing a song to a movie at some point and Ethan and I are co-writing a song. It’s a melody from Ethan that I’m restructuring. It’s nice for stuff like that where various opportunities come up. It’s a good chance to work together.” Still, the notion of Car Seat Headrest being a collaborative effort across the board is still off in the distance. “For the albums, I spend so much time thinking about it before the music even comes to life that it’s hard to get them on it until they play the parts. They do end up contributing a lot once they enter into it, but I already have an idea of what I want in the song. It’s just the way I write.”
Seattle seems to be agreeing with Toledo, but what of Virginia? “Well, I miss it, but really, I only start to miss it when I’m preparing to go home. Like when I start to look forward to it is when I get sentimental. I’m looking forward to it on this tour for sure and then a Christmas break after that, but really, I don’t think about it so much because I’m just focused on other things right now. Still, it will be really nice to get home.”
And what of Richmond? Car Seat Headrest performs tonight at Stange Matter and Toledo himself is optimistically excited for it, especially after their last foray into Richmond’s live scene ended abruptly.
“We were there earlier this year, at a house show. That was a lot of fun, although the cops came halfway through our set. We were the last of three acts and it was already pretty late and right before we went on, we got a message from someone that the cops were coming so play as much as you can. We went on and did 4 or 5 sons and got told to shut it down. That was okay for me though because my voice was not in a great spot that night and I was losing it. I think the neighbors complained, but it wasn’t a big deal. It will be nice to go back for a full show with my full voice too. It’s going to be great to finally get a proper Richmond show after all these years.”
Car Seat Headrest performs at Strange Matter tonight alongside openers Ne-Hi and Don Babylon. Tickets are still available at $10 and doors open at 9 PM. For more information on the show, click here.
