Will Toledo and Car Seat Headrest

 

Car Seat Headrest is an indie/alternative rock band based in the United States. It originated as a solo project created by Will Toledo in 2010, who released a whopping 12 projects on Bandcamp in just four years. He also released nine studio albums during that time. His final solo record was released in 2014, called 'How to Leave Town'. In 2015, Car Seat Headrest signed with Matador Records. Toledo would go on to recruit Jacob Bloom (shortly replaced by Ethan Ives), Seth Dalby, and Andrew Katz, transitioning from a solo project to a full touring band. They would go on to release four studio albums between 2015 and 2020.

Toledo originally started Car Seat Headrest just before starting college as a way to anonymously release experimental music. He would write and record music from the backseat of his car, leading to the band's namesake. His songwriting process included writing down anything he could, recording snippets of his work, and experimenting with layering sounds, vocals, and arrangements, usually inspired by sounds he had heard before. All of his songs were a continuous work in progress. He also utilized the incubation method in his work, leaving something alone for a while and returning to it later. Even after being released, any song/album could be worth revisiting. A notorious example of this was the re-record of the 2011 album' Twin Fantasy' by the full band in 2018, titled 'Twin Fantasy (Face to Face)'.

His methods of revision continued into the band's most recent album, released in 2020, 'Making a Door Less Open,' also called MADLO. Though this was the first album released by the band that consisted of all new material, it was not safe from constant revision. The album's vinyl, CD, and streaming releases were all substantially different. For example, the song 'Deadlines' exists in three separate interpretations across the various releases. This allows listeners to have a glimpse into Toledo's creative process, experiencing the different versions of the songs he creates and how they evolve over time. MADLO also has a very different sound than other Car Seat Headrest projects as they try to break free from past perceptions. The album was produced by both Toledo and Katz and was heavily inspired by top-charted songs as a way to challenge themselves to create something new.

Toledo also cites anxiety as being a significant contributor to his creative process. He believes that if you are not at least a bit stressed out while creating something, there is a major chance it will not be good. One of the songs on MADLO, 'Hymn,' was written right after Toledo had a panic attack, and it is another one of the songs that was tweaked between the album's releases. The version on vinyl is a slow cry for help, drawing on the feelings of desperation Toledo was feeling. The remixed version has the opposite effect, with an intense beat that alludes to an exploding sensation. 

This sense of anxiety in the creative process is something that musician Nick Cave also feels. In Faith, Hope, and Carnage, a novel release of interview sessions between Cave and Sean O'Hagan, Cave says that he starts his writing process with a blank notebook, a mind free of ideas, and a considerable amount of anxiety. Though the two artists both experience and acknowledge anxiety in their processes, they also create in different ways. Cave does his writing from the ground up in an allotted amount of time, starting from a blank page. On the other hand, Toledo does not like to feel like he is on the clock while creating and rarely writes something entirely from scratch. The roots of their anxious feelings are also different. Cave becomes anxious as he writes piles upon piles of meaningless words, manifesting feelings of self-doubt and depression. Again, Toledo is the opposite, as he becomes anxious when he does not have a collection of ideas to build on.

With Toledo's experimental ideas and endless revisions leading the way, the band has been a success for over a decade. The raw complexity of his lyrics makes it easy for people to relate to, so it's no wonder how their popularity continues to grow. As fans wait for the band's next release, the new era of Car Seat Headrest will persist, possibly giving us a style of music we have not heard from them before.

Sources: 

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Car_Seat_Headrest 

https://www.stereogum.com/2082537/car-seat-headrest-madlo-track-by-track-interview/interviews/footnotes-interview/

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/05/car-seat-headrest-is-an-ideal-product-of-the-bandcamp-generation/

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/car-seat-headrest-madlo-interview-994190/

https://books.apple.com/us/book/faith-hope-and-carnage/