I had the pleasure of meeting up with the Car Party, the four-piece band from Baltimore, while they were on the road recently. We discussed their music, life on the road, their future aspirations, and much more. They were all hysterical and nice, and you could truly see the passion for music in their eyes. Check out their album High and Low Places and visit their official website carpartyband.com for more information.
So, where did you guys first meet?
Taylor- I Posted a Craigslist ad in 2009-
Oh, well that’s not sketchy…
Taylor- Yah, haha very sketchy. I met Mike first. After an elaborate Facebook lurking I realized that, okay, he’s cool to invite to my house. Mike and I had an alternate lineup before these guys came into the picture. We actually toured with Chris’s band in the fall of 2010, and a couple weeks later he joined our band. That seems really bad. But Jim actually just joined a couple moths ago after we recorded our EP. So yah, that’s pretty cool, we’ve known him for like 5 months, he was a Craigslist person as well.
Oh wow, so you guys are really into Craigslist here…
Taylor- Well Chris is the only one we didn’t meet through Craigslist.
Well congratulations Chris!
Chris- Yah, thanks.
Taylor- Never again Craigslist.
Haha, how would you describe your sound?
Chris- Uhm, well I don’t know, it’s kind of a group thing. It’s kind of what everyone listens to. I mean we listen to a lot of Death Cab [For Cutie], what else do we listen to now… Say Anything, Jimmy Eat World. It’s just stuff like that.
Taylor- Alternative-Rock, Indie-Pop kind of stuff.
So your favorite bands influence your music?
Chris- Right, and I’ve been an Early November fan for like the past 10 years, so that’s my biggest influence.
So what is your favorite band of the moment then? I know it’s tough haha…
Chris- Lately I have been listening to a lot of A Rocket to the Moon, a lot.
Taylor- I’m gonna go with Foals.
[At this point we got kicked out of sitting in the back of their trailer, but Mike also came back from a quick Dunkin Donuts run]
So, what were you saying your favorite band was, as the moment?
Jim- Right now, Butch Walker and the Black Widows.
Never heard of them haha.
Chris- There’s are probably a lot of albums that you listen to that Butch Walker’s produced.
Taylor- Like The Academy Is…Yah the first album, what is it? Like something –the season?
The Season Is…?
Taylor- Yah! That’s probably their best record, and he produced it.
Jim- He’s done like Five for Fighting and Bowling for Soup or some shit, Avril Lavigne….WHAT CANADAAA.
Taylor- What?
Chris- Haha oh, I didn’t know why you brought that up, but then I was like ‘Oh she’s Canadian’. I thought you just brought that up for no reason haha.
What about you, what’s your favorite band of the moment?
Mike- Like at this very moment?
Yes, like at this very second, right now.
Mike- Mayday Parade. Their new album is amazing.
That’s for sure. So, what is your favorite song to play live?
Taylor- Um, our newest song actually. We’ve only got to play it twice in public, it’s called Walls.
Oh cool! So is that off your new album you’re going to record?
Taylor- We are going to be recording it in December when we go back into the studio with Ace Enders, but-
Chris- Tonight will be the third time.
Taylor- So you’ll be some of the first people to hear it.
Sick! Okay so I know you probably get this a lot, but you’re the only girl in the band, how is that? Is it better or worse then a band of, lets say, all girls- not to offend any of you guys haha.
Taylor- No, it’s honestly – [cough] sorry guys, sorry-
Mike- That’s my job, don’t cough. [Mike has been feeling sick the past few days]
Taylor- Uhm, it’s a lot better than dealing with girls. Yah, it’s a lot easier. Like you can just be straight-forward with them and you don’t need to deal with the catty-ness or anything. Once you get used to like the farting, the belching and the constant like penis jokes and stuff, it’s like really great, they are a lot of-
[Everyone begins to debate something that happened last night involving Mike just wearing a towel, and a window, enough said- Taylor said that it will make a cameo in their tour video, so look out for that.]
So you guys treat her like one of the guys pretty much?
Mike, Chris and Jim in unison- Yah haha.
Taylor- My first band was an all girl band, and it was awful.
If you guy’s could go on your dream tour with any band, who would it be?
Taylor- Death Cab [for Cutie].
Mike- Fall Out boy.
Jim- I’ll go with Butch [Walker and the Black Widows] again.
For the new album you are going to start recording, are you going to stay true to your original sound, or change/mature it?
Jim- I don’t know if we are going to change our sound, because obviously we want to keep the same common thread, maybe mix it up a little bit. But I don’t know, it’s just kinda like whatever comes out. Usually she will come up with the, you know, drum part, and I’ll go over and play something on bass. I think we kind of just make it like that. I don’t think we ever just sit down and think ‘Let’s write an upbeat song’. I think it’s just whatever comes out.
Mike- And Ace helps a lot with that too, like whatever we take in there he just…
Chris- Shoots it down. Or no, he will tell me I’m retarded.
Mike- But yah, he helps us stay true to what our sound is. Like we are not setting out to mature, but we are just making music that we want to make and whatever comes out of it.
Taylor- Well Walls is a little bit edgier. We have been comparing it a lot to Please Me because it is the first single we are writing for the next record. It’s like an edgier Please Me. I think it’s more dynamic and a lot more emotional. It’s like closer to Mike than I think Please Me was.
So who writes your music then? Like are you all collectively writing the lyrics and cords, or is it just one of you?
Taylor- I’m going to have to call out Mike out on his guitar skills.
Mike- Haha, well either the musicians will (because I don’t play) collectively come up with something, or I will be a monster and drop D on guitar. So I would just come up with a cord structure or something like that, hand it over, and that’s when it all gets turned into real music.
Chris- Yah, he will usually sends me something through Sound Cloud, and I’ll figure out the key and a decent structure, and I’ll put a little spin on it. Or they will have something in mind and I’ll write that.
Mike- It’s definitely not the way most people write stuff probably, but we make it work.
What are your tour necessities? I know you guys must be the road for a while so what are some things you absolutely need every day?
Chris- Dunkin Donut’s Coffee.
Mike- Well for me right now Honey Green Tea is what I need… really bad.
Taylor- Welches Fruit Snack and Vitamin Water. I mean Fruit Snacks not Snack.
Chris- No, just one fruit snack.
Taylor- Oh yah, that’s my diet.
Jim- I think after last night I’m going to go with Fiji water. I think that was the best water I have ever had in my life. I mean the logo freaks me out a little, I don’t really know what the flowers mean…
Let’s do some quick fire questions!
Qdoba vs. Chipotle?
Taylor, Chris and Jim- Chipotle!
Mike- Qdoba. I’m the only one.
Taylor- This tour is sponsored by Chipotle Mike!
The Simpsons vs. Family Guy?
All of them- Family Guy.
Mike- American Dad over both of the ones you mentioned though.
Coke or Pepsi?
Jim- Pepsi.
Chris- Coke.
Taylor- Water.
Mike- Coke.
Charlie Sheen vs. Lindsey Lohan?
All of them- Charlie Sheen!!
Mike- Have you seen [Lindsey Lohan] recently? Horrible!
NYC vs. LA?
All of them- New York!
Chris- I do not like LA, I don’t know there is just something about it…
Myspace, Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr?
Chris- Old Myspace or new Myspace?
Umm, new Myspace.
Chris and Jim- Facebook.
Mike- It’s a tie between Facebook and Twitter.
Chris- No, old Myspace was ridiculous, I loved it.
Mike- Yah , that was the time.
Chris- It was like a dating website…..
Jim- First and foremost haha.
Where do you guys see yourselves in a few years?
Chris- In the wilderness, in like a log cabin.
Big beard and everything?
Chris- Well, probably not a beard because I don’t like beards.
Jim- He can’t do beards.
Mike- I grow enough for the four of us so we’re good! But yah, hopefully at a much higher level then we are. I mean we would like to keep growing and reaching out and sharing our music with more people.
Chris- Hopefully just touring. Like making that our thing, just staying on the road. And on our off time, maybe retire to the Camen Islands.
So how about your tattoos? Anything interesting or cool about them?
Chris- Nah.
Taylor- He doesn’t like to talk about it haha. I got this Kurt Vonnegut quote when my grandfather died [Pointing to a quote on the back of her arm written in a tomb stone that says ‘Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt’]. Just because of the way that he died, he looked so peaceful. This one [pointing to another tattoo], I wanted a Golden Girl-
Wait, you watch the Golden Girls?!
Taylor- I am a fanatic.
Mike- That is all she talks about.
[Taylor and I start raving about our mutual love for the show]
So Betty White?
Taylor- I like Sophia Petrillo, still Betty’s my girl, I can get down with Betty White. But yah, this [tattoo] is kind of in place for that.
Mike- I am a tattoo virgin, I still have to get my first tattoo.
Haha okay, are you planning any good ones?
Mike- Yah, I am a big Calvin and Hobbes fan. I know people think ‘Oh wow he pees on the windshields of cars’, but no, it’s like really philosophical and all that stuff. And yah I am planning on getting one, there is a stripper and they find a dead bird, and they start talking about life and morality and how we take stuff for granted. The last line is ‘I guess it will all make sense when we grow up’ so I want to get that with the picture of the bird.
Chris- Mine are just happy things and sad things, pretty much my life in tattoo form.
Jim- I just got this piece done [showing us a big piece on his upper arm]. It’s actually a cover-up piece, there was a cross here. And this other arm is for my grandfather and my dad, they both passed away in the past two years.
Do you guys know any of the other bands on this tour? Have you toured with them before?
Chris- Floral Terrace, we’re supposed to do a few shows with them. They are playing tonight and they played two nights ago. They had to drop off of a few dates. But yah, we will be doing stuff with them in the future as well.
Are you guys planning any cool collaborations? Or are there any you would hope for?
Taylor- We are really trying to harass Go Radio right now…
Chris- We are talking to Ace’s sister about possibly playing piano on the new song.
Mike- Yah we are really trying to get the Go Radio thing going. Jason Lancaster is one of my FAVORITE vocalists. I would just be so psyched. We ran into them in Pennsylvania and he was just the nicest guy. I was just-
Fan-girling a bit?
Mike- Oh yah, it was bad haha.
Taylor- (imitating Mike) OMG. Mr. Lancaster. My name is Mike. I sing too. I love you so much. I have a beard too. I grew it because of you.
Jim- Okay, now Mike’s gonna get seriously upset.
Taylor- No he’s not.
Chris- He’s so vulnerable.
Jim- We’ve been on the road since Friday and I’ve seen him cry seven times.
Taylor- I can pull some video up of it actually….
Mike- No, we are good.
Do you guys have any upcoming tours?
Chris- We are in the works of doing some tours in November. In December we really want to work on the single in the studio. But then after that, probably go out for a little bit longer. I think we want to do a Canadian tour, not just touch it for a day or two, we want to do weeks. I really want to tour England.
Mike- Yah, that would be awesome.
Taylor- With You, Me at Six. Something like that would be really cool.
So, anything you want to let people know?
Mike- Check out our album that’s out right now, High and Low Places. We are really proud of the four songs we put together and we think that Ace did a great job. It’s definitely something we are trying to push to let people hear, let them know how we sound and what we are about.
Chris- Get it on iTunes, or check Facebook or our websites.
Mike- Carpartyband.com is our official website.
Taylor- Come out to shows, we are a good time!
