Carter Hulsey New Album "What You Carry" Interview/Review

There is nothing quite like listening to a record on vinyl. The soft cracking sound filters through each song, providing each listener with a warming sense of comfort. In a time where technology has made listening to music increasingly accessible and mobile, the idea behind “the album” has gotten lost somewhere along the way. People used to buy albums in their entirety, allowing them marinate in the raw form it was intended. The Carter Hulsey Band understands that music fans should let their music roll over them. It is for this reason they are releasing their latest album, “What You Carry” on 12’’ vinyl, May 23rd (available on iTunes May 17th).

   “What You Carry,” features the country/southern-rock sounds of Joplin, Missouri natives Carter Hulsey (vocal/guitar), Thom Hoglen (Bass), Isaac Duncan (Guitar),Tof Hoglen ( Keys) and Caleb Denison(Drums). While the overall sound may be classified as country, the band bounces around the genre creating a very diverse set of six songs. “There is a lot of variety in this album,” says Hulsey. “I don’t know if it is a good thing or a bad thing, but it seems to always happen when we record.” Hulsey’s previous release “A Note In Your Pocket,” also sported the same type of diverse track list, delivering songs ranging from country, rock, pop and folk. Hulsey commented further by adding, “Maybe we will find a style to stick with, or maybe we will keep being diverse!” “What You Carry” proved to also be the group’s most collaborative work to date, with half of the songs written by members other than Hulsey. “We each had something to add. We then just sat, collaborated and made it work for everybody,” states Hulsey.
   The record begins with an upbeat track written by Hulsey, Duncan and Denison, called “Black My Lungs.” The song Hulsey’s lyrics seem to effortlessly pull memorable references for one main premise. “It’s about growing up, changing and realizing who you are and what that means. What it will mean for rest of your life.” Carter reveals the nature of the lines in the track derived from one of his favorite movies. “You are something that I am going to loose. The hole in my pocket carry walls through the yard,” refers to the 1994 film “The Shawshank Redemption” Tim Robbins character Andy Dufresne, daily picked away pieces of his cell wall and disposed of them through a hole in his pocket. “I have always loved that scene, it’s beautiful,” says Hulsey, “He is walking like a free man, in the yard of the prison.” Hulsey then goes on to explain that the title phrase, “Black My Lungs,” derived from a conversation that he had with Lovedrug vocalist via e-mail when he was fourteen. “A long, long time ago I loved the band Lovedrug. They had just broken up, so I wrote him because my band also broke up,” reveals Hulsey. “We were talking about how that all works out and at the end of the e-mail he said ‘and Carter, start drinking and smoking, it helps with everything’, which just stuck with me,” states Hulsey. He then goes on to explain “the phrase black my lungs comes from the fact that when you are going through difficult times, people seem to smoke because it is just a mind-numbing thing to do.”
   “Let The Sunlight See Your Face Again,” is an inspirational tune penned by the group’s piano player Tof Hoglen that slightly forays into the pop/rock genre. Husley’s tone and wide vocal range seems to be a perfect match, while Tof Hoglen’s harmonies on the chorus add a special touch. The song’s catchy melody will surely have you humming the tune for the rest of the day.”What You Can’t Have” written by Thom Hoglen, features guitar riffs that seamlessly float through the entire song while sending a message to the listener about making peace and moving on.”You Don’t Wanna Hear It,” written by Hulsey, is an upbeat song that showcases his uncanny ability to take a small folk sound, and then build it into an anthem that is worthy of people singing it back at him. Thom Hoglen contributes the following song on the record, “Punchline” which has a slightly darker sound, and features standout performances by Duncan and Tof Hoglen. The old-school sounds keys of Holgen, paired with the haunting riffs that Duncan provides a very unique feel that is oddly catchy.
   The last track on the record, “Everything Falls Apart” happens to be the most personal track on the record for Hulsey. The melody and music for the song were all based off of a dream he had in the middle of the night. “I was walking through the ghost level of the Nintendo 64 game, ‘Mario Kart Racing,’ and there were all of these women dressed as mice. As I am walking through this crowd of girls, there is a normal girl walking alongside of me. I turn to her and say ‘I wish you looked like that, ‘which was a ridiculous thing to say because all of the other girls looked like mice. As I was walking, the music and melody were just happening.” Hulsey awoke from the dream and immediately grabbed his music journal to jot down lyrics, while quickly humming the melody of the music he had just experienced. Hulsey shares that “the paper in my journal had turned to carbon copy paper. There was nothing to write on, there were just the black pages left. I then actually wake up and realize that I had still been dreaming!” Hulsey then explains “there is a lot of stuff in there that is real personal, but hopefully I mask it well enough to where its not that bad.” Lastly, the song also briefly explains how Hulsey feels about a lost art within music, “I feel like with a lot of the new music, the ‘romance’ of the music and of pen and paper is going away. I have seen a lot of music that is generated by people that are just trying to write songs, and producers that are sitting at a computer. I just miss the pen and paper aspect, where a guy just sits down with the guitar and talks about what is real to him.”

Carter Hulsey Interview

Photo by Laura Means http://web.mac.com/lmeanswell

Have you ever been listening to an album, and when it gets to the end you are completely committed to listening to it again? Right now, that album for me is “A Note In Your Pocket," by Carter Hulsey. The singer/songwriter hailing from Joplin Missouri, has found the perfect way to create classic country/folk music with a modern twist. Much like Hulsey’s close friend, Christofer Drew of Never Shout Never, Hulsey has a knack for mixing the old with the new.

While on tour with Never Shout Never, The Maine and I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody’s Business, I had a chance to speak with Hulsey about the album and future plans.

You seem to know everyone on this tour pretty well, how far do you date back with some of these guys (Christofer Drew, Caleb Denison, etc.)?
Hulsey: Caleb moved to Joplin from somewhere in Oklahoma back when I was sixteen, so we have known each other for six years. Chris and I have been playing in bands since we were kids, so I have known him for a while. We have even lived in the same house for almost three years now. I have just met The Maine, Ace Enders and Jose Lopez from I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody’s Business, but it has been “instant family.” Never Shout is the headliner and we are all just Midwest boys, and there is a big family vibe on this tour that is hard to escape. We are all really close for sure.
With your debut LP, “A Note In Your Pocket,” how did you approach the writing process?
Hulsey: This writing process was different, in which I wrote a lot of it during the winter of last year. Chris and I had been living in an apartment at the time and he was writing a record he just put out called “Harmony,” while I was writing “A Note In Your Pocket.” I read a whole lot during that time, a lot of classic literature and listened to a lot of music. We both have record players, so we were always playing vinyl for each other. We would come up with song ideas, and it is really neat hearing the songs ideas that he had have a thousand kids signing along to, but I heard it at three o’clock in the morning when he came into my room, woke me up and said “listen, what do you think?” I would say “that’s great! What if you did this?” The same went with my stuff. He would say “this chorus is great, what if you add this right here? Or brought it back right here?” I wrote the whole record with Chris right there, and we would just bounce ideas back for his record, and my record. A lot of reading and listening to a lot of music.
Now the actual recording process was fairly short correct?
Hulsey: Yeah, we got there and though it was going to be a lot different. We thought that we were going to have a producer, but stuff didn’t work out. So we go there and we recorded all of the music in three days, and then we did all of the vocals in a day and a half. We played a great deal of it live, and then we would go back and re-track things that bled over. It was a very live record, because we were on a very tight time frame. We also thought that we were going to have some more days, and Tom, Toff and Caleb didn’t know all of the songs. Basically it was like “here is the song, now let’s record it.”(laughs) I played it once and then we recorded it. This next record, we are going to record in a couple of months, and we are going to spend a lot of time doing it.
I heard that “Don’t Waste Time” was a song written by Caleb. How did that become yours, and not a Denison song? (The Denison is Caleb Denison’s side-project)
Hulsey: Caleb is such a phenomenal song writer. He’s got a catalog of songs, that hopefully everyone will hear someday, but he was just like “this song just fits really well, let’s do it.” There might be another Caleb song on the next record too. He is so gifted, and it was an honor for me to put that song on my record for sure.
Had did “Black and Blue” come together? How did Sophia Smith come into the picture?
Hulsey: I played with her at a place in Arlington, Texas. When I heard her sing, I was immediately blown away. They did a Gregory and the Hawk cover, and just loved it. I heard that, and asked her to sing with me. I wrote the song, showed it to her via the internet, she recorded the tracks, e-mailed them to me, we plugged them in and put them on the record. I wish that we could have flown her in, but doing it all in three days didn’t leave much time for anything. She is phenomenal though.
You keep saying that you had three days in the studio, was that planned?
Hulsey: No, we thought that we were going to have a little more than a week to sit there and work through all of the songs. You know, I had a bunch of songs that never made it on the record.
Will the songs surface on the next album?
Hulsey: No. My thing with songwriting is that I just wanted to capture a certain time period. There were probably ten or fifteen songs that we didn’t even go through, because of the time constraints. They could have been alright, but they’re not, nobody will ever hear them, but that’s the way it goes I guess.
So you are going to start recording for the next record in a couple of months, are you writing for that right now?
Hulsey: Yeah, I have been writing on this tour, even though it is really hard to do. We are going to go into the studio to record a bunch of demos in December, then we will go on tour for all of January and February, then we will record it in March and it will be out in April. We will put it out really quick.
Who is that going to be released with?
Hulsey: We are going to release it ourselves independently.
Anyone that you are listening to right now, that you can see coming through in the music you are writing?
Hulsey: I did a tour with a guy named Corey Branan, and he is one of the most phenomenal artists that I have had the privilege of touring with. He turned me on to John Prine, and I have been listening to John Prine non-stop. I will always listen to Randy Newman, forever. On the whole van ride up here, we have been jamming Ray Charles. Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Ryan Adams and just classics. I feel bad, I don’t know much new music because I grew up on my dad’s records and they have always stuck. Anything old. I listen to a lot of Willy Nelson, The Highway Men, Johnny Cash, all of it.
What is next for you after the tour?
Hulsey: After the tour I am going to drive home, play a wedding, and then go into my house and not come out of my house for a solid month. I am going to write, record, and sleep.