Will Toledo, who launched Car Seat Headrest as a teenage solo project before recently adding members, has seen his profile rise exponentially with the release of “Teens of Style,” a compilation of material culled from his various solo efforts and reworked for a full band.
He’s received glowing reviews from Pitchfork and Rolling Stone and has been written about in the New York Times. Heck, he even has his own Wikipedia page now, though, to be fair, that one did require a bit of prodding.
On Nov. 2, the musician posted a simple question to his Twitter feed, writing, ‘”why do I have a subreddit but not a wikipedia page”? By the time RedEye reached the lo-fi rocker by phone at his home in Kirkland, Wash., a week later, the question had already been put to bed.
“[The Wikipedia page] should be up now; I saw it the other day,” said a laughing Toledo, 23, who started recording and posting albums free to Bandcamp as Car Seat Headrest at 18. “I was not involved other than mentioning [on Twitter] that I would like one. I would have felt weird contributing to the actual creation of it. It seems like that shouldn’t be up to me.”
It must feel like a weird sort of power to float that kind of request into the world and have it come to fruition in a matter of days.
I think it was overdue. I’ve seen a lot of bands that have Wikipedia pages, and it seems like it was time. But, yeah, it felt good. The entry is still kind of rough … but I’m sure it’ll get smoothed out eventually.
What’s the last Wikipedia page you visited?
I think it might have been the page for Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream.” I just finished reading this book called “The Song Machine” [by John Seabrook]. It’s about pop music pretty much up through the present day. I’ve been pretty much out of the loop on it my whole life, but I like hearing it with the context and recognizing the amount of work that goes into it. The pop production process is extremely involved; there’s like six people just writing the song, and then it takes forever to get made.
You’ve asked media outlets to not link to the older albums posted on Bandcamp. Why’d you opt to keep them up yourself?
I didn’t want that to be the immediate go-to for people. In a couple early articles, that was one of the first things linked to, and I felt like that was sort of misleading as to where I’m at now with the art. It’d be like asking, “Have you heard of this band Radiohead?” and then linking to “Pablo Honey.” I like to think I’ve come a long way since then. But I keep it up because it’s part of the catalog. I’m not going to disown it.
“Teens of Style” is a compilation. Was it difficult to try and boil your catalog down to that single introductory disc?
I guess I enjoyed the challenge. I grew up on compilation albums, so there was an appeal to trying to mine out the best material and make something coherent. There’s always a personal thread going through [the music] that helps keep it together.
Was it a challenge dealing with the pressure or sense of expectation that comes with signing to a label like Matador?
Well, there’s certainly been more pressure, but I’ve tried to operate the way I always have. For “Teens of Style,” it was easier being here in Kirkland, sort of on the opposite side of the country from the Matador headquarters and just being able to record in the same environment I’d been working in. Then we did a second album this year [“Teens of Denial,” due in early 2016], and that was in the studio. But even that was a low-pressure environment because it was a small studio and it was pretty laid-back.
Did you worry that recording in a proper studio, you’d lose some of those elements that made your music unique?
Yeah, beforehand I was. There was some pressure from Matador to [record in a studio], and at first I was hesitant. But after “Teens of Style,” I knew I wanted to do something different because it did end up being sort of difficult to make. There was some pressure from Matador to get it mixed a little cleaner than it was, and I wasn’t entirely happy with how it was sounding up until the final round of mixing we did. I knew going into the next one I would want a different environment and a more professional setup that could help me with it. It’s definitely a different sound, but I like it, and I don’t think it sacrifices anything—especially since the songs are geared more toward that pop format. They ask for clarity, so I needed to give them that.
Considering the band name, I was wondering if you passed your driver’s test on the first go-round?
No. It actually took me two times. The first time I was at a red light and was turning right, and there was a car going the opposite way turning left, so the instructor had to use the brake on her side of the car, [and] I automatically failed.
Did you know right at that instant you were done?
No. She actually said, “I’ll let you finish the test anyway,” but then she changed her mind and told me to stop. That was not my finest hour.
Andy Downing is a RedEye contributor. @andydowning33
Car Seat Headrest, 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 29 at Schubas. $12.
