Will Toledo rocks the indie scene
Car Seat Headrest singer went from recording in minivan to playing music’s biggest stages
There’s a certain vulnerability in leaving the remnants of one’s evolution out in the open to be rediscovered and consumed, but for Will Toledo, who records with his band Car Seat Headrest, that early music is also a testament to the distance he’s travelled almost entirely on his own.
“That’s where I started out, and I wouldn’t want to get rid of it. Starting over, I don’t like the idea of that, because I’ve already come so far,” the 24-year-old says. “But I’ve had a lot of people call Teens of Denial our debut album, so for some, that’s going to be where the story starts.”
It’s true that 2016’s Teens of Denial served as Toledo’s introduction to the vast majority of his increasingly larger audience. Over the course of the past year, the album’s steady success has turned Toledo into a rare rock ’n’ roll breakout star — from just another anonymous kid to frontman of a band drawing thousands of fans at Coachella.
But the true beginnings of Car Seat Headrest actually date to 2010, when Nervous Young Men, Toledo’s original recording moniker, was reborn as Car Seat Headrest. As Toledo’s music became progressively sophisticated, it maintained its raw vitality, and the guitar-driven crunch at the centre of his sound managed to feel both familiar and fresh.
Midway through Vincent, an eight-minute epic from Teens of Denial, he sings “I find it harder to speak when someone else is listening.”
Within the context of the song, it’s a mildly ironic lyric about social anxiety, but it also happens to allude to Toledo’s early approach to creating. In search of privacy, he began recording in his parents’ car around Leesburg, Va.
“The struggle for me trying to make music was wanting to do it on my own terms and not feeling like I was being watched while I did it,” he recalls. “It’s one thing to show a finished product to somebody, but it’s another thing to have people listening in while I’m making it. It messes with my head space, so I was trying to get away from that.”
Alone in a 2002 Toyota Sienna, with just his laptop and microphone, Toledo created his own lofi, retro-style rock, which resulted in a whopping 11 albums he selfreleased on the music streaming website Bandcamp.
Teens of Denial was written during that often-uncomfortable period between college and “real” adulthood, and the songs speak to the anxieties of that transition. They are also lightened by dark comedic moments, along with thrilling guitar riffs, Toledo’s catchiest hooks to date, and his baritone speak-sing that can also surge to a cathartic yelp.
Toledo says he “lucked out” in terms of the timing of his deal with Matador. He was looking to elevate his craft and make something he could call a landmark album in his catalogue, and a label could provide him the resources to do so. “I was always just trying to make that happen. I didn’t have any connections or any way other than the music,” Toledo says. “I was making music for myself and because I wanted to do it, but (getting the recognition) seemed important because to be able to do it for a living, you need to have some measure of success.”
And now Toledo has been widely hailed as a quintessential indie triumph story and hero. “I think the main thing for me is not having to worry what I’m going to do for money. As far as social and financial success, I feel like the pressure is off at this point, and that’s exactly what I was hoping for. It’s better than I expected,” he admits.
“It’s more image stuff that I have to be wary about,” he says. “Before, I would never have album covers out with my face. I like the idea of visuals, but I like the idea of them being separate. It’s just about not wanting it to feel like I’m running a brand that I don’t want to, and if we do have to be a brand, I’d like control over what the image of the brand is.”
Later he adds: “I was concerned about touring just because it seems like a hard lifestyle — and it is. It’s getting harder, I think, rather than easier. But the shows themselves get easier, and that’s the important part. I want to get to the point where I can feel comfortable onstage.”