After sitting on the album through much of the pandemic, San Francisco band, Carpool Tunnel releases their first full album, Bloom. This eleven track album is a full-bodied Carpool Tunnel experience, swelling with their quintessential psychedelic-pop sound, mixed with notes of blues and classic rock.ย In an interview with guitarist, Brad Kearsley, he tells us about Bloomโs production, their recent signing to Pure Noise Records, and whatโs next for the band. Here are highlights from the interview. Which tracks on the album did you feel most passionate about during the writing process? The first one that comes to mind is, Nostalgia. Itโs a song that weโve had for a long time. When we play it live, it begins with this big instrumental guitar solo type thing and it goes super high. The whole point of the song is that it goes up and down, it changes. The original had a solo in the beginning. When it came to recording the album, we were like, well it doesnโt make sense to start it like that, thatโs a live thing. We changed it up a bit to just start with Benโs vocals. Weโre super happy with how it came out. We were also worried because thereโs so many tempo changes. Between the verse and the chorus, the first verse and the second verse are different tempos, the chorus is a different tempo. So thereโs a lot to change and we were worried about actually getting that done and actually recording that, and we did. It ended up being super great. I really like blues music and blues guitar, so I got to play a blues solo which was super fun. If that was your favorite track while recording, has that changed?ย I think Tarot Cards came out way better than expectedโ not even than expected, but we were just so stoked with how it came out. That was one of our favorite songs too. It just came together. Going into the studio, it was super messy. The song wasnโt totally finished, the verses werenโt the same; we had this bridge. We did preproduction and basically the producer was like, well, youโve got a different song as your bridge, try to make something more cohesive. So we went back and worked on that song, so turning it out and hearing how it came out at the end of that recording, it was incredible. I think that was probably the biggest pleasant surprise. What was it like to come up with the concept for the โDreaming Stillโ video?ย We knew that we wanted to do something really fun. As with all of our videos, we knew we wanted to show off San Francisco. Thereโs not too many bands out here so we wanted to show it off. We were coming up with a bunch of ways to do that. With โFlora,โ we ran around the whole city, showing our favorite spots through the Sunset and stuff, so that was fun. With โDreaming Still,โ we knew that we really like the song and it was a joke, we were like, what if we spoofed the Full House intro. And then we were like, well thatโd be perfect because we could do the side-by-side comparison on Tik Tokโwe literally made the video for Tik Tok. We were like, thatโs perfect, we have to do that. Then it came to breaking down every scene. I went and screen shot every scene that was in the intro and there were something like sixty-four of them. I had to get costumes ready, planned out through my vintage shop. I had to pick whoโs going to be who. And Michael had to be like, okay, how am I going to shoot this? We had to find locations that were similar enough or were exactly the same place. It was a huge project and it really took up all of January. It was so cool and we had such a great time. Shooting the bridge is like a $10,000 permit, if you do it legally. Carpool Tunnel, via Instagram @carpooltunnelband Thatโs what I thought when I was watching it, I was like, I donโt think youโre allowed to fly drones around the bridge.ย Haha, I mean, I didnโt. I was driving.ย It wasnโt me. But we got the footage. For legal reasons, it wasnโt us. We got it from stock footage. So we were like super sketched about that. We went at like 7am to make sure no one was there and it wouldnโt be too much of a problem. Michael has this little small drone, so it wouldnโt be too loud or too big. We just managed to get it done. It was a really fun shoot. Weโre super glad with how it turned out. In general, what was it like producing this album during this time? We luckily recorded it before the pandemic happened, so that didnโt ruin the experience of recording it. But putting it out was definitely super weird. We actually first got in contact with our record label, Pure Noise, with this record in February of 2021. We were talking about deal offers and deal memos, when COVID-19 hit and we were like, oh shit, are they still going to be interested with everything shutting down and losing money, blah blah blah. Luckily, they still were down. That process took a bit of time to adjust accordingly, and then finally signing and putting out the record, or choosing when to put out the record. At the time when we chose, I think it was around July or August of 2020, so November was too soon and we were worried about the election. So we thought, maybe February would be good by then. So we just locked it in blindly, but we didnโt want to sit on it for much longer. It was really interesting. Weโre really used to putting out an EP and following it with something. Putting out an album, we were expecting to follow with a big tour. It was really weird to basically just press a button and it was out in the world. It felt like we just threw it into the void. You know, we did what we could. Weโre just excited to go play shows and tour. I understand that feeling. It feels very anticlimactic.ย For real, a year of just planning, just to be like, โCool. Nothing has changed.โ On that note, how do you feel the reactions to the album have been? Itโs been wonderful. People are constantly posting their vinyls, tagging us. We got to do so many interviews and so many cool things with the album. We just want to play live, you know. How did this album feel in comparison to past releases? Well, this is our first official album. Itโs the first music project in my whole career and life that Iโve been 100% proud of and would be confident in showing anyone and beinglike, this is what my band created. Versus being like, yeah, you know, itโs whatever. No, Iโm like, fucking listen to this. Iโm super proud of this. So, that has been a great feeling because Iโve played in like five or six bands and done a lot of stuff. I have it on a piece of wax thatโs going to be in my life forever. Itโs really cool. Listening on Spotify, this album feels really high quality. Is that from being involved with Pure Noise? We went to a studio for the first time. Pretty much everything before Bloom, I recorded in our house. Iโm very proud of what we were able to get done for those, but at the same time, going to a professional studio and getting it mixed and mastered professionally, thatโs something weโve never done. It was definitely a higher level caliber, but That was before Pure Noise was involved. We had the album completely done before we had Pure Noise. Carpool Tunnelโs Bloom, via Instagram @carpooltunnelband What has it been like getting involved with Pure Noise? Itโs been super cool. I grew up listening to so many of the bands on their roster. At the same time, weโre not really in the same genre as a lot of those bands, but theyโve been influences for both Dani and I in our music. Signing to them was surreal as hell. Seeing our faces on their website was super cool. Theyโve been nothing but completely helpful. If we have any ideas, theyโre there to make those ideas a reality. They’ve connected us with our team. Itโs been a wonderful experience all around. Iโm just very grateful for it. Which song on Bloom are you most excited to play live? I think Tarot Cards. We played it a few times before putting it out and the second verse has this break where we would always get the audience. It has this build up then just goes silent. You were able to play this live before the pandemic? Yeah. We would always fool the audience. They would get ready for the chorus and start jumping, and then it would just go completely silent. But now that people know the song, I have a feeling theyโll know itโs coming and so maybe weโll see half of the crowd get fooled. Iโm looking forward to playing that one live. Whatโs next for you guys? I think what people will see next will, hopefully, be a tour in the fall. If not, some shows. Maybe weโll book some things. I donโt know. So thatโs exciting. And then weโre working on our next album. Weโre very excited about it. So hopefully weโll be going to the studio sometime. Thatโll be interesting and fun. So yeah, basically new music and tours. Article by Natalie Gott.ย Share this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Currently you have JavaScript disabled. In order to post comments, please make sure JavaScript and Cookies are enabled, and reload the page. Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your browser. Δ