Christian Carl grew up in a small industrial town in Indiana. In 4th grade his parents made him choose between playing trumpet in the school band and participating in sports. Christian quit the band, but grew to regret it several years later. So he finally bought an electric guitar, an acoustic guitar, a bass guitar, a keyboard, a couple of synthesizers, an 8-track, some guitar pedals, and a drum machine, locked himself in his spare bedroom, and started on what would be a 4-year process to find a sound he could call his own. The artist played everything by ear, tapping into his 4th grade level music knowledge for all it was worth. Working on his songs from around 11pm almost every night until the birds started singing in the morning, Christian got lost in his work and found at the same time.
All sounds were recorded directly into his 8-track, and heard only by the artist himself in the middle of the suburban night through his stereo headphones. The spare, sleepy tracks he dreamt up mirrored a process that was equally so. His efforts eventually led him to Mark Ray who thought his music was a good fit for the Undertow label. Of the almost two dozen songs Christian had created, 11 songs were chosen for his debut bedroom opus titled “Heavy Rock”.
The influences on this record hearken back to his summer job in high school when he had a love for The Smiths and a mullet like Johnny Marr. He spent 8 hours a day listening to his portable cassette player while washing used motor homes on the sales lot his dad managed. He recalls an entire summer of listening to nothing but “Treasure” by The Cocteau Twins. Another summer filled with the songs from “Still” by Joy Division. (To this day he still has the original box set, both cassettes still making the rotation in his car.) And yet another summer passing the time to the lamenting of Morrissey on his favorite record of all time, “The Queen is Dead”
There are many other influences on this record too numerous to mention, but these stand out in his mind as his most memorable escape from the realities of a less than idyllic childhood in a less than inspiring town. Listen and you will get the sense that music and escape are inextricably linked in his work, not only in the literal sense that Christian escaped through the actual act of making his music, but that most of his music is about some form of escape, whether he’s roaming the countryside, rocketing to the moon, sinking to the depths of the ocean, dancing at a live rock show, creating imaginary lands, getting lost in someone else, or simply running as far away as he can from love itself.
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