Salisbury-based four piece band Carsick head to Bootleg this month with their new EP following the release of new single Put it Down. They chat to Blackpool Social Club ahead of their gig on 18th September.
A band formed over pints in a small English pub in late 2021, Carsick take influence from a range of different artists and genres—from indie rock to post-punk to hip-hop with electronic elements—but their tongue-in-cheek lyrical approach directly tackles the trials and tribulations of life as a young adult, and especially the drinking culture which dominates the band’s demographic.
Made up of Joe Richardson (vocals), Jack Richardson (guitar), Jack Hardiman (bass) and Tom Armstrong (drums), their energetic and unpredictable live shows match that theme: this is music about living for the weekend; about the desperate chaos of small-town nightlife and about forgetting what happened last night.
Tell us about your new single Put it Down.
Put It Down is a breakup song, both from the perspective of the person experiencing the heartbreak and the friend trying to help them through it. All of us in the band have been in both positions at one point or another and we wanted to capture the state of mind a situation like that can put you in, especially if it’s happening to you for the first time. It’s not an accident we’re dropping it in September, either – we want this track to feel like the end of summer.
You also have an EP out, Drunk Hymns.
We do! It’s our debut EP and we were lucky enough to have the legends in Alcopop Records on board. We tried to condense all the different elements of our sound into four tracks as a sort of statement of intent and we’ve been so thrilled by the response so far… but it’s only the beginning.
You’ve had a busy festival season and you’re now heading out on your own headline tour. How are the two touring experiences different and which do you prefer?
It’s so difficult to compare the two because we love both of them so much for different reasons – it’s the intimate, sweaty, DIY feel of doing your own gigs in all the UK’s amazing independent venues versus feeling like a proper band when we get the VIP festival treatment at places like Truck, 2000 Trees, and Boomtown. At the end of the day it all depends on the energy from the crowd and in both settings it always gets pretty rowdy.
With all this touring will any of you get carsick?
Carsick, probably not. Deathly hungover in a van every day? Yes.
Who are your musical influences?
There are some pretty big ones that we’ve had pinned to us a few times and we’re flattered – Jamie T and The Streets probably being the top two. We’ve always said, though, that the band works because of how varied each member’s influences are. We all love punk, hip-hop, and indie, with our own favourite genres really inspiring our individual playing and writing styles.
What inspires your lyrical content?
There’s no better lyrical source than the every day life experiences we have – all the songs we write are real to us and we’ve no doubt pissed a few people off who we’ve written songs about… but if it’s getting us any closer to headlining Glasto then we won’t stop anytime soon.
Are you looking forward to playing Blackpool and is there anything else you’d like to check out while you’re here?
Super excited to play in Blackpool, pretty sure it’s the first time any of us have even been there so looking forward to being proper tourists and seeing all the sights as well as getting stuck into the local music scene. If we were to pick the thing we’re most gassed about it’s probably the Wallace and Gromit Thrill-O-Matic.
Carsick play Bootleg Social on 18th September. Tickets here. Find out what else is happening in Blackpool this month by viewing our listings.
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