In the current overstuffed yet fertile indie underground, it’s become the easier than ever for musicians to gain fame within the realm without having to undergo the necessary work of many musical forefathers. What this does is take an endless slew of bands that are hyped up for a few months, then end up being quickly forgotten about because they lack a certain key intensity, which is unique to bands who have had time to develop a truly organic sound. There is an industry paradigm which allows anyone with music, a laptop and the connections with the right people access to the finicky world of musical success, where bands are just knocked around with no real thought put into to their legitimate merit.
That was never an option for Atlanta natives, the Carnivores. Originally coming together over the course of two years through merely being friends at Georgia State, guitarist Nathaniel Higgins, keyboardist Caitlin Lang, bassist Philip Frobos and their later joining drummer Ross Politi began crafting a special style of sound—a means of emotional maturity in the face of a music scene bred by being cool. Carnivores lead the sadly near-extinct niche of genuine, hard-working rock bands whose only plan for success is a rigorous touring schedule coupled with an earnest desire to make music, simply because it feels good.
Over those two years, the band’s sound evolved into a chaotic but refined machine which effortlessly explores the harsh and expansive sincerity of The Pixies, filtered through the easy and atmospheric sway of ‘60s surf rock. With a fan base built upon friendship instead of hype, the Carnivores appear to finally be receiving the precious attention they deserve with steadily increasing buzz from major outlets such as Pitchfork and The New York Times, who have championed tracks from their upcoming debut full-length, If I’m Ancient. The band talked with The Signal about their sound, the album and Atlanta’s thriving music scene.
When you guys first started out, did you have a definite sound in mind, or did it just kind of happen?
Caitlin: I think that it just kind of happened. I think in our song writing process, Philip, Nathaniel and Ross, they made demos and we all kind of contribute[d] to that. And I don’t think that we really go for a specific sound. It even is the case where we want to get away from a certain type of sound. So we want to be more creative and not focus on what’s easy to us and challenge ourselves and our songwriting.
When you approached ‘If I’m Ancient,’ did you approach it trying to sound like anything in particular?
Caitlin: “I don’t think so, like I said I think that a lot of people have said that we sound tropicalia, on the first album. I think that more so than trying to sound like something, we were trying to say, ‘Well, let’s do something new.’ But we didn’t necessarily know what that new was.
Ross: “We trying to sound more cohesive on Ancient as well.”
What’s it like being a newer band that’s pushed through the whole cycle of the internet, different newspapers and things like that?
Caitlin: “We’re a little old school in the way we think music works. We put [in] a lot of hard work to be where we are right now. Whereas because of the internet, you see a lot of bands jump that hard work very quickly. Because of the blog world, it’s not that that isn’t great, but I think at the same time we really appreciate where we are. And almost some of those bands that have.
Nathaniel: “It’s like they’ve cheated. It’s been like that forever though, some bands play one show and they get signed.”
A lot of bands entirely skip that step where a demo tape can be thrown around and they can blow up without that hard work.
Nathaniel: “I feel like they will pay the price for that later.”
Caitlin: “I don’t think they’ll have the same kind of longevity.”
How do you feel Atlanta is as a music scene?
Philip: “I think it’s more friendly then it’s been the last five years. Everybody knows each other, there’s no division despite genre differences. Everyone works together pretty nicely.”
Nathaniel: “I think everyone knows that Deerhunter and the Black Lips did it because they toured a lot and worked hard. They have achieved that. It’s like ‘hey, maybe we could do that too even though we’re so far away from New York’.
If you were to describe If I’m Ancient to someone who’s never heard you guys before, how would you describe it?
Philip: “It’s a hard question, It has a wide variety of sounds and styles yet it all works cohesively as an album.”
Nathaniel: “Listen to it start to finish.”
Ross: “A lot of what we had before, plus a lot more.”
Caitlin: “At the heart, they’re just really good pop songs.”
