On Saturday, November 5, I headed downtown to the Riviera to check out Never Shout Never’s Time Travel Tour. While I was there, I got the chance to talk to show opener, and one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met, Carter Hulsey.
Carter recently released What You Carry, an incredible six song EP that seamlessly blends Country, Rock, Folk, and Pop into something you’ll definitely want to get your hands on. You can pick up What You Carry on vinyl with a digital download card for only $10.00 from Carter’s online store.
Having just finished his second to last set on a 34 show tour with Never Shout Never, Plain White T’s, Rocket to the Moon, and Fake Problems, Carter Hulsey seemed to be feeling pretty good as we sat down to talk about vinyl, growing up, and his newest record.
What’s one vinyl record that you think everyone should have in their collection?
That’s such a tough one. I would probably say that everyone should own Folsom Prison. Just because everything that Cash was doing, like going into the prison system and playing, was historic. Then to find that record at a thrift store for $4, put it on your table, put the needle to it, and then listen to it; it’s not only history, but it’s just great music.
I’m trying to think of something that I spin daily, that’s newer. There’s this band called the Lawrence Arms, from Chicago. When I was in high school, they put out a record called The Greatest Story Ever Told. That’s one of my favorite albums of all time, it changed my life.
You’ve got a great folksy sound to your music, which carries a lot of nostalgia with it. Do you find a lot of your inspiration in older musicians?
When you’re a kid, you grow up listening to your parents music. I’m so thankful that my parents listened to great music and to the kind of music that they did. I like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, but that wasn’t the kind of stuff that they listened to.
My dad listened to older country. When he was in high school, Willie Nelson came out with Red Headed Stranger, and there was this line—either you are going to like County music, or you’re going to like Rock and Roll. My dad went the country route, so that’s what we listened to as kids. My mom was very big into Elton John, Billy Joel, and Van Morrison, so that’s the kind of stuff that I grew up listening to.
My earliest memories involve music. I remember as a kid playing poker with dad, him teaching me, and we were listening to Jerry Jeff Walker—Great Gonzos. I’ll never forget that record, it’ll always mean something to me. I grew up with the music that I still love today.
As you grow up, you go into school, and you find out that some other kids grew up with different stuff, and they’re into different music. Then you, as a kid, have to figure out what you like, what your music is going to be, and you have to defend that. I grew up with a family that loved music; my dad had a record player, and we had a jukebox downstairs. Music was always a big part of me growing up, and I’ve just always respected it for what it is.
I think that your music lends itself perfectly to being pressed to vinyl. Have you always known that you would want to release on vinyl?
When I first started playing music it was: take a cute picture of yourself, put it on Myspace, and not a lot matters other than that. I started putting out music when I was probably 15 or 16, and I’m 23 now. So 7 years later, when we play a show, kids will know one song off the record, and it was because all of our stuff was digital; it was on iTunes.
iTunes kind of has that “one-song” mentality.
Right, so I just wanted to put out something that you had to listen to. For me, when I get out a LP, it’s so personal. You take it out, and you’re holding a record. You put it on your turntable; you bring the needle over to it. You don’t just download it on your phone. You have to have a connection with this record to play it.
Even the record player itself becomes something that you can love, and something that you want to know about, you want to get it just right. You put all of that into your record player, and then you want to put on a record and you want to hear it just how you’ve set up your player to listen to it.
I wanted to put out something that was more of an experience; that people didn’t just buy a song on iTunes.
Being your first collaborative record, did the process on What You Carry change your relationship with the record and the music at all – did it make it any less personal?
I’m in a band with that most talented people and songwriters that I know. Caleb Dennison (with Never Shout Never) and I have always set down and wrote some stuff together. That’s not unusual, we come from such a close-knit group at home, and we are always playing our stuff for each other. Isaac, Thom, Tof, and Caleb, are all great songwriters, so it just made sense. We were going into a nice studio and we could record them right, so that’s what we did.
I know all of my guys well. I know them like I know my family. When Tof says on “Let the Sunlight See Your Face Again” “I’m just like you, I would hide forever if I could,” I know exactly what he’s talking about, and I’ve felt that. It was easy for me to sing it, and have a personal connection with it.
Track Listing:
Black My Lungs
Let the Sunlight See Your Face Again
What You Can’t Have
You Don’t Wanna Hear It
Punchline
Everything Falls Apart
You can catch Carter at a few holiday shows, before he heads back into the studio to record another album, and makes his way to Europe in January.
