Based in the capital city of Richmond, Virginia, Carbon Leaf has been exhibiting a blend of indie rock, country, folk, bluegrass, and Celtic styles ever since they started out in the nearby campus of Randolph-Macon College during the early ‘90s. Over the years, lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Barry Privett, fellow multi-instrumentalist Carter Gravatt and guitarist Terry Clark have been the original creative core of the band with the rhythm section currently consisting of bassist Jon Markel and drummer and percussionist Jesse Humphrey.
Through having a DIY approach while consistently touring and having their 2004 hit “Life Less Ordinary” reaching various charts, this quintet has amassed a dedicated fan base. Music enthusiasts in Derry and the surrounding areas will get to see these guys exhibit their craft at Tupelo Music Hall on December 6. The show starts at 8 p.m. and it promises to be a great way to spend a Saturday night.
Privett and I had a talk ahead of the performance about Carbon Leaf’s latest full-length, looking forward to returning to Tupelo, and plans for new music when 2026 arrives.
Rob Duguay: In September of last year, you guys released your first studio album of original material in over a decade with “Time Is The Playground,” so what was the experience like making it? Did it feel like a culmination of a ten-year period for the band in a sense?
Barry Privett: It’s our first full-length record in 10 years, but we were very active with recording. We did three re-records on some old albums to get them off the old record label, so we owned our own masters and projects. We did that, and then we did two five-song albums as well along with a live concert film, so we were busy with things, just not the standard old school 12-song album. It was nice to put another theme together and use the pandemic to kind of reflect on the passage of time for a brief moment in the timeline, and that’s how “Time Is The Playground” was born. We were pulling from some old demo material that I had started working lyrics to over the years, but for one reason or another, we shelved it because I couldn’t find my way in or out of it to my liking.
I then committed to finishing those, along with a handful of fresh material the guys had forwarded me, so it’s this mixed bag of contemplating this weird time we were crawling out of with the pandemic . It felt good to get back to a longform take on songwriting.
RD: That’s very cool. The music video for the song “You and Me” off of the album is a one-shot with you singing the lyrics with a fluorescent blue triangle behind you. Where exactly was this video shot at? Do you have a blue triangle in your house and you set yourself up in front of it with a camera yourself, or did you work with a director on it?
BP: Everything gets so compressed where we’re doing everything ourselves and we’re recording in our own studio. We were getting ready for our fall tour, we were pressing records, and we were like,”Man, we gotta make a video really quick.” (laughs) We actually shot a fancier video before that, which still needed a lot of editing because we had 8 hours of footage for songs, so we just got a camera and locked down with me lip singing to see what would happen. We threw up a light sheet in our studio, which is right in front of our drum kit, and we had made a large, glowing triangle as a prop for the other video that has yet to be released. We were like, ”Let’s just put this here, I’ll get in front of it, we’ll film it, I’ll lip sing and let’s see what happens,” and it turned out pretty good.”
RD: I thought it was pretty cool while watching it. “Time Is The Playground” was also released via your own label at Constant Ivy Records, so when it comes to having this DIY approach, what is the most rewarding part about independently releasing an album and what is the most strenuous part?
BP: It’s kind of both with having the freedom to be on your own timeline. It can be liberating, but it can also be tough because you’re in charge no matter what, so if you decide that you want to rush it through, that’s your decision and it’s on you. If you decide that the record needs more time, and if you push all of your timelines back accordingly, then it’s going to have repercussions. This was a fan-funded album through Kickstarter where we made all of these offers that people could buy into, and we thought the record was going to be out in a year, but because of the pandemic, the ripple effect of cancelling all of our shows two or three times over and rescheduling, by the time we got to writing, we were already two to three years in. The album didn’t come out for four years, so that was a test on people’s patience, and also ours.
The lesson learned from past albums is you should make a deadline and you should ship it out, but if something is up and it’s not right yet, you have to have the wisdom to know the difference with whether you’re going to forge ahead or step back. Like I said, we’re kind of doing everything ourselves with the writing, recording, producing, mixing and packaging, so everything happens in pretty linear fashion. It’s a little frustrating sometimes to work in that assembly line approach as opposed to things happening more parallel, but at the same time, there’s no noise from people on the outside.
RD: What are your thoughts on coming up to New Hampshire with Carbon Leaf to perform at Tupelo Music Hall?
BP: I love it. We come up to New England three times across November and December so we can capitalize on the weekends while hitting Boston or Portland or Burlington. We’ve been coming to Derry for a long time now, the old Tupelo Music Hall, which was in Londonderry, was always a fun highlight. The fans were always amazing and when they built the new one in Derry, it’s this incredible state-of-the-art performance space. There’s just a good vibe and it’s something we look forward to as we get into the end of our tour cycle for the year.
It’s a nice, relaxing time to come out for a holiday show. The audience gets into the holiday spirit while dressing up and stuff like that.
RD: It’s always a good time for people to go out and enjoy themselves. You guys have been consistent with your output of records since you started out in the ’90s, so to follow up “Time Is The Playground,” can we expect a new album or EP at some point next year?
BP: I’m starting to subconsciously think about it, and I think once we get through this month of shows and we get out of the holidays a little bit, I’ll think more about that. I’ll start looking at some demos that we have to consider, then I’ll start hitting the guys up for ideas for me to write lyrics to, and I’ll begin that process during the wintertime. I can usually get pretty focused during the end of December into January and February, that’s my time to hunker down, so I look forward to it and being able to do that, but now, I’m not quite sure which direction we’re going to go in.