Cult indie rock guys Car Seat Headrest have returned from a long creative break with their new album described as an “epic rock opera”, The Scholars, on May 2. Although we are a bit late to the party, we still briefly talked about its story with drummer Andrew Katz on Zoom.
I’ll start off with a fan question: The Scholars sees you also do some main vocals yourself on “Planet Desperation,” which I really enjoyed. Would you consider leaning more onto doing vocals in the future?
Andrew Katz: (laughs) Thanks. I used to do vocals a lot more when we were earlier in our careers. There is even a point in our career where Will and I would swap instruments. He would hop on the drum set and I would get on the guitar and sing leads for a part of a song while he drummed. I think what we realized eventually is I’m not very good at singing. So we started to remove my singing over time. I can get away with it. I can hit some notes and stuff, but I’m not a singer like Ethan and Will are. So I tend to just stick to the drumming. But yeah, I’m glad you enjoy it.
When you think back to the production process of the album, can you pick two tracks, one easiest and one hardest to put together?
For me, “Reality” was quite easy. We did the drum tracking in a couple of different sessions, but I actually got an arm injury very shortly before we started the first session. So I was really worried that I was going to be able to drum very well. Luckily I healed up pretty well before we started recording, because we had the session booked, so we had to be there on that date. I remember talking to Will and being like, “Man, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to record. My arm is still pretty messed up.” We decided that hopefully we’d wait and see if my arm got better and we would start with the more simple, less intense drum song. So we actually first recorded “Reality” under those conditions. There’s no major drum fills or anything big in that song, so I was able to play with an injured arm and record that track. That was the easiest in a certain sense.
The hardest one was probably “Gethsemane” for me personally. I can’t speak for the rest of the band, but the drumming on that track is pretty intense. I was sweating my ass off drumming on those tracks, but we got through it eventually.
As far as the lyrics Will (Toledo) penned for the album, one of the many themes that come up there are dreams. How often do you dream? Do you think you sort of get cryptic symbolism out of your dreams?
(laughs) Yeah, that’s funny. I was just talking about this with my partner. She dreams every night and always wakes up and tells me about her vivid dreams. I actually rarely dream. I think Will dreams a lot, whereas I maybe have a couple dreams a month that I remember. I’m sure I forget a lot of them. But yeah, it’s actually pretty rare for me to have a vivid dream. I know the other members of the band dream a lot, and I know Will’s dreams definitely affect his songwriting.
The promotion process of this album was done through offering puzzles to your audience. I know the album’s narration itself is not super abstract, but are there art pieces you love that present themselves as puzzles, and you get more and more each time you interact with them?
I actually just rewatched the movie The Matrix. I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen that, but that was a 1999 movie with Keanu Reeves and it’s one of those movies where you might not really understand it at first, but I’ve watched it well over 10 times and every time I watch it, I catch something new that was hinting at part of the story that would unfold later and stuff like that. I love that kind of stuff. I love media that requires a rewatch to catch all the little bits. Big Lebowski is another great one. I think the reason why that movie became such a cult classic is because you could watch it so many times and catch so many more little bits that you missed the first time, the second time, or the third time through.
The narrative of The Scholars includes characters that you also expand on through the music videos you released. Is there any idea to further expand on this universe through a full-on TV series or a similar concept?
Oh, like a spinoff? I mean, there’s nothing in the works yet, but yeah, that’d be cool. I love the idea of doing TV spin offs for all things that we create. I don’t know if you’re aware of 1 Trait Danger, the side project that we have. For that, someone actually approached us and was like, “Hey, I’d love to pitch this universe as a TV show for Adult Swim or Cartoon Network. We didn’t have the time to work on it when it was proposed, but I love the idea of doing stuff like that with all of our projects. To answer your question, nothing’s in the works now, but I am open to it, yes.
Is watching music videos a hobby for you still?
I used to love watching MTV when I was a kid. Every morning before school, I would watch some music videos. I don’t really watch TV anymore. So I don’t really keep up with the modern music video trends. But I think through social media. I still see clips and things here and there. I do enjoy that medium. It’s just not quite as popular as it used to be, which is unfortunate, but I do love the music video scene.
Among this album’s many themes, there is religion, wisdom, philosophy, mathematics, all the scholarly things you can imagine, as well as love and connection. I wanna focus on philosophy. Do you have philosophers that you’re a fan of specifically?
Oh, me, no. I’m sure Will does. But me, I’m not that deep. (laughs) I wish I could tell you I’m a big Descartes fan or a big Nietzsche guy or whatever, but I don’t really follow any philosophers. I don’t really follow any religious texts either. All those themes really come from Will’s mind. He’s a much deeper thinker than I.
What about maths though? I think you’re into maths, right?
Oh, yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t say math is like a philosophy. I should say math is more of a science. But yeah, of course. I love science. I think using the scientific method to uncover truth is a really cool tool that humans have invented. And I think it’s done a lot of good for this world. But if you wanted me to unpack the meaning of life, that’s not something I’m prepared to do. (laughs)
On “Planet Desperation”, you sing “Why couldn’t Ziggy come back down again?”, and I wonder, what would you say to David Bowie if he came back again?
I mean, I’m not as big of a fan of Bowie as Ethan is. I think he is a really big Bowie fan. I actually didn’t like the old Bowie. I got introduced really to Bowie through the band. I think it was Will and Ethan who really put me on to Bowie. I like a good amount of the Bowie stuff. But what I would say to him if he and I were in a room, honestly, probably nothing. I’m pretty bad at interacting with famous people. (laughs) We’ve been in rooms with famous people before. I have nothing to say to famous people other than anything I would say to a normal person, like, “Hi, how are you?” I’ve got very few famous people that I’d be like, “Man, I really want to pick their brain right now,” you know, but he’s just such an interesting person.
Who are those few people then?
The band and I were talking about this the other day. We were wondering what famous people would make us nervous if they came to our show, because we found out a famous person was coming to our Los Angeles show, and I was like, “I don’t care,” and they’re like, “Well, who would you care if they came?” I was like, “You know what, honestly, Jack Black from Tenacious D, ’cause I grew up loving the band. There was an old HBO special that they had before they got really famous that I’ve watched like 50 times. It’s so funny. So I would be starstruck by Jack Black. What I would ask him though, is “How did you guys get that HBO show? How did you land that show? Because you were pretty unknown. How did the HBO special come about?” I would love to hear that story.
As a side note, I would like to tell you on behalf of my friends that once you tour internationally again, you have a fan base waiting for you to perform in Turkey.
Yeah, we would love to. I love traveling abroad to play shows. I think it’s really fun and a great way to see more of the world. It’s a great excuse to go out there and check out, ’cause I’ve never been to Turkey. I would love to go. It’s definitely on my list of places that I’d like to see. So I would love to someday. But yeah, we’re just getting back into touring locally. So we’re a ways off from going abroad, but definitely would love to someday.
Can you check your streaming platform listening history and tell me what are the last three things that come up there?
Oh, good question. Let me look.
The last three artists are Mt. Joy, Deftones, and then Wet Leg. The new Deftones single’s really good. I thought it was great.
Let’s imagine we’re at a Musicians Theme Park 100 years from now, where every artist or band featured has their own memorial stone with a certain lyric by them written on it. Which one of the lyrics would you like to see written on Car Seat Headrest’s stone?
Wow, that’s tough. Will has so many good one liners.
I agree. This question might be tough for you guys for that reason.
Many, many great quotable one liners. The first one that pops into mind is “We were wrecks before we crashed into each other.”
Nice.
But I’m trying to think of something more obscure. Maybe “There are lots of fish left in the sea.” I like that one too. I know that sounds corny, but I think it’s a great line that a lot of people can connect with after a breakup, you know?
You can check out Car Seat Headrest’s official site here and Bandcamp profile here.
