Carrousel
Los Angeles band Carrousel released their new EP I Wasn’t Well on January 23rd.
The 4-track project touches on depression, anxiety, technology, isolation, modernity, exile and New York. The project includes the previous singles ‘A Solitary Soul’ and ‘Psychobabble Drama’ released in 2019.
The duo is now revealing the visuals for “Psychobabble Drama”. Directed by Dylan Playfair, the music video was shot in a warehouse and includes footage from Dracula.
With this project, Sharon and Joel Piedt want their audience to feel hope and know that no one is ever alone.
I Wasn’t Well will be followed by a full-length album titled Magnificent Desolation which will be released in April.
Carrousel will also be holding a February residency at The Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles. Get your tickets below:
2/7 - The Hotel Cafe
2/14 - The Hotel Cafe
2/21 - The Hotel Cafe
2/28 - The Hotel Cafe
I Wasn’t Well is now available worldwide.
Photo credit: Bliss Katherine
Introduce the band. What's your story?
Joel: Carrousel began as personal creative outlet for me back in 2009, and I’ve been making records under the name ever since. But it wasn’t really until now that we’ve gone fully public with it, putting a live band together, the whole bit. So in a way it feels like the beginning even though I’ve been at it for awhile.
Sharon: I came into the picture in 2014 when we met at a recording studio we both worked at. Joel asked me to be part of the project, then we got married and moved to LA a few months later. It was a pretty wild ride. Still is!
How would you define Carrousel, the band?
Sharon: At its core, I think of it as a family. Quite literally, as it’s Sharon and Joel Piedt. But more than that, we are interested in building something we can continue doing sustainably for the rest of our lives. Our 2 kids come to our band practices and run around while we are recording and it’s just all part of it. Beyond our immediate family, we’re surrounded by some of our closest friends who play along side us. We are blessed beyond imagination with the beautiful people who make up our live band and management team.
Joel: And then one layer beyond that there’s this rotating cast of characters that might shift project to project. Session musicians, engineers, co-writers. There’s a continual sense of discovery, surprise that comes working this way. We are continually becoming. It allows us to shape shift and become anything we want musically.
You recently dropped your first EP I Wasn't Well. Could you describe us the songwriting/production process? Who helped you create the project?
Joel: I began working on some of these songs as early as 2012. When Sharon and I met in 2014, we had a few different creative irons in the fire. I was quite excited to begin work on this project though as I had been tinkering with it for years. We began work on it in 2016 and just finished it a few weeks ago. 3 and a half years! The result is an album called Magnificent Desolation which we’ll be releasing in April. I Wasn’t Well is a bit of a sampler of that record to give people a taste of what’s to come.
Sharon: We worked with a star-studded cast of musicians and engineers. Just the most wonderful and talented people. Dale Becker, Tony Hoffer, Jeremy Kahng, Daniel Aguilar, Emma Fowler, Chris Thigpen, so many others. We recorded the foundational musical elements (drums, bass, and vocals) at East West in Hollywood. The strings were tracked at Abbey Road in London.
Joel: An aside, when we began writing these songs in 2016 we were living in Hollywood right down the street from East West, which used to be Western Studios. This is where some of our favorite records were made; most notably, Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys. We had to pass the studio every day, even just walking to to store to get groceries. And every time we did I would put my hand on the wall and say “we are going to record a brilliant record here one day!” Well we moved to Pasadena where we began producing out the songs we had written in Hollywood. This is the Loft you see on the cover of the EP. After we had spent years building the world of sounds, it came time for us to go back and re-record bass, drums and vocals. This, of course, we did at East West, literally right down the street from where all the songs were written! How we got the finances to be able to record there was miraculous and a story in its own right.
Any favorite memories from the making of this EP?
Joel: There was a moment that we were recording our vocals at East West in Hollywood. We were recording the track “I Wasn’t Well,” and were in a large vocal booth separated by a glass wall. At the end of the song, Sharon sings the line “And all this time I never knew I wasn’t well.” Now, you have to understand I wrote these songs about a period of intense depression in my life. This was not Sharon’s experience, nor were these her words. Yet when she sings them, she sings with such conviction it’s as if the story were her own. I looked over to her while she was singing that line and tears were streaming down her face. I was incredibly moved in that moment. Here, my best friend had so entered my journey and embraced it as her own. I wasn’t alone.
Sharon: This is what we want our music to be for people.
What did you feel when writing the song "I Wasn't Well"?
Joel: I just wanted to be seen as I really was. I felt like I had spent my whole life with this giant mask trying to justify my existence to the world: I was important, brilliant, talented, etc. It was quite freeing to say in effect, No one knew this whole time I wasn’t ok, not even me. It’s hard to express the sense of liberation that came from writing and singing that.
What can you tell us about the music video for "Psychobabble Drama"? What was the inspiration?
Joel: We met a fantastic guy named Dylan Playfair through our mutual friend, and Dylan expressed interest in making a video with us. We had plans for another video for Psychobabble Drama, but Dylan came back with a treatment that we really loved. The idea was to integrate footage from Dracula with us as we were playing. On the walls, on our instruments and faces, so that we're totally immersed in it. We all got together in a warehouse and shot through the night. It was a blast, and we're pretty excited about how everything came out. As a side note, literally the moment we first began shooting around midnight, there was a small earthquake, the epicenter of which was about 1.5 miles from us! It was a little spooky.
What message do you want to convey through this EP?
Sharon: We want people to feel hope, to know that they are loved and not alone.
What lessons did you learn after finishing the project?
Sharon: This album felt like this impossible task when we first began work on it back in 2016. The vision was just colossal. I think in finishing it, we have this sense of we can do anything if we just keep working a day at a time and keep loving each other. There were countless moments where one of us wanted to quit, but the other would hold them up. We have 2 children and were living far below the poverty line making this album, but we figured it out and made it to the finish line without ever missing a meal. Honestly I look back and don’t know how it happened.
Joel: Love and hard work!
What can you tell us about the artwork?
Sharon: That photo was taken in our loft where we recorded the bulk of the album! Our friend Bliss Katherine is a brilliant photographer and came over one day while we were working and captured some wonderful moments.
Why is it taboo to talk about mental health in today's society?
Joel: I think because people feel they are the only ones who feel the way they do. And if they are convinced of that, then they are shamed into silence. It was quite liberating for me to speak of my journey in such a candid manner, and I’ve found it’s allowed others to freely speak of theirs. We empower one another through our shared stories.
What advice would you give to anyone going through depression?
Joel: Don’t hide. Be with people and be honest. You are loved more than you can possibly imagine. Find things that are life-giving and keep at them, even if they don’t feel life-giving anymore. What has become gray will become color again in time.
As human beings, what do you want to accomplish?
Sharon: We want to build a beautiful family and a thriving community. We want to tend to the garden of our lives as they are the most beautiful work of art we can offer the world. We want to be like a giant tree, full of stories and wisdom that provides shade, fruit and sustenance for the community around us. Our music is just one of the branches.
In your opinion, what would make the world a better place?
Joel: It’s no secret we live in a wildly polarized nation and world. Empathy is severely lacking right now. We need to experience what it’s like for other humans. Whether it’s experiencing another culture of some sort, reading or listening to things outside our taste preference, or just listening to another’s perspective. I believe we have a lot more in common than we realize, and there are forces at work to divide us from our brothers and sisters. We must choose compassion. We are each of us made in the image of God and until we can recognize and honor that in the other, we are doing ourselves the overwhelming disservice of ignoring the brilliance and beauty around us.
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