An Accidental Evening With Carwash

This past Monday, October 4th, I went down to El Cid, a club in Silver Lake, Los Angeles to see the artist Dreamer Boy’s final performance in his “All Our Dreams Come True Tour.” Before the music started, I decided to wander around the venue and talk to whomever I could find both in an attempt to potentially make friends as well as learn a bit more about the artist. In the far back of the club, there was a group of 20-somethings sitting and laughing together at a lowly lit booth. I introduced myself, they introduced themselves in return. I shortly found out that they were there, not for Dreamer Boy, but for their friend and the opening act of the night, Garret Seamans more commonly known as Carwash.

They told me how he was this incredible up-and-coming indie-rocker with a particular knack for guitar and imagery-based lyricism. They also noted that, in years past, Garret had released music under the name Postcard Boy and that tonight would be only his second live performance under the pseudonym Car Wash. I couldn’t help but be curious to hear what this new kid on the block had to offer.

Suddenly, the house lights started to dim and I had to mosey back to my spot. The second I made it back, a group of four dudes who looked like they came straight from the skate park to the club shuffled on stage carrying a set of Fender guitars and a pair of drumsticks. There was an awkward sort of charm to them - the kind where you could see their nerves but also their excitement and passion.

Then, both the house and stage lights went dark. After a beat or two, I heard someone flick the switch of a guitar amp, triggering an eerie feedback. Slowly, the lead guitarist began a quiet crescendo, oscillating between two semitones, creating this harsh dissonance that forced the hair on the back of my neck to stand on end. The drums kicked in right as the strobe lights began to flash, transporting us all into a newer, more intense world of hard rock. I was completely dumbfounded. This group of seemingly awkward so-cal skater bros were creating some of the most intense, evocative sounds I’d ever heard in a live setting.

This dumbfoundedness persisted all the way through to the end of their set. Carwash and his band continued to play around with different genres and sounds that seemed to single-handedly put the independence back in indie rock.

However, their nerves definitely hindered their showmanship. Although in seeing the immense audience reaction to their music, they grew more comfortable as the show progressed, they never truly lost that nervous awkwardness in their demeanor. There was a stiffness to them that didn’t match the free-flowing and confident power of their sound. With time, I am confident the performance will match the music. But, to be quite honest, I don’t think it needs to. Their introverted presentation added to the charm of the set. These guys didn’t seem to care as much about the look or the theatrics. They were musicians. Their focus was on the music first, just as it should be.

After their set ended, I really had to pee. I rushed to the ladies room but there was already a line out the door. So, I gave up. I sat on a bench outside the bathroom and started to scroll through my phone. About a minute later I looked up in hopes the long line of girls outside the bathroom had magically disappeared. To my surprise, I looked up to find, not a line of girls, but the same four skater boys who had just minutes ago performed one of the best opening sets I’d yet to witness.

I immediately shot up from my seat and headed straight towards Carwash and his band of bros. I asked them if they had time to chat, they said they did. Here’s what we talked about:

[UNPUBLISHED:] So I had never heard of you until tonight, or at least I thought I didn’t until I thought of the third-to-last track. Lorem! You guys just got on the cover right?

[CARWASH:] Oh yeah, yeah, yeah!

[UNPUBLISHED:] That’s so sick! So tell me about yourself? Like where are you from and how’d you get to where you are now?

[CARWASH:] So I’m from San Diego. I moved here (LA) for college and I’ve been making music since, like junior, senior year of high school and I met Dreamer Boy at a show. I was shooting photos like I used to love concert photography so I met him at a show when I was in high school and we’ve been friends since then. So it’s kind of full circle to play with him here. Yeah, he’s just like a good friend now.

[UNPUBLISHED:] You said you go to school out here? Do you study music?

[CARWASH:] Well, to be honest, I’m actually on a leave of absence right now. But I was actually going to school for film. I was doing a bunch of, well I was gonna do concert photography and stuff, but I actually was filming a bunch of music videos and surf videos along with my friends and I was mostly interested in that. I enjoy the environment of school a lot - just meeting new people and just being around strangers that are also just like kids doing their thing. It was inspiring.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Do you think studying film and visual arts and just being in that environment helped influence who you are as an artist today?

[CARWASH:] Yeah! And like I met these guys (Angus and Jackson) because they both went to LMU (Loyola Marymount University) with me so I made music friends even though I was in film. Like Angus (bass) is a film major but he’s also in another band and Jackson (lead guitar) is just another homie too. And Sebastian (Drummer) is actually from San Diego from like my high school days and stuff. So he’s kind of the boy.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Who would you say your major influences are? Like I - your sound that has that really cool “indie” vibe but you’ve definitely got some harder stuff in there.

[CARWASH:] Oh shoot. For the most recent shit, I was listening to a lot of American Pleasure Club. Uhh - I’m trying to think back because I made everything in the heart of last year during quarantine. Alex G for the acoustic stuff for sure. Those are the two that come to mind right off the bat. Definitely American Pleasure Club for the most recent stuff.

[UNPUBLISHED:] I caught I think a group of your friends before the start of the show and they told me that this is only your second time performing as Carwash, right?

[CARWASH:] Yeah we just did the first one. That was like last week or maybe two weeks ago the day that the EP (Soapwater) came out and we just had a show that was all homies so it was really fun.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Tell me a bit about the EP! Like what was the process like making it?

[CARWASH:] Yeah, it was in quarantine, right as it kind of hit I think March of 2020 or whatever. I guess I was just writing a lot of songs about hanging out with friends and special moments of friendship for me. And there were probably like thirty demos. Like a ton of music since I was just living at home with my mom and dad. And then, yeah, I put a collection of like five of them together that just felt right And, yeah, that’s how it came together. It’s just a little like a sweet friendship project I guess.

[UNPUBLISHED:] That’s really sweet! And definitely just seeing the crowd tonight, it definitely translates. I think it was actually during your song “friendship” that I saw everyone grab their girl, grab their homie, and you can just see the passion spread to everyone tonight.

[CARWASH:] Yeah it was super sick to play for everyone tonight. I don’t know, it’s always fun to play stuff with friends. Like Dreamer Boy’s a friend. Or the show we did before this was for an artist named Polly and um she’s like a friend too. And like my band are just like my friends. And Chris (videographer) is like a homie too.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Yeah! I would love to hear about your guys’ (the band’s) musical experience as well. You play bass right?

[ANGUS:] Yeah! And like I’m in my own band, The Orchas, and uh yeah I’ve just kind of always been doing music. Like the band, I’m in is just a duo - it’s just me and my best friend from home. We’ve been making music since like third grade. So he’s definitely been a big push for me since that’s something that we had always done together. Then I came out to LMU, came to school and met Garret (carwash), met a few other people, and just kind of found a really good community to just be doing fun shit. Like he just asked one day if I wanted to be in the band for carwash and I was just like ‘I love carwash so, yeah, I’ll do it!’ It’s kind of a constant. Music is something I’m always doing.

[UNPUBLISHED:] How about you?

[JACKSON:] Yeah, I met Garret (carwash) through skating in my freshman year of college. So, I’ve been playing guitar since probably middle school. I haven’t probably played with anybody since I played with my family entering high school which is exactly what you want to be doing - to be in a family band. But I hadn’t played for several years with anybody really, I was just on my own, putting some solo stuff together. Then Garret asked me this year and I was super stoked. I was just super stoked when he asked me to play. And here we are! We had our first show just two weeks ago and it was so sick. It was basically a huge, massive group of Garret’s and our mutual friends and it was super fun. And hopefully, we keep going with some shows. The next one is on the 29th of October.

[UNPUBLISHED:] And what about you? Sebastian, right? What got you here? How’d you get into drumming?

[SEBASTIAN:] I’ve been drumming since I was probably ten years old. And then I met Garret in middle school so I’ve always been just like doing music, we’d just jam and stuff. Then he started doing postcard boy so I was the drummer for that before he was carwash. We did that with a couple of our other buddies back in San Diego until this year when he started doing carwash shows and we got these guys in here. I also just moved up here (Los Angeles) really recently, and I’ve just been hanging with these guys.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Thank you guys so much! I just have one last question for Garret. Where are you looking at going from here? What’s the next move?

[CARWASH:] I actually have another project called postcard boy which is also me but it’s more experimental indie pop I guess so I’m working on an album for that. I haven’t really talked about it that much yet, I just started the process of it. But that and hopefully starting to set up a tour before springtime 2022 for Carwash, trying to see people and stuff. I’ve never played on the east coast so I’ll hopefully see New York - I have a lot of friends in New York. And then, I don’t know. Honestly just hang out and like to stay with the homies in LA and just skate. Just skating with the homies and I want to get better at cooking. And shoot yeah, I hear Dreamer Boy’s set starting so I don’t want to hold you too long.