Car Seat Headrest

Crafting moody and introspective lo-fi pop tunes that are melodic but structurally ambitious at the same time, Car Seat Headrest is the moniker used by musician and songwriter Will Toledo. Cutting his teeth creating D.I.Y. recordings on inexpensive home equipment, Toledo’s songwriting — deeply personal, sometimes dramatic, frequently witty, and dotted with unexpected social and cultural references — was what stood out as he gained confidence and strength on self-released early projects such as 2010′s Little Pieces of Paper with “No” Written on Them. 2011′s Twin Fantasy was Car Seat Headrest’s breakthrough work, a song cycle that was a major step forward for the young songwriter. 2015′s Teens of Style was the group’s first album for Matador Records, and though the LP earned positive reviews, it was 2016′s Teens of Denial that seriously wowed critics and established him as an artist to watch in indie rock. 2020′s Making a Door Less Open was an effort to expand the boundaries of Car Seat Headrest’s music, with lo-fi indie sounds giving way to a more expert approach dominated by electronic instrumentation. It was a process they continued on the 2021 companion EP’s MADLO: Influences and MADLO: Remixes.
Will Toledo grew up in Leesburg, Virginia, where he learned about music theory while playing in the student symphony band in junior high and high school. He majored in English in college but was fascinated with music, embracing an eclectic variety of artists from Radiohead, Modest Mouse, and R.E.M. to Animal Collective and Swans, and he began writing songs on his computer, using its built-in microphone and the recording software that was bundled with the machine. While Toledo’s recording setup became more advanced with time, he continued to prefer simpler solutions to recording problems, and his project became known as Car Seat Headrest when Toledo found he was more comfortable recording vocals in his car than in his home. As he began playing live shows with a rotating team of musicians (when a reporter asked Toledo about being a fixture on the local scene, he replied, “All that amounts to is being able to play at the local pizza place”), the vast majority of his recordings were cut at home with Toledo handling all the vocals and instruments himself.
In May 2010, he issued his first Car Seat Headrest album, titled 1, with 2, 3, and 4 all appearing within the next three months. Although Toledo would continue to make his first four LPs available through his online store, he sheepishly included a warning to potential customers that they were “not very good.” December 2010 brought Little Pieces of Paper with “No” Written on Them, which Toledo described as “B-sides and rarities and generally just awful shit,” but with March 2011′s My Back Is Killing Me Baby, Toledo finally made an album he felt didn’t require a warning about its inferior quality, and Car Seat Headrest began winning the attention of critics and lo-fi fans around the world with Twin Fantasy, released in November 2011.
The year 2012 brought two more albums, Monomania and Starving While Living, and in August 2013, Toledo released Nervous Young Man. Deciding he needed to break away from the places where he grew up and studied, Toledo left Virginia and moved to Seattle, where he assembled a new lineup of Car Seat Headrest and continued to busy himself with home recording. October 2014 brought another particularly personal project, How to Leave Town, which earned enthusiastic reviews on the music blogosphere and led to Toledo signing a deal with Matador Records. The label issued Teens of Style, featuring new versions of several of Car Seat Headrest’s older tunes, in October 2015.
In May 2016, Toledo released an album of new Car Seat Headrest material, Teens of Denial. The record, which melded lo-fi noisemaking with a clean and ambitious production, made music news headlines shortly before its release. One of the album’s tracks, “Just What I Needed/Not What I Needed,” interpolated a few bars of the Cars’ classic “Just What I Needed.” At the last minute, Cars frontman and songwriter Ric Ocasek rescinded his permission for Car Seat Headrest to use the excerpt from his song. The initial run of Teens of Denial on vinyl and CD had to be destroyed, but the digital version of the album was released as scheduled, with the problematic track replaced with a reworked version of “Not What I Needed.” The album received widespread acclaim, serving as a breakout for Toledo.
Curiously, he returned in early 2018 not with a new LP but with an entirely re-recorded version of Car Seat Headrest’s fan-favorite 2011 album Twin Fantasy. The following year saw the release of the group’s first concert LP, Commit Yourself Completely. 2020′s Making a Door Less Open found Toledo shifting stylistic gears, with electronics dominating the arrangements and giving the music a smoother, more refined sound. Two companion EPs, MADLO: Influences (a covers album) and MADLO: Remixes, arrived in June 2021. ~ Mark Deming