Carbon Carousel
Carbon Carousel

Minneapolis’ Michael Larsen, whom you may know as Eyedea from acclaimed hip-hop duo Eyedea & Abilities, has a new project - Carbon Carousel.

Joining with noted locals J.T. Bates (drums; Fat Kid Wednesdays, Poor Line Condition), Jeremy Ylvisaker (guitar; Alpha Consumer, Fog, Mark Mallman, Melismatics) and the son of experimental trumpeter John O’Brien, Casey (bass; Abzorbr, Dial_System), Larsen is ready for the next chapter in his life.

The group’s self-titled debut features nine tracks of grunge rock fantasy wrapped in improv punk. The opening track, “Always Better Sorry,” is absolutely Bleach-era Nirvana (btw, we swear we were thinking that before Riemenschneider scooped us on a review) if Cobain’s drug of choice was speed.

Amphetamine aside, fresh lyrics and raw riffs make the garage noise on tracks like “Dummy” and “Atrophy” worthy of a second and third listen.

We sat down with Larsen to talk about the group, the writing process and the awesome limited edition CD run that allows fans to own a piece of the cover art. Read on…

We’ve all heard some form of the Eyedea & Abilities story, but what’s the real backstory behind Carbon Carousel?
Four guys met in a swimming pool. They decided to record themselves having a contest to see who could hold their breath the longest. They called their breath holding club carbon carousel. They called the first contest “The some of all things OR: The healing power of scab picking. You could say something like that, or just stick together interesting things from our bio. It’s just such a long story you know?

What’s the writing process like with the whole freestyle rap meets grungey noise rock thing?
It usually starts with me writing words and parts to go with the words on guitar. After I have something that feels alright, we sit down as a band and turn that into a sketch of that specific idea. Than we play it and keep adding to it, improvising or changing parts and so forth. We leave a lot of room for dynamics and improvisation. We try to make it all feeling, all the time. Some stuff on our record was actually completely improvised and I recorded vocals on it after the fact.

It’s 10 years out, and a CC fan goes into a Best Buy to pick up your new album - what’s the title of that album, in what section will it be filed and how famous are you guys?
There’s no way to tell how many people will be affected by this, but I don’t think the numbers really matter. What is important, is the quality of the communication, and what it can inspire in another person. You change the world when you help even one person, whether it be yourself or someone else. By then, I think we will be going with J.T.’s idea and just naming records the time and date that they were recorded. Hopefully, it will be in the “free” section. I mean that in every way it can be interpreted.

What is the story behind the first track on your album?
Every song is really about at least four different things. The common thread is empathy. It’s a generalized sketch of a person trying to care about the world by not caring. It becomes specific when Jeremy, J.T., Casey and I play our takes on it. Underneath all of us on that song specifically is a bit of frustration that has been waiting to get buried by itself.

So the album’s finally out - what’s new with you guys?
Working on music and playing, and being our own publicist, booking agent, distributor and costume designer. It’s a tough gig that whole “figuring out what we are going to wear to maximize or skin exposure” deal. Slug is lucky. He has someone to dress him.
Tell us about these limited edition CDS and how the painting came about.
The limited c.d. idea started with Casey (bass). Basically, we got our good friend Louis N. Lappierre, lay out 300 c.d. covers and use them as a canvas for a painting. So essentially, when you purchase a disc, you purchase a piece of his painting. To make it even more interactive, we decided to number each disc, and have people e-mail us their own picture to replace the part of the painting they bought. The end result will be a totally new piece of art made by the first 300 people that bought our disc. We will make a limited poster of both the original by Louis, and the new by you. You can view the progress on our web page.

Upcoming gigs?
We are playing the Triple Rock Friday, Nov. 10, the Toyboxtoybox on December 7th, and Tiffany’s on December 13th. We are always adding shows to our so get the scoop there.