Carriers is an indie rock band from Cincinnati, Ohio formed in 2014. The band consists of Curt Kiser (lyrics, lead vocals, guitar), Trent Becknell (bass guitar), Cory Pavlinac (guitar), Alex McGrath (drums) & sometimes Ashley McGrath (keys), Isaac Karns (sampler, keys, bgv’s) and a collective of other musician friends who join in at times. Kiser writes the songs, demos them as a voice memo or in logic, and then works them out with his band to perform live/record.
Their forthcoming debut album Now Is The Time For Loving Me, Yourself & Everyone Else is carefully layered, leaning on strong core songwriting, hypnotic synths, lush guitar tones from Curt Kiser (ex-Pomegranates, Enlou), mesmerizing percussion delivered by Bryan Devendorf (The National), and nuanced, dynamic bass lines from John Curley (Afghan Whigs). They have shared the stage with Damien Jurado, Big Thief, Sam Evian, The Dove & The Wolf, Kyle Craft, Anna Burch, Michael Nau, Robert Earl Thomas, The Essex Green, Ratboys, Kississippi, Harpooner and more. They also played the Inaugural Bellwether Festival in 2018.
My first time hearing “Make It Right,” and the rest of the songs on the record, was during demo sessions in the control room at Ultrasuede. Curt and I sat at the console where he played the songs for me and showed me the chord progressions. Then we recorded simple demo versions to hear the arrangements. These became the basis for the band recordings we did later on.
Once the bulk of the recording was done, Curt did the overdubs with Isaac Karns and mixing with Chad Wahlbrink. I was pleasantly surprised when I heard the final mixes. They took it to a level that was beyond what I had envisioned.
The track reminds me of the whole experience of making the record. It was very low stress; very relaxed. I hadn’t met any of the other musicians before working with Curt and they all turned out to be cool people that I now consider friends.
— John Curley
You can pre-order Now Is The Time For Loving Me, Yourself, & Everyone Else here.
(Photo Credit: Michael Wilson)
