A Chat with Carl Brewster (12.03.2021)
Carl Brewster is drawing on his own struggles to help others get through life in his album Abstraction. While the album draws heavily on his own experience, each track is relatable as he talks about struggling with mental health and a few other topics. The rock stylings of his music has you enjoying the listening experience while carefully considering the heavy topic and what he has to say. We sat down with Carl Brewster to talk about the album, emotions, creative processes, challenges and much more!
OSR: Was there a moment when you realised that you wanted to make music?
Brewster: I first picked up the guitar at around 11 years of age, and for the first few months I was just trying to get the basics down. I think I wrote my first song about a year after I started learning. I just started getting into punk-rock around this time, so the first few songs I wrote were more or less just an attempt to sound like all the cool rockstars I was listening to.
As I developed my musical skills throughout my teenage years it became more of a method of self-expression. There was certainly still an element of trying to copy my beloved idols, but music seemed like the perfect outlet for all the lessons we learn on the rocky road of adolescence.
I never had the confidence to share my music much throughout those earlier years, but writing music always remained one of my biggest passions. Abstraction was kind of an explosion moment for me, I’ve done a lot of different things throughout my twenties, but I think I’ll always be a musician first and foremost.
OSR: Your album Abstraction heavily focuses on your personal struggles with mental health over the years, was it difficult to open up about this through your music?
Brewster: It’s certainly an ironic fate to suffer from social anxiety when your passion is music. This type of anxiety really makes it difficult to cope with the thought of being judged, so the idea of sharing something that details some of my most personal insecurities was a little daunting.
I was very lucky in the months preceding the release of Abstraction to have some very caring and understanding friends around me. I really opened up to them about what was going on in my mind, and the love and support I received in return really helped to put things in perspective and boost my self-confidence (special shout out to my soulmate and number one confidant, Dominic Gary Moule).
By the time the release date came around, I was still a little nervous but quite excited as well! I had told quite a few friends who knew I was musical that I was planning on releasing an album and the reactions I got were very positive. When Abstraction finally became available I had a lot of support from friends on social media, putting out nice little celebratory posts which were really nice to see.
OSR: There are a few other topics thrown into the album as well, can you tell us a little more about them?
Brewster: ‘Got to Go’ and ‘Standing Ovation’ detail the difficulties I have experienced during the break down of relationships.
‘Got to Go’ represents a significant relationship in my life that really started to break down towards the end. I allowed it to go on a little longer than perhaps I should have done. So, the lyrics represent the feeling of being trapped in something I knew deep down wasn’t right for me anymore.
‘Standing Ovation’ represents a relationship that was more of a whirlwind romance. There was a girl I fell pretty hard for, but we had a bit of a communication issue which really prevented things from developing into something serious. The song talks about the confusion and frustration I felt during the relationship.
Finally, ‘Placate the People’ and ‘Take off the Gloves’ are my attempts at more of an angsty “fight the system” type vibe (laughs). I think we all see injustices in the world that we have to push to the back of our minds in our day to day lives, so these songs are my attempt to express that sense of anger we feel when we see something that is unjust but don’t have the power to incite change.
OSR: If people could feel one thing after listening to the album, what would you like it to be and why?
Brewster: I think I would like people to feel understood. There are so many people in the world today coming out about their struggles as mental health awareness increases. So if there is maybe even a couple of lines from Abstraction that make someone think ‘Oh wow, so it’s not just me that feels this way’, then that to me would be such a positive achievement for my music.
OSR: What was your creative process for the album?
Brewster: Abstraction didn’t evolve from a linear process (which probably suits the title). Being my first album, Abstraction is compiled of songs that were written many years apart, so I needed to decide which songs I wanted to include that really helped to convey the main theme and overall message of the album.
The idea of the title ‘Abstraction’ and the album cover is supposed to represent the chaos of mental illness. My experience of depression/anxiety is that it is something that is very hard to explain to someone in a succinct manner. So I suppose the tracks themselves are my attempt to explain the cover. It is my way of saying ‘This is what it is that I experience’.
OSR: You took a complete DIY approach to the album. What was the biggest challenge you faced with this?
Brewster: I think just having the confidence that I had produced a good album was the biggest difficulty. Pretty much all my music production knowledge is self-taught from YouTube and just messing around with my digital audio workstation. I tend to spend a lot of time second-guessing myself and I really just wanted this album to be the best it could be, so I spent a lot of time stressing over small details and sending demo after demo to a few friends to check the listenability of my tracks.
OSR: What do you do when you are not making music?
Brewster: I have not got a lot going on at the moment with the pandemic, but my proudest achievement outside of music is the voluntary conservation work I have carried out within South Africa. I worked with a group called Endangered Rhino Conservation (ERC) and assisted them with their anti-poaching efforts, doing a lot of driven night patrols on a remote reserve out in the South African bushveld. I actually have another single in my catalogue called ‘I Won’t Let Go’ (A Rascal Flatts cover) that I recorded for the reserve, as it strongly represents the love and dedication they put into protecting their animals. More can be found about the excellent work ERC do at https://www.endangeredrhino.org/
OSR: If people could listen to only one track from the album, which would you recommend and why?
Brewster: I think ‘The Closest Things’ would be my choice as it is the track that deals most directly with the issues of mental health. The line in the chorus ‘The closest things are the hardest to see, it’s behind my eyes and it’s always in front of me’ is what I would most like people to understand about mental illness and any other condition that could be classed as an “invisible illness”. It represents the idea that no matter what we think we know about someone, we never really know what they are experiencing on the inside. It is this idea that I hope would inspire us to take a step back and re-examine our prejudices in the face of what we do not yet understand.
OSR: Have you always like rock music or did you feel this genre simply fit your needs the best?
Brewster: As I mentioned in the first question, punk-rock is something that I grew fond of from a young age so it is simply the main style of music I like to write in. Although I think it did also meet the needs of the album quite nicely, as punk-rock does tend to be a bit chaotic. I wanted to create a sort of “soundscape” that captures the sense of dissonance and melancholy that is experienced in difficult mental states.
OSR: What else can we expect from you in the coming year?
Brewster: I am actually making very good progress on my second album! I have a tracklist of 10 songs. All instruments have been recorded; I just have the vocals to get down now. It is going to be another punk-rock album, however, I am aiming for a lighter and more elated pop-punk feel this time.
I am hoping to release in April/May, so stay tuned!
Thanks to Carl Brewster for chatting with us! You can find more about him on his website, Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.
