via Carbon Leaf, with permission
In the 1990s, the music scene in the central Virginia area revolved around the Dave Matthews Band, and history, of course, demonstrates that DMB’s popularity was more than just regional. But there were several other very solid, yet very different bands in the scene at the time playing in Richmond clubs: The ska band Fighting Gravity, Cracker was coming of age, GWAR was crushing souls and making KISS look like a bunch of second grade sissies, and then there was the indie rock band Carbon Leaf.
Best known for its hit song, “Life Less Ordinary”—which debuted in 2004 and reached #5 on Billboard’s Adult Alternative charts—Carbon Leaf has been at it since way back in the 1990s. The band remains largely intact, active and making new music today, and in fact, in September the band released its much-anticipated new album Time is the Playground—Carbon Leaf’s first full-length album in a decade.
Founder and frontman Barry Privett recently joined me on The Load Out Music podcast to look back as well as ahead.
“We were kind of forced to get out of that and start looking beyond the cities, beyond Richmond or towns in Virginia, and start spiraling out from there,” Privett recalled, when asked when he realized Carbon Leaf was something beyond just a regional band.
By any measure, Carbon Leaf has had an enviable run from the early 1990s to today. The band’s ascent began with the release of the album Echo Echo in 2001, with the single “The Boxer” for which Carbon Leaf won an American Music Award and performed live on the AMAs. It was the first time an unsigned band would perform on the show.
“We were kind of on our last leg—that an independent band can do without some extra pop,” Privett noted on that time in the band’s history, roughly eight years in at that juncture. “And about that time, “The Boxer” on Echo Echo won some contests and got some surprising traction on a few radio stations from DC all the way out to Seattle and began to connect some dots for us and we got out on the road more legitimately.”
Of all places, the band also found fame playing on The Dr. Phil Show, while also finding success through the film soundtrack of Curious George 2, which contained six Carbon Leaf songs. But it wasn’t just dumb luck, although Privett humbly noted that was a part of it.
“It was a mix of being proactive and chasing,” he said. “It was the infancy of the internet when all these dot-com sites had contests and you could upload your songs and win money and be in commercials. If you were proactive and looking for those opportunities…we kind of just quilted things together by hustling and working hard and having those lucky breaks.”
Flash forward to 2024, after a decade of producing singles, EPs and a stellar Blue Ray: The new album Time is the Playground blends nostalgic storytelling with nuanced, folk-infused indie rock. The lead single, “Backmask 1983,” is a rock ‘n’ roll banger that masterfully melds AC/DC-like guitars with synth reminiscent of The Cars—evoking the essence of the 1980s. While the album’s title track is a pure indie-feeling song, it builds from a reflective acoustic melody into a vibrant celebration of life’s moments, urging listeners to seize the present while learning from the past.
“Stylistically, the two EPs we released over the past two years…it was a more folk-rock oriented thing,” Privett said of the grittier feeling of Playground. “I wanted something that felt meaty—lyrically and thematically and had some weight to it. I wanted the muscle. Catchy, muscle and meaningful.”
Overall, the new album is a nice rumination on time, love and personal growth, featuring both rediscovered musical fragments and new material. And now, Carbon Leaf is on a coast-to-coast tour this fall to support the release, kicking off in St. Louis in September and wrapping up in Richmond December 18.
So enjoy the latest episode of The Load Out Music podcast with Barry Privett of Carbon Leaf.