Producer and multi-instrumentalist CARRTOONS has returned with his brand new album, ‘HOMEGROWN’. Evolving his trademark modern Motown sound, the artist continues to expand his diverse musical repertoire in Jazz Soul, Hip Hop, and more. working with artists like Robert Glasper, Rae Khalil, and Mac Ayres, CARTOONS is definitely one to watch!
Tell us a bit about your story: who are you and what has your journey looked like so far?
Ben Carr aka CARRTOONS, and I'm a bass player / producer from New York. I’ve been playing music in some capacity for 20 years and I’ve been messing around with recording equipment for as long as I can remember. During music school I started a band called Mad Satta, which I was the bassist/musical director of for about 5 years. After some success, the band disbanded and I started producing music by myself again, under the name CARRTOONS. Since 2017, I’ve been releasing my own music and producing artists under that name.
Who inspires you musically and creatively?
I’m inspired by a ton of stuff. Often stuff that's not music these days but I’ll stick with music for now. At the moment I’m very inspired by Madlib, Q-tip, Rick Rubin, Dj Harrison, and Thundercat (amongst many others)
What is the creative process behind your music?
The creative process behind “Homegrown” was largely based in creating my own “samples” whether that be drums or melodic material, and then coming at them from a DJ perspective. I mixed and matched a lot of my own loops to make this material and often got it down to just one instrumental track and one drum track, and mixed that with a vocal. What’s the best advice you’ve received during your journey? The best advice I’ve gotten is probably to stay true to the music that made me fall in love with music in the first place, regardless of whether my social situation told me that was “cool” or not How do you nurture your creativity? I nurture creativity by surrounding myself with people that have great ideas. I tend to lean towards hanging out with people with great technical understanding, I think because I’m often lacking in that area and I’m curious. I think the combination of different ways of thinking often leads to the most explosive creative stuff. What do you hope your music will reveal to your listeners? I hope that people will hear how wholesome the project is. I wanted to show off a slightly lighter side of my personality on this with all the “talking” segments I used. Having my dad involved with all of the string arrangements also brought things to a very wholesome place that is hard to describe. Are there any upcoming shows or projects we can look forward to? I have an LA release show at Gold Diggers on 5/17, and NYC show at Baby's Alright on 5/28. Also, a project I produced for singer Julia Zivic (who is featured on both Saturday Morning, and Homegrown) will be out next month! Is there any advice you want to give to new artists? Do as much of the work of the business side as you are capable of! It’s good to be in control of your career Connect with CARRTOONS