Todd Carey Talks Touring, Geeking Out, And His New Album ‘Future Throwback’

FanBolt recently had the honor of chatting with musician Todd Carey about touring, his new album, and what he personally geeks out about! Todd is currently on tour, but I was able to grab him for a quick phone call while he was on the road. Check out the interview with him below!

Check out our full interview with him below!

How has the tour been going?

Todd: We’ve been touring for about a week, and we just joined up with Curtis Peoples. It’s been great. My single “Nintendo” came out a few weeks ago, and my fans got a chance to listen to it and react to it – and then we hit the road. It’s been so cool to start playing the song live in front of people.

When I tweeted about interviewing you, lots of your female fans wanted me to ask you to marry them. I take it you have a pretty rad fanbase!

Todd: [Laughs] There’s plenty of me to go around. I don’t want to brag, but I have an amazing fanbase. My entire career has just been supported by them. I did just sign a record deal, but the whole thing is really just run by them. It’s all based on my relationship with my fans. I call them friends and fans, because I hang out with a lot of them.

I feel like I have something that is semi-unique. I know that sounds crazy, but I don’t know – there’s something cool going on – especially right now. They’re amazing, and I thank them for it.

You spent 3 years making this album right? How do you narrow it down from 70 songs to the ones you ultimately pick for the album?

Todd: That’s a good question. I did spend the last 3 years of my life making this album, and the reason I did that – I’m a touring artist – I love going out and playing live, and I was sick of making records didn’t translate well live – that misrepresented who I was as an artist. I’m not saying those records weren’t good. I think they’re great. I think a lot of them have great songs. My challenge was making the songs that were specifically great for the type of personality I wanted to present which was my personality – I wanted to get that across on record – and have something that was fun and energetic live. And I feel I did that with “Future Throwback.” I want to compete with the top pop artists.

The songs became obvious as I would go. I would write like 10 songs, and I’d go out and play them live and I’d play them for my team. So they just kind of melted away – all the coal melted away – and the diamonds came through. There’s a song on the album called “Light Her Up,” and I immediately knew that was going to be an amazing song. “Nintendo” was the last song I wrote for the record, and it was just obvious that was perfect for what I’m doing right now. They just presented themselves as the obvious choices.

Is there one specific song from any of your records that you feel the most personally connected to? Can you explain?

Todd: On this record, there’s “Dead and Gone” – I love performing it. There’s another one called “Taking Over.” I’m also really connected to “Nintendo,” because everyone else connects to it. It connects me to it and me to them. There’s “Light Her Up” – I feel like that song is me encapsulated. The opening is, “Here we go, on the road, another day, another night, another show…” It’s just me being out on the road, meeting people, and having fun.

There’s an older record, my first record and the title track “Watching and Waiting” – I don’t play it much anymore. That to me – I think it showed me what I’m aiming for when I write a song – like trying to capture lightning in a bottle. I felt like that one did it. It just flowed right through me, and I didn’t have to try too hard. I refined it later, and it was just born in the studio. It felt great.

I read that your parents wouldn’t let you watch TV growing up?

Todd: It’s true actually. They would limited us. We could watch one program a week once we got homework done and the stuff done that we needed to do. You hate that as a kid, but in retrospect – it’s funny because it took it out of me. I don’t really watch TV now. I ended up playing a lot of guitar and writing a lot of music, and it made me who I was. I hated it at the time. I’m not complaining at all, but my parents were like, “No Nintendo!”

We never had video games, which is so ironic with this song.

I was going to say, surely you play Nintendo?

Todd: I did not have Nintendo growing up. Isn’t that funny? I’d go to my friend’s house and just sit there, because they were always so good. They’d say, “Oh yeah, you can play after my Mario life.”

And they’d play the entire game and win it.

What do you geek out about? Besides music?

Todd: Currently – photography. I’m just impressed when someone can capture all the crazy beauty of the light that is all around us. It’s amazing to me. I don’t consider myself a photographer, but I really want to get into it. I’m also a super geek on food. I just really appreciate food…

You say besides music, I often wonder if it makes me a less interesting person, because it really is music that I geek out about exclusively. It’s just everything to me. Those other things too a much lesser extent – photography, food, people – I geek out about people.

I know you’re still on tour at the moment – but what is next for you after this current tour?

Todd: My music video for “Nintendo” is going to come out, and I’ll be able to share that with my fans – my first ever music video. I’m so excited! We’re just putting the finishing touches on it now. We’re taking “Nintendo” to the radio, so that’s the next step. Then my album “Future Throwback” will come out, and then more touring… Then hopefully conquering the world.

For more of our interview with Todd Carey, be sure to check out the interview on 3 Girls And A Podcast this week (Will be live 11/1)! And for more information on Todd Carey – check out his official website!

Interview By: Emma Loggins