Car Seat Headrest

Car Seat Headrest began in 2010 in Will Toledo’s hometown of Leesburg, Virginia. Needing a place of solitude (and soundproofing) where he could record vocals undisturbed, a 17-year-old Toledo set up shop in the family car. Toledo’s catalogue is sharp, literary, and culturally omnivorous as it touches upon youth and death, love and depression, drunken parties and 2nd century theologians. Ever surprising, his lyrical imagery ranges from playful to sexually frank to sorrowful, often within the same song.

After relocating to Seattle in 2014, Toledo assembled a lineup with bassist Ethan Ives and drummer Andrew Katz. Teens of Style, the first full-band Car Seat Headrest album, was vibrant and powerful, with a wide stylistic range. When Matador released Teens of Denial in 2016 – his first real ‘studio’ record – Toledo moved from bedroom pop to something approaching classic- rock grandeur and huge (if detailed and personal) narrative ambitions, with nods to the Cars, Pavement, Jonathan Richman, Wire, and William Onyeabor.

Toledo revisited Twin Fantasy, his 2011 Bandcamp album, for a “re-recorded and re-imagined” version, which came out in February 2018 on Matador. Something for the fans, new and old alike, the release saw Toledo re-examining his past, fan-favourite project, and overcoming the limitations he faced first time around, when he was recording himself on a laptop.

In May of 2020, Car Seat Headrest (frontman Will Toledo, lead guitarist Ethan Ives, drummer Andrew Katz, and bassist Seth Dalby) released their experimental, beat-heavy album Making a Door Less Open, right as the world shut down. This led to a long period of enforced inactivity. When they were finally able to tour in 2022 they were delighted, if surprised, that their audience was now younger than ever, thanks to the surprise viral success of their songs “It’s Only Sex” and “Sober to Death” and a new generation discovering their coming-of-age classics Teens of Denial and Twin Fantasy. 

Their 2025 album The Scholars is a bold rock opera borne of the challenging period that followed that tour, in which Toledo contracted COVID-19—the start of a long period of illness. Whilst recuperating, Toledo turned to meditation, and a “dedication of following spiritual practices” which informed the narrative of  The Scholars.

“[Madlo is] some of the most direct and accessible music Toledo has ever made. What’s new here, apart from the rippling synth lines and programmed beats, is the sense of fresh-start possibility and hard-won optimism that infuses nearly every track.” – New York Times

“The most dynamic and commercially assured album in Car Seat’s winding discography – is actually an invitation to cut loose… in a meticulously crafted momentum of seductive choruses, classic-rock brawn and dancefloor-release” – MOJO