Each day this week, we're spotlighting the homegrown budding talent sourced via KCRW's Young Creators Project, a community arts mentorship platform celebrating the creative work of SoCal residents under 21.
Great Big Cow are an indie folk band hailing from a part of Los Angeles that knows a thing or two about that particular genre — Laurel Canyon. From Jackson Browne to Father John Misty, generations of troubadours have made their plaintive melodies echo from the hallowed ravine. Great Big Cow’s “Carbondale” easily settles into this lineage with its sympathetic chords and yearning vocals from one of the group’s rotating singers, Wyatt Nash. The song’s origin, however, is something of a happy accident.
“I recorded this voice memo of a song,” Nash tells Morning Becomes Eclectic Host Novena Carmel, “where I was singing the main line ‘Carbondale…’ [and then I] was listening back, trying to write lyrics and I and I didn't know what I was saying because it was all gibberish. But there was this word Carbondale and I couldn't find something else that wasn't Carbondale. So I googled it and I was like, ‘Oh, this is someplace somewhere, I could probably make the song about this.’ And then we were jamming on these chords. Will [Angarola] came up with this great guitar line, Paulo [Pesce] [had] this great drum part, and then Finn [Darby] was doing all these harmonies and that was the big chorus.”
Watch the video for “Carbondale” above which features the studio recording of the track set to film clips from a variety of the band’s live shows. And use the player button to your left to hear Nash telling Carmel all about building teenage music scenes, founding festivals, and being the last high schooler in a band of college kids.
More: Check out our 2024 featured Young Creators
CREDITS:
KCRW Music Director: Anne Litt
Interviewer: Novena Carmel
Producers: Liv Surnow and Anna Chang
Recording Engineer: Katie Gilchrest
Mix Engineer: Nick Lampone
Audio Editor: Zeke Reed
Digital Producer: Marion Hodges
Digital Editorial Manager: Andrea Domanick
