
Years Active: 2010–present
Genre/s: Indie rock, lo-fi
Label/s: Matador
Members: Will Toledo, Ethan Ives, Andrew Katz, Seth Dalby
Car Seat Headrest is an American indie rock band formed in Leesburg, Virginia, and currently located in Seattle, Washington. The band consists of Will Toledo (vocals, guitar, piano, synthesizers), Ethan Ives (guitar, bass, backing vocals), Seth Dalby (bass), and Andrew Katz (drums, percussion, backing vocals).
Beginning as a solo recording project by Toledo in 2010, Car Seat Headrest self-released 12 projects on the music platform Bandcamp between 2010 and 2014 before signing to Matador Records in 2015. They began touring as a full band the following year, releasing 7 more albums as a group.
Car Seat Headrest began as the solo project of singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Will Toledo (born William Barnes) shortly after he graduated high school. Toledo had previously released music under other aliases, The 63rd Fret and Nervous Young Men, and played in a band in high school called Mr. Yay Okay, but after struggling to establish an audience, he decided to change tactics, choosing to try and release more experimental songs anonymously. Toledo chose the name "Car Seat Headrest" as he would often record the vocals to his early albums in the back seat of his family's car for privacy. He recorded vocals through his laptop's built-in microphone, not buying a separate one for the first three years of the project, and used the free audio applications Audacity and GarageBand.