Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter of Phantogram — currently on tour and about to drop their third studio album, Three, on Friday — joined Redditors on Wednesday (Oct. 5) for an AMA (Ask Me Anything). We’ve already been blessed with five incredible singles from the album, and luckily we don’t have to wait much longer to hear the remaining tracks.
Like many fans, we were hooked after watching the black-and-white visual for “When I’m Small” (which has over 13 million YouTube views), followed by “Mouthful of Diamonds” from their debut album, Eyelid Movies (2009). As for the deep cuts mentioned below, “Blackout Days” peaked at No. 32 on the Alternative Songs chart, while my personal 2016 song of the summer (“You Don’t Get Me High Anymore”), peaked at No. 7.
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As we count down to Friday, here’s what we learned:
What new up-and-coming artists they are currently listening to:
“Vince Staples. BadBadNotGood. The new Why? album. Protomartyr gives Josh a boner. Angel Olsen.”
Three seems to show a direct growth and transformation to the artists you were on your first album, Eyelid Movies. Would you say it’s the result of reaching a more mainstream audience, or is accurately representing how you always wanted to be perceived?
“Three for us is just a natural progression of our musical growth and reflection of our personal lives. The same can be said about our looks, we suppose, we wear what we like and feel good in, nothing is because someone told us to do it. We didn’t hatch some plan to become pop stars and ask someone what we need to achieve that.”
Why they changed their name from Charlie Everywhere to Phantogram:
“Charlie Everywhere was a half-baked name, and we had shows coming up and we needed a good name. So we picked a name we liked and something we could be proud of.”
If they could have any artist (living or dead) join the band…
“John Bonham, John Lennon, Jonny Greenwood, John Frusciante, Johnny Cash, John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, John Travolta, John Bon Jovi, John Malkovich and Herbie Hancock.”
A deep cut the band is especially proud of, and wish would gain more traction:
Sarah: “‘Blackout Days,’ because I produced most of it.”
Josh: “‘Nightlife.'”