Carbon Leaf Announces New Album ‘Time Is The Playground’

Carbon Leaf, the critically acclaimed band known for their dynamic live performances and eclectic sound, is excited to announce their new album, Time Is The Playground, available September 27th. The album is a rich tapestry of the band’s past experiences and future aspirations, making it a must-listen for music lovers.

Masterfully melding saturated AC/DC guitar and squelchy Cars synth, the album’s lead single “Backmask 1983” is a fun flipbook of evocative era emblems – Farrah Fawcett, “Satanic Panic,” Time Life Books, Bigfoot, and more – that traverses the simultaneous nexus of frontman Barry Privett’s childhood/adolescence and the world’s analog/digital ages.

Recalling growing up pre-Internet, Privett states:

“Without a whole lot of information, the mystery of things felt so heightened, I wanted to capture some of that but also have fun with it.”

The song captures the essence of those formative years, blending wistful nostalgia with a sense of wonder and discovery.

Carbon Leaf ‘Time Is The Playground’ album artwork

Privett continues:

“It’s about embracing not just the mystery, but the want, the desire, the need to still believe – something that can get harder and more challenging as one age. ‘Backmask 1983’ straddles that world in between, where you want to keep hold of those pieces that made you who you are, but you also have these new unfamiliar forces you want to embrace. This song was Carbon Leaf’s way of articulating some of that crossover.”

Time Is The Playground is Carbon Leaf’s first full-length album in a decade, during which they released two EPs and a 27-song live performance album and Blu-ray. This album bridges past and present, featuring both rediscovered musical fragments from the last 15 years and brand-new material. Privett dusted off old demos and shut himself away for months to finish their stories while also honing recent compositions. With Clark engineering, Carbon Leaf – completed by founding member Carter Gravatt, longtime bassist Jon Markel, and drummer Jesse Humphrey – spent a year and a half recording and mixing the resulting songs.