Popular Pop Punkers Black Carrot Interview
13th April 2025From the dimly lit corners of a smokey bar in Hertfordshire, a hard-energy 3 three-piece punk rock band emerged. Showcasing their slamming songs full of massive choruses and unstoppable charisma, Black Carrot: are taking the UK by storm.
They stopped off at All About The Rock HQ for a chat with our whirlwind of manic energy, that crazy lass from the darkened corner of Manchester.
Hi guys, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak with us today.Hello! Lovely to meet you. The pleasure is all ours.
Can you tell us a little bit about Black Carrot, when you formed, how you all met etc?
BC was started by Lead Singer & Songwriter Darren Brett in 2020 when lockdown was on. At first, it was a new project to give him something to do whilst being on long-term furlough. To keep his creative juices flowing at a time when everything had come to a standstill. Once the pubs began putting on open mic nights again, Darren started getting out to perform songs in order to test audience reactions and determine which ones to keep and which ones to scrap. Through this process, Darren met Mark Tug, and soon after, they were performing as a duo across Hertfordshire. Mark owns a recording studio (Garden City Recording Studios, Letchworth, Herts), and between the two of them, they started to record a few of the more popular songs. As the songs were recorded in the studio as a full electric band, it was important to get in a drummer to take them on the road and into venues and festivals. Darren turned to his friend and previous bandmate from a short-lived project several years earlier, Chris Reeder. Asked to join initially as the lead guitarist, Chris can also play drums and agreed to join as a drummer until a full-time replacement was found, and he would move back to lead guitar. However, as the months, rehearsals, and gigs went on, another drummer was not found, and Chris started to get very comfortable on the drum stool. And in the summer of 2024, it was decided that the 3-piece lineup was complete and gigs would commence.
How would you describe the music you make to someone listening to it for the first time?
I guess you would say Pop Punk, as we are influenced by bands such as: Greenday, Weezer, The Ramonees, Ash. But we are also influenced by some harder rock bands such as The Wildhearts, The Almighty, and Therapy? But as our songs tend to be fairly short at around 1 to 3 minutes in length, we do get painted with the pop-punk brush. And we are more than happy with that.
What made you decide to play the genre you do?
-Darren is a huge fan of the bands previously mentioned and deliberately wanted this direction.
Do you all collaborate when it comes to songwriting? Where do you gather your musical inspiration from?
Darren is the sole songwriter, however him and Mark put the songs together in the studio when it comes to recording them. Mark is a great producer so his input is always valued.
Song inspiration is varied, anything can go. Our most popular song ‘Heavy Metal Through The Ghetto Blaster’ is about how children these days seem to bypass having a childhood to become adults as fast as possible. Toys don’t seem to have the shelf life they used to have as all kids want to be influencers and have phones as soon as they can talk! We feel that is a huge shame. Toys are early creative outlets. It is almost like the age of innocence has been deleted. The song is advice to the children of now to stay children for as long as possible and not to be too eager to be an adult, as it really isn’t all you think it is. Another popular song ‘One Track Kind’ is a full-on soppy love song about being so in love/lust with someone that you will shout it from the rooftops and not care who hears. These kinds of songs just are not written anymore, and again, we feel that is a shame. Our next single is called ‘XR3i’ and is about an old car that Darren had that was constantly breaking down and messing up his dates, as the roof would leak while he was trying to have some in-car kissy kissy, LOL. Serves him right.
So you think in this day and age it’s important for bands to have an online presence for people to find and listen to bands music?
I guess we feel it is important as people don’t tend to like buying music anymore, and if you want people to hear your stuff, then they will need a Spotify, etc, link. Facebook and Instagram are important to land gigs because promoters look at the number of followers you have in order to determine if they will put you on or not. But if it’s important for fan interaction, we are yet to make our minds up on it. We post a lot of questions, for example, to see if we can get follower engagement, and often, we don’t. This makes us think that either they are not all that bothered or the algorithms are not successfully showing our posts to the followers. We tend, therefore, to ask audiences to hit follow just so the promoters are happy, but to stream our songs on Spotify to keep us happy.
Have you ever been affected in any way by the downfalls of the Internet, like online piracy or trolls?
NO, but I am sure the time will come when the Trolls come out to play with us. That seems part & parcel of life online. I guess the idea is to either not read stuff or have a thick skin. Always resist retaliating. We cannot understand trolls at all. But hey! People need to feel important, right!? And fake hate is a way to do that. Decency seems to be a long-lost trait. But so far, our followers are all lovely. We call them Soldiers in our Carrot Army.
Any funny touring stories you can tell us about?
We are racking up gigs but haven’t yet done a tour with this band. But Mark does like to pin washing line pegs onto people at gigs. We have bought hundreds of wooden pegs on which we have written our website in black marker pen, and as a strange marketing idea, he clips them to people in the audience. It starts simply on the bottom of their t-shirts, or jackets/hoodies etc, but fast moves to more daring places like pony tails, hats and so on. And we tend to get people asking why they haven’t been pegged yet! and stuff like that. Everyone wants in on the action. It’s good fun. However, so far, we can’t see that it has led to any extra people following us or streaming our songs.
What is the best advice as a band that you have been given, and what inspirational words of wisdom would you pass onto other newbie bands that are just starting out?
Always be yourself. Write the songs you believe in, and be the person you are. Don’t be a copycat. Sure! take influence from people you like but represent you. And don’t hang around with arseholes. The rule I always go by is that I don’t listen too much to people telling me we can’t do this or we can’t do that. Lots of people seem to not do things because someone else did them and it didn’t work. But that is crazy. 99 bands could all do something the same that doesn’t work, but then the 100th band does it, and it explodes them!! There are lots of reasons why a band you spoke to did that didn’t work. But that doesn’t mean it won’t work for you. You are not them, you are you. Try it all. And above all else, have fun. And don’t be a dick. Be grateful to everyone. Even those who don’t give you what you want (like a gig), as they may give you it later because, despite the knockback, you were a decent person. But if you are a dickhead to them, they definitely wont help you ever. Treat people how you want to be treated. It is simple manners.
That’s sound advice
If you could open for any other artist, who would it be and why?
Greenday!! Imagine walking out in all those arenas. Madness overload. And we would love to meet Tre Cool. He seems like the best person possible. Funny and really friendly. And we would learn so much from them.
Do you have any upcoming shows/new music you can tell us about?
- May 10th – The Trinity Bar in Harrow
- May 17th – The Phoenix, High Wycombe
- June 8th – Rock In The Park, Stevenage, Hertfordshire
- July 11th – Todd in The Hole Festival – Todds Green, Hertfordshire
- July 26th – Old Town Live Festival – Ware, Hertfordshire
Thanks again for taking the time to speak with us today!
