Like many 21st-century relationships, CARPOOL TUNNEL started with the swipe of an app.
Just two weeks after an ad for Vampr – hailed as Tinder for musicians – came across Daniel Stauffer’s phone in 2017, the Bay Area drummer was in the studio along with two fellow Vampr users, guitarist Bradley Kearsley and singer/guitarist Ben Koppenjan, recording their debut single “Afterlight” with Grammy-nominated producer Billy Mohler.
One new member – bassist Spencer Layne – and a $400 Craigslist van later, the brilliantly named band hit the road, bringing their California cool aesthetic and classically retro sound up and down the coast. In this live setting, free-wheeling and bereft of perfectionist attitudes, the quartet began laying the foundation for their long-awaited debut full-length album, BLOOM.
The album, due out Feb. 26, 2021, on Pure Noise Records, puts Carpool Tunnel’s sandbar psychedelic sound on full display, swirling ’60s and ’70s-era classic rock and blues with the sunny sounds of SoCal-soaked surf rock to create something that’s both nostalgic and fresh.