Carbon Leaf-Virginian Pilot

On his way to band rehearsal, Carbon Leaf frontman Barry Privett ruminates over the concept of time.

“I’ve been chewing on the fact that we’re all on this linear timeline,” he said of a theme that’s emerged in the rock band’s latest batch of songs. “There have been a lot of questions about how you use that as you move through life. Are your dreams still the ones you once had or do they need adjusting?”

It’s fitting that the band takes such stock in its timeline as Carbon Leaf just hit its 20-year mark. What began as a dorm room jam session at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland in 1992 has evolved into a career that’s included radio hits and tours with the Dave Matthews Band and John Mayer.

Privett, who was raised in the Elizabeth Park section of Norfolk, admits that the milestone snuck up on the band.

“Before we knew it, all this time has flown by,” said the 41-year-old singer, talking on the phone from his home in Richmond. “It makes me wonder how we managed to stick with it. It’s still a lot of hard work, but on the other hand, we still get to create things and throw it out into the world.”
Carbon Leaf’s career trajectory has been slow but steady. The band, which plays the Fourth of July Stars in the Sky event at Victory Landing Park in Newport News on Wednesday, started performing at small clubs in Hampton Roads and Richmond before moving on to larger East Coast venues.
In 2002, the rootsy, harmony-driven rock band beat out more than 1,000 other entrants to become the first unsigned group to perform at the American Music Awards. The high-profile gig garnered the quintet national radio airplay and a record contract. Two years later, Carbon Leaf had a pop-rock radio hit with “Life Less Ordinary.”

The band’s latest release is 2011’s three-disc set “Live, Acoustic … And in Cinemascope!” a collection that showcases Carbon Leaf’s warm, amiable vibe. Now, the group is in the initial phase of readying its next project.

“There are different seasons for the band, and we just ended kind of a long, dark winter,” said Privett. “I was off on my own writing lyrics and everyone else was doing a lot of heavy practicing, so now we’re getting reacquainted with the creative process again.”

To that end, Carbon Leaf has been holed up in the West End of Richmond at the home of guitarist Terry Clark.

“He’s got a two-car garage attached to his house, which we converted to a rehearsal space and recording studio,” Privett said. “We have about 30 new songs, and we’ve been working out the arrangements and hitting about four or five a day for the last couple of weeks. Once we cycle through them, we’ll see which ones are good and which ones are disasters.”