Cadet Carter – Cadet Carter

Sometimes in life you have to make brave choices. To struggle through and make painful cuts in an increasingly problematic world, in short: to dare a new beginning. This is exactly what CADET CARTER does.

Within a few weeks – since their foundation in the early summer of 2017 – the four Munich-born artists have become a real insiders’ tip with their mixture of 90s college rock, punk and a dash of emo – at least that’s what the Süddeutsche Zeitung also attested to, saying the band was “wonderfully relaxed”. CADET CARTER deserve this praise because their punk-driven indie rock, somewhere between the urgency of the Get Up Kids, the anthems of Jimmy Eat World and the lyrical openness of Nada Surf, is above all one thing: independent and full of recognition value.

This is proven by the songs of the debut album CADET CARTER: “Car Park Song”, for example, is outrageously catchy, full of drive and euphoria, and speaks from the soul of all those who have surrendered to their supposed destiny for far too long – and now find the courage to simply break out, to change something. “Settle Me Down” is about the things that give you roots, and in “Loose End” singer Nick sings about when exactly these things are missing.

CADET CARTER sometimes flee into a better world, take the listener on a journey and show him the romanticized idea of an ideal image of our current conditions. The bittersweet look back may seem painful, but “for 36 minutes you were somewhere else,” as singer Nick describes it. Entertaining and with a catchy character throughout, the quartet moves between the tension between escapism and the mood of departure, but always remains subjective, empathetic and deeply human. And in spite of everything, during the whole album the drive emerges to make it better, to never let oneself get down.

In general, the desire for a new beginning, the need to take a new path, is a recurring theme on “Cadet Carter”, which by the way is released in collaboration with Uncle M Music. The Münster-based label is home to artists such as Anti-Flag, Chuck Ragan and Munich’s city colleague Blackout Problems. Just how important a new beginning can be is also shown by a look at the prehistory of CADET CARTER: Nick, Passy, John and Benny have been on the road with their former bands like Pardon Ms. Arden, About An Author or Gravity Lost for quite some time and have now found the people “with whom we can walk our very own musical path”.