Jasper Llewellyn and Mike O’Malley fell for folk music fast, growing up in the Sussex countryside in the late 00s during the nu-folk era. They learned guitar, banjo and mandolin, could harmonise thanks to singing in school choirs, and busked their way through their teens, playing traditional American folk at weddings. After Jasper met Casper Hughes at uni, the trio got a band together in 2016, although back then caroline (Mike misheard “cowlung”) was a private obsession, a long way from making an album as strange and beautiful as their self-titled debut. Endlessly discussing and designing their spectral, unpredictable songs saw them signed to Rough Trade despite just one brilliant single (Dark Blue) and four gigs in four years.
Tempting five more players into the studio filled out their sound – bass, violin, trumpet, woodwind, sax – but quiet is always a weapon in caroline’s hands. “The more people you have waiting for a cue on stage, the more intensifying it becomes,” explains Llewellyn. “We normally play on the floor in the round, with everyone putting energy into the middle of the room.” Some might find caroline an entirely private experience, but their shapeshifting music seeps out of any box you might try to keep it in, slippery as mango flesh on an ice rink. “We don’t want you to get lost in it, we want you to feel invigorated and present. It’s physical, intense, sweaty.”
caroline is out now on Rough Trade. The band tour the UK, 24 March-7 April
