{"id":60865,"date":"2025-10-08T09:06:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T09:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/60865\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T09:06:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T09:06:07","slug":"i-was-barely-hanging-on-with-life-now-im-coming-home-cap-carter-on-ending-his-career-then-becoming-a-hit-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/60865\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I was barely hanging on with life. Now, I\u2019m coming home\u2019: Cap Carter on ending his career \u2013 then becoming a hit | Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three years ago, Cap Carter thought his music career was over. The Manila-born, western Sydney<\/a>-raised R&B artist had released an EP through a major label but was told he wasn\u2019t recouping profits fast enough. His label gave him two options: another EP on a shoestring budget, or to part ways.<\/p>\n

Carter chose the latter, splitting with his manager at the same time. \u201cThat was scary,\u201d he recalls. \u201cAfter that major label, big-budget life, you\u2019re literally left thinking \u2018that\u2019s probably the end of my music career now\u2019. It just feels like this big X on your name.\u201d<\/p>\n

On what was intended as a farewell tour of sorts, Carter began putting on DIY shows to thank the fans who had supported him. Airbnbs and underground car parks became his concert venues. \u201cIt got to a point where 100 or 200 people were coming to these car parks \u2026 and it just felt like it wasn\u2019t the end,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Carter was growing an audience online. He had long resisted his label\u2019s suggestion to promote himself via TikTok but, when he went independent, he decided to give it a shot, sending the DM that would kickstart the second phase of his career.<\/p>\n

Carter reached out to rising US pop star Teddy Swims<\/a> \u2013 nominated for best new artist at the Grammys this year \u2013 to ask if he could be Swims\u2019 support act on an Australian tour. Swims was already following Carter on TikTok and said yes. Carter eventually opened for Swims in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland in late 2022. \u201cEverything after that was sold-out tours in the US, sold-out tours in Australia and the UK. It blew up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cap Carter\u2019s 2021 EP, Notes, was written while he was on suicide watch in rehab for addiction. His album Streetlights comes from a different place, one of healing and hope. Photograph: Ani Ziegler<\/p>\n

Half a million TikTok followers later, Carter is about to release his debut album, Streetlights. His 2021 EP, Notes, was written while he was on suicide watch in rehab for addiction, tracing stories of his broken childhood in a church that never felt like home. Streetlights comes from a different place, one of healing and hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in the day, playing around in Mount Druitt as a kid, whenever those street lights came on, it was pretty much mum\u2019s way of saying, \u2018You need to get your ass home\u2019,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a nod to a coming home to safety, a coming home to self. The last EP was chaotic \u2013 I was barely hanging on with life. Now, I\u2019m coming home.\u201d<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up to Saved for Later<\/p>\n

Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia’s culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips<\/p>\n

Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n

In major label world, if it\u2019s making money, don\u2019t change the formula. Keep writing sad shit. Keep writing the shit about addiction and drugs \u2026<\/p>\n

The album opens with a spoken-word passage, immediately fostering a sense of intimacy. Sung, Carter\u2019s dexterous voice \u2013 recorded sometimes in just one take \u2013 leaps from a soulful, smooth croon to something more raw and anthemic over a bed of crisply produced R&B-inflected pop. On Openwater, wordless vocals are lushly layered \u2013 Carter becomes another instrument to accompany himself singing.<\/p>\n

Lyrically, the album communicates a sense of optimism alongside unflinching honesty about the pains of the past. These songs express and encourage the importance of showing up for yourself and your loved ones after hardship \u2013 because, as Carter sings on the album\u2019s opening track, \u201cMaybe there\u2019s still honour in that\u201d.<\/p>\n

The light and shade that colours the album is evident on the closing track, Killing, where Carter peels back the glamour of his artistic success to show that recovery is an ongoing process: \u201cI sold out New York City, thought this dream would make me happy \/ But I\u2019m crying on the hotel floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going independent, Carter says, has afforded him space to reflect on his own progress without the pressure to retread his trauma: \u201cIn major label world, if it\u2019s making money, don\u2019t change the formula. Keep writing sad shit. Keep writing the shit about addiction and drugs \u2026 For me, it would be conflicting with my recovery to continue to glorify what happened in yesteryear, when I\u2019m trying to [move] forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter is about to embark on a tour across Australia\u2019s east coast. These will be his last shows on home turf for the foreseeable future as he turns his focus to the international market \u2013 particularly the US, where most of his listeners live.<\/p>\n

But he intends to leave a lasting mark at these shows. To honour the community spirit that drives his work, Carter is introducing an initiative called Holding Space, in which solo ticketholders can meet up to enjoy the gig together. The idea was born after reading a comment from a fan who was in addiction recovery and didn\u2019t have anyone to go with \u2013 so they didn\u2019t go at all. \u201cIt just broke my heart hearing that,\u201d Carter says.<\/p>\n

Carter estimates that 50 to 100 fans in each city have signed up for Holding Space. It\u2019s no surprise; he\u2019s seen first-hand the rapport that his fans have with one another, from those car park shows to venues 10 times bigger. \u201cThere is a community amongst them that I don\u2019t necessarily need to facilitate \u2026 supporting each other in recovery, supporting each other in real life,\u201d he says. \u201c[In the UK] there were strangers offering each other lifts to the shows and lifts home.\u201d<\/p>\n

This career, and this life, once felt like a distant dream for the little boy from Mount Druitt pictured on the album\u2019s cover. \u201cFive-year-old me would be saying, \u2018Really, we did that?\u2019\u201d Carter says. \u201cIt\u2019d be like telling me that we eventually went to Disneyland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cap Carter is performing<\/a> at 170 Russell, Melbourne, on 10 October, the Metro theatre, Sydney, on 18 October, and the Triffid, Brisbane, on 25 October. His album, Streetlights, is out 14 November<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three years ago, Cap Carter thought his music career was over. The Manila-born, western Sydney-raised R&B artist had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-60865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}