Carpenter Brut has a real name. You can Google it. For now, though, he’s just Carpenter Brut. He’s 45 years old, French, and overly apologetic about his English (it’s fine). Most importantly, he has a penchant for big beats. That’s all you need to know.
“People know my real name because, one day, a journalist told people,” he says, over a Zoom call with no video. “It wasn’t my choice. The rules from the beginning were that Carpenter Brut needed to be secret – people just had to focus on the music, the story and the visual. You don’t know the face of the CEO of Nike, but you know the brand. That’s enough.”
Carpenter’s sharp – he’ll trail off mid-sentence to translate a word he’s unsure of, thinking ahead. Quicker than a DeLorean at 88mph. He has to be. Since forming 10 years ago, he’s gathered increasing momentum.
Releasing three ordinal EPs (reissued as an LP, between 2012 and 2015, he swiftly established his ‘thing’: garish, Justice–style rhythms and John Carpenter synth lines, flecked with guitar that’s heavy enough to crawl onto the Hellfest
