Phantogram in Charlotte

About the artist

Phantogram is an American Indie music duo from Greenwich, New York, consisting of Josh Carter (vocals, guitars) and Sarah Barthel (vocals, keyboards). The duo write and record in a remote barn in upstate New York called Harmonie Lodge. Carter and Barthel have been friends since preschool. In the summer of 2007, Barthel returned home dissatisfied with pursuing a visual arts degree at Champlain College in Vermont, and Carter returned home after a brief stint in New York City with Grand Habit, an experimental band formed with his older brother, John. The two friends reunited and worked on finishing some of Carter's earlier songwriting ideas, then finally formed a band. They played some live shows, but decided to focus the bulk of their energies on making records. The duo was originally called Charlie Everywhere and used that name to perform around the Saratoga Springs area and to release two EPs on local label Sub-Bombin Records. Upon signing with UK label Barely Breaking Even on January 26, 2009, they changed their name to Phantogram. Carter suggested the name Phantogram when the band wanted to switch from Charlie Everywhere to "something liked." Upon looking up phantogram, they found that it referred to an optical illusion in which two-dimensional images appear to be three-dimensional, and noted parallels between this meaning and their band and music.