Last week, CHARLOTTE released her debut EP titled Nowhere To Hide, and this week we had a question and answer interview with her. She’s definitely someone to watch in the coming years as her music releases have been going viral as each song has been released. Prior to the EP release, she had dropped two singles “I Tell Lies” and “Nervous”, the latter of which has been streamed over a million times on Spotify.
We expect CHARLOTTE will continue to have success in the coming years, and her debut EP is a solid emotional collection of tracks that are well worth listening to on repeat. We were honoured to have the opportunity to interview this amazing singer-songwriter about her debut EP.
Hi Charlotte, we hope you are well today. What have you been up to lately?
Hey! I’ve been on tour all year so I’ve not done much else other than playing shows, travelling and getting very little sleep haha!
For our readers who are just discovering you, can you please introduce yourself?
I’m a 21-year-old singer and songwriter from Hull, East Yorkshire. I’ve spent the last four years writing for myself and for other artist projects. I’ve not been in any rush to ‘make it big’, I spent that time focusing on really honing the craft of songwriting and making sure I release my best work.
What made you decide to be mononymous, by using only your first name in your music career?
Honestly? I have the least marketable surname in history, [Beard], so decided to leave it out.
Your debut EP, “Nowhere To Hide”, was released on 7 June, how excited were you?
It’s been hugely rewarding putting my first small body of work out. I can’t wait to see who discovers and connects with the songs.
Can you tell us more about this EP? What can we expect from it?
Each song on the EP has come from a deeply personal place. I dug deep when I wrote these songs and at the time I was scared to play them to others because I felt like what I was going through was very singular. The process I’ve gone through since playing them live and releasing them has been an incredible journey of personal growth and a comforting realisation that I’m not alone in the way I feel.
The EP follows your single release “Nervous”, what is this song about?
I guess in a general sense, it’s my attempt at trying to articulate that almost indescribable feeling between two people who have a connection. Even when things go wrong and you know you can’t be together, you still get that weird feeling in your stomach when you see them/hear their name. There’s a bit more to the story of the song than that though, as it’s also about me screwing something good up. I like to leave a bit to the listeners’ imagination too!
What’s it like knowing that the song has been listened to over 1,000,000 times?
Mind-blowing. It’s not just the number of times it’s been listened to, it’s how quickly it happened. I’m hugely moved by the response to “Nervous”.
Is there a music video for the song, on its way?
I may or may not have filmed it last week… Yes, it’s coming very soon!
What’s it like?
I don’t want to give too much away but I filmed it in an ice rink throughout the night so hopefully, it was worth freezing and losing sleep for!
Your debut single was dropped earlier this year, titled “I Tell Lies”, can you tell us more about this song?
I wrote the first half of that song last year in Los Angeles with two amazing guys who go by the name ‘The Orphanage’. We only managed to get half of the song done in the session so they sent me the session demo and we said we’d finish it on my next trip. For the next few weeks, I couldn’t get it out of my head so I wrote the rest of it at home. On my next LA trip, I got back in the studio with them and we finished it. I knew as soon as we wrote it that it was going to be the first thing I put out.
It also has a music video, what was that like to film?
The music video was so fun, I just drank beer in a pub with some of my best mates and a great director called Thomas Davis caught it on camera. He then incorporated a load of childhood footage of me that I’d picked out from HOURS of tapes.
What does your upcoming debut EP mean to you?
It means sharing the things that scare me a bit to say out loud. So it’s significant for me personally as I’m really opening about things that I’ve only talked about in these songs. I’m much better at articulating my feelings in a song than I am at talking to friends and family about them.
Do you have a favourite track, maybe one we should listen out for, and why?
My favourite track is “Somebody To Hold”. I just feel it as strongly as the day I wrote it every time I hear it and perform it.
That’s our favourite song from the EP too. Where did your love of music originate from?
I think it was innate, to be honest. But my grandparents definitely influenced me hugely. They used to perform soul music together as a duo and I watched them in awe growing up. I’d get up on stage with them, do harmonies, play the tambourine, I desperately wanted to be involved from such an early age. My entire family are just huge music lovers, we’d go to festivals when I was a child and there was always incredible music on in the house or in the car.
Which artists do you look up to in the music world?
There are so so many. I grew up appreciating the soul greats like Aretha (my favourite voice ever), Otis, Stevie and Sam Cooke. And more recently I’m especially into those with a really strong artistic integrity like Leon Bridges, Sam Fender, Bon Iver, Adele, Paolo Nutini, Maggie Rogers, The 1975, the list goes on.
What can we expect from you for the rest of the year?
More music. I have so much ready to put out, it’s just a case of spacing it out so I don’t drop it all in one confusing heap. I’ll be playing as many shows as possible. I’ve already played 56 since the end of Jan so I’m well on track to hitting my goal of playing 100 by the end of the year!
What do you hope to achieve in the next few years?
The most important thing to me is building a sustainable career that allows me to still be performing and releasing music in at least 20 years time. So I’m not in a mad rush to rocket to the top. If in two years I’m selling out every show that I put on sale then I’m heading in the right direction. I think when someone buys a ticket and travels to come and see you perform the music in person, that’s the biggest compliment.
And, finally, do you have a message for your fans?
To anyone who has listened to my music and enjoyed it, I am so glad you have. If you relate to the lyrical content because you’re going through some stuff then I hope things work out okay for you and if you’re listening and relating because you’ve been through it and come out the other side then fucking well done you… have a little dance to celebrate.
Thank you, CHARLOTTE, for taking the time out to answer our questions. We are loving your debut EP and we’re excited for the music video to your viral track, “Nervous”. We look forward to seeing where your career takes you in the next few years.
Nowhere To Hide, the debut EP from CHARLOTTE, is available to download and stream right now. If you haven’t heard it yet, we encourage you to listen to it now and also check out our EP review while you have the time.