Top | Khoon Hooi | Jewlry Charlottes Own

CHARLOTTE only released her debut track ‘I Tell Lies’ in February, but the young singer-songwriter is already earning the attention of some of music’s biggest names. Lewis Capaldi has tipped her for greatness, Ed Sheeran described her cover of ‘I Don’t Care’ as “wonderful” and Jess Glynne invited her to open for her.

Her immensely promising career took flight when ‘Nervous’, a track from her debut EP ‘Nowhere To Hide’, was highlighted near the top of Spotify’s New Music Friday. It went onto amass over 2 million streams and earn further support from BBC Introducing, Wonderland, Clash, tmrw, Sunday Times Culture, The Sun and more. CHARLOTTE continues to soar with the release of the video to her new single ‘All My Life’.

The video documents CHARLOTTE during the recording of the song. Written and co-produced by CHARLOTTE, ‘All My Life’ captures her undeniable star quality, her nuanced vocal gift brimming with soul and emotion. Backed by a restrained production of piano, sparse-yet-impactful strings and layered vocal harmonies, it builds towards an elate conclusion with CHARLOTTE powering into full voice.

CHARLOTTE explains, “This song is raw, honest and emotional with no frills. No fancy production. No autotune. I wanted the video to capture that. We filmed me recording the song in real-time, laying down the piano part, recording the vocals and co-producing. It’s really special to me”.

Having hit the Reading, Leeds and Barn On The Farm festivals this summer, CHARLOTTE just came off tour with Dennis Lloyd prior to the COVID 19 Outbreak, Her previous support shows have also included gigs with Jess Glynne, Lewis Capaldi, Au/Ra, Wrabel, Picture This and JC Stewart.

Hailing from Hull, CHARLOTTE’s voyage into music began when she was a child. She performed in her grandparents’ soul band which toured the UK and Europe. CHARLOTTE subsequently played in local pubs until her family moved to Singapore in her early teens.

CHARLOTTE landed her first big break in 2018 when she was discovered by Grammy-nominated hit-maker Toby Gad, who signed her to his publishing company after just one writing session. And with credits as varied as Beyoncé, John Legend, Madonna, Demi Lovato and Fergie, it’s clear that Toby Gad knows a star when he sees one.

We met CHARLOTTE at NOVOTEL Canary Wharf in London and received the VIP treatment on the set of her photoshoot, shot in one of their stylish hotel suites…for an exclusive Q&A with the rising star.

You’ve worked in LA with Toby Gad a producer and songwriter who has worked with the likes of Beyoncé, how was that experience for you?

I met Toby Gad when I went out to LA for the first time. I just finished traveling for three months after I finished school to get some headspace and get all the partying out of the way before I finally knuckled down. It was a mutual connection between my manager and someone he was good friends with, she knew Toby Gadd and it was just an industry thing that put us in contact. I knew nothing about the trip until I got back from traveling, so I basically was told ‘Oh you're going to LA in a couple of weeks,’ which was crazy for me something that I didn’t really see happening that soon. I went for a meeting with Toby he asked me to play a song and I played it and then he offered me a publishing deal, so it was a really crazy run of events and then we have written together loads since then.

What has it been like to receive so much support from other artists, you have received support in the forms of praise, performing and touring with various artists including Ed Sheeran, Lewis Capaldi, Leona Lewis, Jess Glynne and also Mika, which you just finished touring with recently.

It’s been kind of the ultimate form of acceptance and reassurance that I’m doing something good and it’s been really surreal at times. Leona (Lewis) got up at my London show before Christmas and said she wanted to sing with me which was crazy and everyone in the audience was like what is going on? I was just like I don’t know. So that was awesome and playing shows with Lewis (Capaldi) has been amazing just any artist kind of giving you ‘the nod’ that I think what you are doing is good enough to take the risk of putting you on first at my show despite the fact you’ve only got two songs out or whatever point of the year it’s been. It has just been a nice motivator to keep doing what I’m doing and a really great feeling.

Suit: Zimmermann Boots: Sergio Rossi Bralet: Charlottes own

You have done a lot of touring how have you found the experience?

Last year I did 110 shows! A joke at the beginning of the year that my manager and I had was let’s just do a hundred shows this year and then it got to October and we accepted a tour with Dennis Lloyd that was 19 shows and we realised that included a couple shows that were bolted on the end of my own at the end of the year that we were going to be well over 100 and that was crazy and I’ve loved touring it’s been a great experience. Performing live is my favourite thing but also I think you have to earn your stripes with that and the more you do it the more natural you get on stage and the better the vocal performance becomes and I knew that I wanted that to be one of my main focuses last year. I love touring and I love going to new places.

Your Song Nervous and All my Life has been featured on the popular TV Show Love Island…

That moment was hilarious I don’t think it’s what people thought it would have been. I’d be watching Love Island on TV like everyone else in the country and that my song would come on and I’d be like oh my God, but I was on a train I had been in London doing something probably in a session and I was asleep and then my phone started buzzing and I think 14-15 calls were coming through at the same time and my phone just turned off. I was like has someone died!? What’s going on here!? Then I had to plug my phone in and turn it back on and when I turned it back on I had never had so many notifications in my life from everyone I’ve ever known ever.

When did you start writing songs and what is your process?

I wrote my first song when I was six, I really hope my songs are better than they were then but it was just kind of instinct, diary writing and poetry combined. I’ve always been a very imagination-driven person. I am very happy with my own company as well. I think that to be a songwriter that will write by themselves as well as with other people… I think you’ve got to be a bit like that. I can get inspired by absolutely anything and I feel things really intensely, which is a good and a bad thing. I’ve honed the craft of songwriting over the last couple of years. I waited four years before I put anything out and that was just me solidly songwriting learning from other people like Toby Gad from amazing songwriters that gave up their time to work with me and it’s something that I hope I’ll get better at as I grow up and learn to articulate how I feel.

You lived in Singapore, could you tell us a bit about the experience of living abroad?

I lived there from the age of 14-16, I did my GCSE’s there. It was just quite a strange time to emigrate I think because it took me a while to settle into secondary school when I was in England and I felt like I had just settled in. I had just found the right friendship group in my school and my parents were like … ‘And we’re moving to Singapore!’ I was like Oh Great… It was quite turbulent and I had to change all my courses. We moved away from all of our family and I’m such a family oriented person, obviously, we moved as our family unit, but I’m so close with my grandparents and my cousins who were quite young at the time it kind of felt like I was being robbed of seeing them grow up. I was quite angry about the whole thing pretty much the whole time I was there. I didn’t really enjoy it, but now looking back it was an incredible life experience and It definitely made me grow up. I did loads of songwriting when I was there because I felt quite isolated. It was definitely when I honed the skill of channeling my emotions into song. It wasn’t when I started songwriting, but It was definitely when it became more of a thing.

I guess you had more time to do it than if you had stayed in the UK?

Definitely! Music became maybe even more vital and I just kind of shut myself in my room. I had a piano in there which was amazing and I was just in there on my piano.

Is it much of a different culture in Singapore?

Singapore has got a huge ex-pat community. It’s literally just high-rise buildings and banks, huge oil industry and port. There were a lot of British people there, but a lot of the people I had went to school with had lived in Singapore with British parents their whole life. Everyone was so rich it was crazy I had just never seen anything like it and that in itself was quite alienating. That move for my family was life-changing in a sense, because my dad got a promotion and it took us out of Hull, and it was incredible and you know how it works if you’ve lived there. Yeah, the company pays for your housing and relocation costs, etc. For my parents, it was a really good opportunity they got to keep the house at home because they did not have to pay for the move or any of that stuff and it just meant that they could come back from it better off, which was good but when we were there I was going to school with people that had 6 houses around the world or they holidayed on super yachts and I was like What!?

It is a bit mad.

Yeah, I guess socially what was expected was that you had money coming out your ears and that you could do whatever whenever. When I was in Singapore, so that I could try and fit in my parents gave me an allowance. When I was at home it was like you want money to work for it, but when I was in Singapore I couldn’t work because it wasn’t legal. It was enough that I could go out and do one thing every weekend when I had all my mates like we are going to do this on Friday this on Saturday, this on Sunday and then we’ll go shopping. I was like yeah I’ll just have to come on Friday and skip the rest because there was just that complete difference in lifestyle and behaviour around money, that was very different from Hull. I think I wouldn’t change it and I met my best friend when I was in Singapore which is still my best friend now, who was from a similar almost identical situation, moved out for the same window of time and from an almost identical background, so that was an amazing thing to take away from it and I would never regret how much I grew up.

Dress: Rotate by Birger Christensen Trainers: Lacoste Jewellery: Charlottes own

You were invited to the Brit Awards and also sponsored by MasterCard, congratulations! Could you tell us how was the experience?

It was hilarious! You know the photos you sent through from the shoot there is that one where I’m laughing and that’s after I took the phone call, which is kind of funny because that’s what it’s about. That was a crazy day because I had just finished tour the week before. I went straight from the last date in France to a ski holiday, so I flew into London for 23 hours to the Brits then flew in and straight back out again! I was absolutely shattered! But it was a really cool experience and the beginning of a partnership with MasterCard, which is exciting and I went on the red carpet […].

Did you go to an after-party?

I would love to say that I was that rock and roll, but I had to fly out the next day, so I was queued up for one of the after-parties and I had a big bag with me and I was like ugh…so I just decided to go to bed.

We saw you took a selfie with Lizzo, was meeting Lizzo a highlight for you?

That was hilarious! Yeah, so I had access to the press room, where the winners go, which Lizzo somehow infiltrated as she wanted a picture in her second dress and like no one was really allowed to talk to her, but I sweet-talked her security guard and managed to get a selfie.

Suit: Zimmermann Boots: Sergio Rossi | Jewlry Charlottes own

That’s cool! I don’t really like it when they say you can’t talk to someone you’re in the same room with it makes it a bit weird and awkward then right?

Yeah, a lot of the really famous people are very like you can’t talk to them, you get told you can’t talk to them and there are only select radio stations that are allowed to interview them, but I guess everyone wants to talk to them, so they have to be selective at some point.

What music inspired you growing up and what do you think are the biggest influences on your music?

My grandparents played music as part of their job, they were a duo and they played soul music and I was witness to that for a lot of my childhood. I was very into the kind of music they were playing, which was like old classic soul stuff and that’s the stuff I have on heavy rotation now. It’s that timeless, amazing and rich soulful tone vocals. Those classic songs, so like Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Luther Vandross that kind of stuff is kind of the core, but also when I was 2 I think I was obsessed with Kylie Minogue and was for most of my childhood, so there was a very broad spectrum of stuff I listened to growing up. I definitely soaked up what everyone was listening to, so I took some of the stuff my mom was listening to, my dad, my brother, and it wasn’t probably until I was a bit older then I found artists for myself. I remember discovering Amy Winehouse and becoming obsessed with her and also Adel, just those powerful and soulful vocals are definitely a thing that’s a head-turner for me and I become emotionally connected to. I’d say I predominantly listen to male artists and I don’t know why […] and if I listen to female artists they are usually a lot deeper, not like a high pitched vocal it’s that kind of that deep rich vocal that I’m into, which with my cold right now I’m definitely exerting. I love British bands as well I’ve definitely been influenced by some indie stuff as well. I love Bon Iver… especially more in recent times is experimental and RY X which I think is from California. There’s atmospheric stuff as well… I mean I don’t know how I would sum up my musical tastes it’s very broad… if it moves me then I’ll become addicted to it and I’ll listen to something over and over again.

What’s your party trick?

Ha! Yeah, I have this noise that I can make and it’s almost like ventriloquism because my mouth doesn’t move. But it’s not that impressive when you can’t see me, because obviously, I could have an instrument-making this noise. I used to teach kids drama, singing and dance when I was like 16-19 and then that was the thing that solidified my connection with the kids; that blew their minds and it was inexplicable to them.

What do you think about the influence of social media on music nowadays with YouTubers and other social influencers getting record deals? For example, KSI which was never on route to being an artist and the outcome is not necessarily that great (sorry ksi) yet it’s still charting and in Youtube’s top trending music videos when released.

Ha! I think the effect of that is that, because stats and public reaction to everything are so visible now on the internet you can see how many followers someone has and how many people really buy into a person. People’s connection is not just with musicians anymore, but any personality online is so strong now that that person could probably fart and someone would buy it.

Do you think it’s become just a popularity contest?

There is definitely a huge part of the industry that is that. You can get a record deal even if the A&Rs at a company don’t believe in you, but they believe in the ability to make money because they can see people buying into you. That’s why if you want to take music seriously and you are a genuine talent you have to maybe go a different way and not just try and compete in the contest of oh this is how many followers I have and this is how many streams I have, but I think the real strength you can now have […] and one of the ultimate complements is if someone actually buys a ticket to watch you live. I think if you can prove yourself to a label that people want to put their hand in their pocket and travel somewhere physically and watch you, which is not necessarily something I think you would do if you didn’t want to spend the night watching someone that couldn’t sing especially early on then that’s how you can kind of combat this online world where it is a bit of a stats game and less of a talent game.

How do you find using social media yourself? Is it something you just have to do now?

Yeah, I hated it and I remember having the butting heads thing with my managers at one point saying it’s not good for my mental health and especially since I was going through a phase of having really serious battles with body image and stuff it was just perpetuating a constant feeling of almost depression for me because everything I saw was just contributing to a negative feeling about myself and about other people as well.

Yeah, social media opens up that opportunity of comparing yourself to others…

Yeah, I mean the whole highlight reel thing and now I think it took for me to step away and sort that out and come back and portray myself exactly how I am on social media for me to get along with it, but even now like over Christmas… I came off social media for Christmas for pretty much a month and then I went straight back on tour and I was getting you’re not posting enough and you’re not doing enough stories because I got so used to just living in real life again that there was no part of my brain going ‘Oh I must now let everyone know on Instagram that I’m now doing this’.

Yeah, It’s like an extra pressure now for everyone now…

Yeah, it’s like it got to the point that I was like I don’t want to get back to that, but at the same time it has become a bit of a necessary evil, and people that have abstained from it and tried to get away from it for ages even they are now getting to the point where they are going we really do have to get on here now to reach people.

You’ve also become a bit of a YouTuber and I saw that you interviewed the singer Calum Scott, how was it being on the other side and interviewing him?

He’s one of my really good friends, so that was a situation where I think a couple of days before he was due to film that content he decided that he didn’t just want to film a video he wanted someone to be there to bounce off. He was like you’re one of my closest mates and you bring out my personality will you come and do it? And I was like yeah I’m free, but I was also in the studio that day so I had to rush over to do it, but I thought it will be a nice thing to do because it wouldn’t really feel like an interview it will just be us chatting and someone else filming it. I mean that’s fun I love just having a laugh and I’m always cringing at the thought of how it’s going to come across on Youtube because I don’t normally do personality content like that and I hate my talking voice.

I think you have a good talking voice, I guess everyone is just not used to the sound of their voice played back, so how do you know Calum then is it through music or are you from the same area?

We are both from Hull, we were literally born in the same town. But I’ve known him since I was 17 just from the music scene. We have this hilarious thing were we always bump into each other everywhere apart from home, Ha!

Are you more of a cat person or a dog person?

Dog, I prefer dogs as well... I have my dog with me right now. What dog is it? Labradoodle.

What’re your plans for the rest of the year?

The main plan is that I am setting up a music studio at home on Monday not in my house but in Hull, which I have not done before. I am going to go there to write on my own for a while and then I’ve got a summer full of festivals. I got my first couple of festivals outside of the UK there is one in Norway called Bergenfest and then two in Switzerland I’m not sure what else, but I’m playing Transmit in Scotland which, will be really fun. The summer will be full of live stuff. So before that, I just wanted to take a chunk of time where things are a bit less crazy and I can be in one place because, really over the last 12 or 13 months I’ve not been home really for more than 4 or 5 days, and I think not just for creative purposes, but also for my health just to be in one spot and have home-cooked meals, because my life is one big delivery order. Yeah, that’s going to be nice just to remember where I’m from and be inspired by that and hopefully, that will come through in the music.

When you visit all these different places do you have time to do touristy stuff?

Yes, and No. I think I have a rule now… and actually for Christmas this year I got two of those you know scratch maps of the world? I got one scratch map and one where you put dots on, one is for where I have toured and one is for where I have actually been and explored because they are very different things. The last tour I did with MIKA there was a couple of chunks of time where we had time off to explore, so I’d say out of all the places we toured the only place I actually visited properly was Rome because we took a day off and I also took the train and went to Pompeii, which was really cool. Out of everywhere, I’ve been last year, I probably can’t think of more than three places I’ve actually explored the rest has just been train station/airport, venue and hotel then leave.

T-Shirt: Zimmermann Trousers: Zimmermann Duster: Felder Felder

What’re your plans for the rest of today then?

I’m still unpacking from tour Ha! I literally put my life in boxes and put it on the bus, so it’s like I’ve moved house! So, I’m still just trying to get through that. […] Also, there is a charity that I have become an ambassador for called ECHO, I’m going to hopefully open up a shop or something and some of the clothes that I’ve only worn once or twice […]’m going to start selling them on and all the money is going to go to ECHO, so I need to set that up this week as well.

Follow Charlotte on her…

We met CHARLOTTE JANE Tipped To Be "The Next Big Thing in Music" by Lewis Capaldi at NOVOTEL Canary Wharf in London Ahead of the 2020 BRIT AWARDS !