Charlotte Chipembere was born and raised in Westlake Village, California, where she often found herself fixating on wealth and appearance from a young age. As a brown girl in a predominantly white town, Charlotte spent much time contemplating her place in the world, ultimately finding solace and expression through music. She began singing in her church and school choirs and started writing her own music during her senior year of high school. Her song "Melanin," produced in her low-budget home studio, garnered 40,000 streams without any promotion. Influenced by the versatility and ethereal qualities of artists like Beyoncé and SZA, Charlotte has developed a unique sound blending rock, indie, R&B, and pop. She values connecting with listeners who resonate with her music, finding healing and unity through these shared experiences. Stef sat down with Charlotte to chat about her journey and latest single, "Tunnel Vision," for our latest Five Fast Facts!
Photo Credit: Mackenzie Ryan
SJ: Hey Charlotte! We’re so excited to sit and chat about you and your latest release!
CC: Thank you for having me!
1. SJ: You were born and raised in Westlake Village in California and talk about having access to an immense amount of resources, but also spent time coming to terms with wealth and appearance at a young age being a brown girl in a predominantly white town. How did that experience lead to your journey into music?
CC: I just want to clarify that what I mean by immense resources is that our school district was phenomenal as was our art programs, and I was surrounded by families with parents who were in their 40s but looked 20 and made an egregious amount of money. Westlake is great but sometimes it doesn’t feel like a real place. Growing up my family had a lot of financial ups and downs. Being around so much wealth distorted my view on what was normal—especially in middle school when pretty much everyone is insecure, I had a really hard time. I had a meltdown over not being able to get Lululemon and Uggs because everyone else had them just to paint the picture. I wanted to fit in so badly! My body didn’t fit Brandy Melville quite right like my peers, I didn’t know how to do my hair, boys that I had crushes on made fun of my box braids, and appearance-wise I felt like I couldn’t win. I’d take my feelings to the piano and write songs or as I fell asleep I’d turn on my voice memos to sing to. It was how I coped. I had a friend in High School who showed me how he recorded his songs on his computer and put them out and he encouraged me to do the same. That’s when I released “Melanin” on Soundcloud which got a lot more attention than I expected.
2. SJ: Which artists are you influenced by and feel that resonate most with you and your sound?
CC: I’m influenced by a lot of artists but I’d say a few big ones for me are Olivia Rodrigo, Ariana Grande, SZA, and Billie Eilish. I love everything Olivia does, but her more rock songs like “So American” and “All American Bitch” are standouts to me because of the in-your-face energy they bring. I’ve been an Ari stan for forever, I like the way she stacks harmonies and definitely try to emulate that. SZA’s free-flowing lyricism really inspires my writing process because she lands so many bars outside of a conventional song structure, it's raw. Billie and Finneas are geniuses with insane experimental production, especially on their last album. With “Tunnel Vision,” Wilson my producer and I just kept saying “How can we make this sound weirder?” And it wasn’t weird in a bad way but we wanted unique, distorted sounds throughout to match the thought distortion I was having obsessing over a man.
3. SJ: You just released a new single, “Tunnel Vision.” You mentioned that initially you were not going to release this song as a single, and instead wait for a full project. What was the inspiration for this track and its release?
CC: The inspiration was from an old situationship with a guy I found insanely attractive. He was smooth too but he was a player. I stuck around for the few times he was not playing a player and was just himself, but that didn’t happen a whole lot. What changed my mind about the release was how uptempo the final product turned out. The voice memos in my phone were really slow and I just didn’t see it being enjoyed as a single.
4. SJ: Can you tell us your songwriting process and message behind the track? What was the recording process like?
CC: I have had the line “brown on brown skin monochrome, you’re a dog just wanna bone” written down for a long time but couldn’t keep going. I had another situationship that started to make me feel like I did in my old one that allowed me to continue writing. I think a lot of us put our romantic interests on a pedestal because of how badly we want to be loved and be in a relationship. Recording was dope, I actually played the piano on some of it because Wilson liked how aggressive I played the piano when I sang it to him for the first time, but he brought in the arpeggios. I wanted it to sound very dreamlike but kind of a too good to be true dream with distortions that break it up. I think we accomplished that.
5. SJ: What is one song you wish Charlotte Chipembere wrote?
CC: "The Greatest" by Billie Eilish. Insane song.
SJ: What’s next for Charlotte?
CC: I’m trying to get an EP done, but I have way too many song ideas. It's a weird problem to have. Maybe I’ll skip the EP and drop an album. I just know it's going to be a while regardless because it is really important to me that there’s a clear storyline in the work and continuity throughout. Until then, I’ll keep dropping singles! I’m planning to release another one in August! Still working on a few things, but it's happening and I’m really excited about this one!
"Tunnel Vision" Photo Credit: Mackenzie Ryan
Listen to "Tunnel Vision" below!
Credits:
Songwriting, Performance: Charlotte Chipembere
Production, Compostion, Mix: Wilson Mcbeath
Drums: Caleb Hoffman
Mastering: Nathan Dantzler
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