Charlotte Lawrence Owns Her Sad Girl Era

“I wanted this to be my coming-out party to the world.”

Lawrence has been releasing music since 2017, when she was a teenager still living with her parents, writing between parties and high school crushes. Early tracks like Sleep Talking and Just the Same quickly found an audience, and her breakout moment came with Joke’s on You, featured on the Birds of Prey soundtrack, which introduced her to an even wider audience, cementing her as one of pop’s most intriguing young voices. “Back then, I was just having fun”, she says. That shifted when she wrote "Bodybag" at the start of the pandemic. Heartbroken for the first time, she poured her heart and feelings into the song without holding back. “That was the moment I knew", she recalls. “I wanted to make an album where every song felt real and honest. I didn’t want to slip in anything that wasn’t authentic to me.”

"Bodybag" set the tone for Somewhere; stark, vulnerable, and unwilling to hide from her true feelings, with a rawness to her lyrics that makes them feel like diary entries whispered through a mic. In the album, it doesn’t just write about heartbreak, but also about the way love can empower and redefine oneself. Listening to her songs feels like talking to your friend who won’t sugarcoat the truth and lay out the situation for what it is. Somewhere is a debut album that doesn’t feel like a debut at all, but more so like the work of an artist who knows herself even as she admits she’s still in motion.

At the same time, Lawrence has been finding a new voice on screen. She appeared in Apple TV+’s Bad Monkey season one, based on Carl Hiaasen’s novel. In the first season, Lawrence played a smaller role, “a piece of the puzzle” as she calls it. But in the upcoming second season, she’s stepping into a much bigger role. “I’ll have a true character arc and really play next to Vince” she says, her voice a mix of nerves and excitement. Acting, she admits, once felt like the opposite of music, telling someone else’s story instead of her own. But the deeper she dove, the more she saw the connection to music and how acting required her to use her own emotions to fully embrace her role.

Lawrence has always gravitated towards sad music. Her playlists are filled with Bon Iver, Elliott Smith and Jeff Buckley. “All I listen to is sad music, no matter what state I’m in,” she laughs. “My pre-show playlist was 90 percent sad music, and my manager was like, ‘You’re supposed to hype people up, not make them cry. '"But her inspirations don’t stop with sad men. She’s equally drawn to strong women redefining pop, such as Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter, just to name a few. She respects their individuality and the way their musical style is instantly recognizable. On Somewhere her influences come through. She collaborated with close friend Gracie Abrams on Ophelia, a track born from their quick friendship during an effortless writing session. She also worked with Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, a bucket-list collaboration.

Since releasing her debut, Lawrence has been on the road for the Somewhere Tour, for which she prioritized intimacy and connecting with her fans in the most direct way possible. The set list includes various stripped-down versions of her songs with a few breaks to lash out to some of Lawrence's bangers. Her shows often feel like a safe space where mistakes are allowed, emotions are spilled, and ex-boyfriends are called out, while still having the time of your life.“I wanted to start from scratch,” she explains, by playing the songs as she wrote them: raw, vulnerable, and sometimes messy. Just a week before her New York show, festivals like Lollapaloozas saw her in a different light, stepping out with a full band and different energy. “I love both," she says. “When the crowd feeds me energy, I give it right back. That’s why songs like "Dog" are so much fun. I love it, they love it, and it feels like we’re creating an experience together.” The contrast between the quiet and intimacy of her smaller shows and the production of bigger stages embodies the album’s duality.

In the end, Somewhere isn’t just an album title, it's where Lawrence lives right now. Somewhere between acting and music, somewhere between sad playlists and fun crowds, somewhere between intimacy and vulnerability.

Let's start with Bad Monkey. You were on season one, and you've started to film season two. Tell me more about what this experience has been like.

It was so much fun to film season one, the story itself is just so incredibly interesting. Carl Hiaasen is such an incredible writer and getting to play a small part in that wonderful cast was absolutely thrilling. We start filming season two in September and it's a whole different story, a whole different crime, and new cast members. I have a much bigger role and I'm really, really excited to work with Vince Vaughn.

What's something you can share about season two that's gonna be very different from season one, other than the storyline?

I don't know how to say this without giving too many spoilers … but in season one I was a small part in this big puzzle and in this second season I get to really have a true character arc and play a really major part next to Vince. So I guess that's new for me, specifically that I’ll be in every episode and really shine. I'm very excited, but also nervous.

How's performing on screen different from performing on stage for you?

I used to always think that they were these complete opposite things. With music I get to express my feelings through my own written words and I get to do it my way. With acting it felt like expressing somebody else's words and having to tell somebody else's story. I would always view the two as opposites until I actually delved into acting and gave it a try. Very quickly I realized that they have so many similarities and, at least for me, you cannot be a decent actor without using your own emotions and that’s what I found worked for me. Similarly to music, it’s like a therapeutic outlet to let out the feelings that would naturally come to me. They're two different types of art that are wildly different, but I think all art connects, and can inspire, and feel good at the end of the day.

You've been releasing music for a while, dating back to 2017, and you just released your debut album Somewhere. Tell us more about the album and why was now the time to release it?

Well it's funny because I will forever say debut album because technically it is my debut album. It's my first ever full-length album. But I have released a bunch of singles and two full EPs before. So this is technically my third project, but a 100% percent full-throttle first album. As a kid I always felt that all the real artists I respected, loved and looked up to all had albums. You listen to their whole album top to bottom and appreciate it as a music lover and view the story of the artist in its entirety through this longer, thought-out album, and I always wanted to do that. When I was younger, I was releasing music and I was literally 16 years old in high school, dating boys and partying and having fun and not really giving a care about anything. I always loved music, it's been my passion since I was a kid. I had never not been writing, singing, playing the piano or guitar, it was always my thing. But I had no pressure on myself. I [like] a little bit of pressure sometimes is nice to lock in and take something seriously. It was more like “This is so cool that I get to do this and have fun and like not give a care in the world” versus “No, I'm gonna really take this seriously and do this”.

Did you go into the project knowing it was going to be an album?

Right when COVID started, I made "Bodybag" which was the first song for this album. I had just gone through real-life shit and was heartbroken. I felt really sad, and angry, and all these different emotions that were really new to me. I felt like I was entering my adulthood, full throttle, when I was losing those last bits of innocence and facing reality head on. I made that song and kind of used that as the expectation point for myself of what I would want to feel towards every other one of my songs for this album in relation to pride and excitement. I just love to be blatant. I worked really hard when I made Bodybag. And then I was like, okay, I want to do a full length album, top to bottom. I want to have it really thought out. I want to have it be really me and authentic. I don't wanna compromise. I'm not gonna slip in a song that doesn't feel authentic to me just because I think it would maybe please somebody. And I did, and I really took my time because I needed to find my sound and focus on who I wanted to be as an artist, because I am viewing this, and it is technically my debut album. I was like “I'm gonna view this as my coming out party to the world”. I took my time so that when I released it, I didn't have to take my time anymore. I don't want to ever take that type of break again. I want to release another one in a year, and another one, and tour, and this and that and so forth, and never take those pauses again.

Do you think Bodybag set the tone for the whole mood of the album and what you wanted it to convey to the people listening to it?

Yeah, I think it is definitely the saddest one on the album, or at least one of the saddest ones. But lyrically, I think it did set that tone and it does convey what I wanted it to convey. Especially because I was super vulnerable and really honest, and didn't hold back. I wasn't afraid to be looked at as weak, sad, pitiful or whatever negative emotion you could kind of attach to it. I was just like I'm human and this is how I felt and this is what I was going through, so I'm going to write about it and not care how it's perceived necessarily. And that kind of became the continuing pattern throughout writing the rest of the album. And I guess it's also the strong thing about any form of art - It's like a vulnerable feeling, you know? I also relate to most art that is like that, like as a fan of music, you know?

What’s the hardest and most personal song you’ve ever had to write?

Probably, either Bodybag or Us Three were hard to write and Bodybag is the hardest to sing. On this tour that I'm on right now, I have just been doing it acoustically, me on the piano, and it's always hard because it still makes me sad that song and it's just in general like a sad slow song.

I love sad songs, this is the thing. I have a whole playlist of sad songs that I listen to even when I'm happy…

Of course! I love it, it's what drives me. All I listen to is sad music, no matter what state I'm in or what's happening. For shows on this tour, they asked for a pre-show playlist. My manager was like “You're supposed to hype people up before your show and they’re all like crying..” And I'm like, okay, okay, I'll switch it up. But trust me, I'm obsessed with it.

If you can tell me, what's one unreleased song that you love that may never see the light of day? And why not?

When writing music, I write it with the intention of it being solely for myself but 9/10 times it always ends up being for everybody. But I like going into it with the idea of “no one ever is going to hear this”. It allows me to be free and not hold back. I have a song called Blue that I love so much. It’s really pretty and I specifically have a very sweet personal attachment to it. Whenever I go through any of my old things, or think about old songs like that, that's the one that will come to the forefront of my mind. I've never even sung it on Instagram or anything, It's very much just been for me, only, which is kind of nice.

I chose to not ride with it for this one because I already have a song called Navy Blue and another called Violet Blue on this album. There's so many blues, blue is me. I’ve had blue hair, it’s in my lyrics, my album cover is blue, everything about it is blue. Maybe I'll do it so that each record I put out has to have something with blue on it. So then maybe Blue will come out on another record.

Who are some of your biggest musical influences? in general and on this album?

I grew up obsessing over sad music. Bon Iver was always my number one and I just would listen to those first two albums on repeat until everybody around me would be so fucking sick of them and exhausted by me nonstop playing them. Elliot Smith, I've also always loved so deeply. I always gravitated towards really sad music, sung by a beautiful male's vocal, like Chris Martin from Coldplay. Those first two albums are so special. I really, I think like a beautiful a man's voice that sings really sad, vulnerable, open and honest melt my fucking heart and I really love it so much. I also love all these Powerhouse women that command a stage and have their own individuality like Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers, Gracie Abrams, Olivia Rodrigo, and Sabrina Carpenter. So yeah, I'm inspired either by really depressed men or, um, really powerful women.

If you could pick a dream collaboration or someone to bring out on a show or work on a song with, or who would it be?

Bon Iver, honestly, or Steven Stevens, I would die to sing with them. I got to write a song with Gracie Abrams for my album and that was fucking incredible it felt like a dream and a half. I love her so much as a person, and as a friend, and now I have this beautiful song that'll last forever and reminds me of my love for her and our friendship. I also got to collaborate with Ben Gibbard, the frontman of Death Cab for Cutie who is one of the greatest of all time in my opinion. So I really did get to hit a few check a few boxes on this album and collaborate with some of the fucking best of the best.

You're currently on the Somewhere tour and it's a very stripped down intimate show, tell me more about what it was like putting this show together and what went into it.

I wanted to do this very stripped down tour for a long time. I think that because I took so long making this album I wanted to kind of view this as me starting from scratch in a way. I'll never negate or disqualify my earlier songs that people love, like Sleeptalking, and I’ll forever perform them live because they's so much fucking fun. But I really wanted to start from square one. I wanted to book small rooms all around North America and play these songs as I wrote them, stripped to the core and just being completely vulnerable, and open, and mess up a million times and just having it be an incredibly intimate experience that I can share with the people that support me and love my music. I'm not going to do this type of thing again, from here I’m going to do a full band and have it be a bigger show and keep growing. We had a really fun show for New York and it was the best fucking crowd ever. I got to dance my ass off and it felt so exciting and different from this stripped tour, but I'm excited to strip it back down again.

You said you collaborated with Gracie on Ophelia. At the show, you said writing a song can be incredibly hard, but with Gracie, it was the opposite. Why was that?

It was so perfect because we know each other so well and we can finish each other's sentences because it's so easy and simple. Sometimes if you work with somebody you know so well it could either be the easiest thing of all time, like it was with me and Gracie, or it could also end up being the opposite because maybe I won't feel comfortable enough to be as vulnerable about what I want to write. But sometimes it's easier to be super fucking open and say all the crazy things to somebody that you don't know as well. It's always, it's just a tossup of what works. And I just feel so comfortable with Gracie and I always have been, she just means so much to me. I wasn't afraid to say whatever I wanted to say, or say something stupid and her be like, that's not a good line. It’s like talking with your bestie and how easy that is and when you have no filter and no care. Her mind works so beautifully, so it was very easy to put it all together.

What’s your favorite song to perform?

I mean Somewhere is always really fun for me because I feel like I really get to rock out, scream and go crazy. But I’ve noticed the fans really love Dog, which has also been really fun. We dance and joke around, and I change some of the words and I like the reactions I get from people. Anything that the crowd really loves is what I love. We feel one another and it feels like an experience together versus just me playing something that I love that nobody really knows. Dog is the perfect mix for me because I love it, and they love it.

You described Bodybag as a very emotional song, but at your New York show it was particularly emotional and you cried for the first time on stage ever. Why do you think that was?

I’m really moved by kindness, I always have been. Seeing a sold out room in New York City at the Bowery Ballroom, where I've been to 100 concerts, I got really moved by the gratitude that I felt for the people that came to support me. Every time I would look at the audience it was filled with smiling,

singing, attentive, lovely people. And in Bodybag, I talk about the Bowery bar; I'm namedropping the place that I'm performing at. I felt a wave of gratitude from these people that were spending their own money coming to my show and supporting me. It's not just a career to me, these have been my dreams since I was a kid and I get to fulfill them because of the people in the audience. Also my grandparents came to the New York show and they live in Florida, and they're much older now. Just to make you even more emotional, my grandpa doesn't have the best memory anymore so he prints out my song lyrics so that he can sing along and remember them. So the whole show I was trying to was trying to focus on the lyrics and the chords and stare at one person in the crowd so that I wouldn't think about my sweet grandparents and my family.

Have you ever written a song about someone and they still have no idea it's about them?

No. I think I'm too obvious. I think that a lot of them haven't acknowledged it or talked to me about it, but I know they know. I mean, I like drop addresses basically, I’m not holding off. I was fully like talking about my ex for quite a second, like shitting on him on stage last night.

What's something your fans don't know about your life as an artist that you wish they knew?

I feel like I'm pretty much an open book, I kind of give no fucks. I write about everything that I go through in my music. Also on stage, I literally burp into the microphone and talk about wedgies, and pick my wedgies, and curse like a fucking trucker, and have no filter whatsoever. So I do feel like they actually do know me. The fans that come to the shows and message me, they know me. I think that one thing that maybe would be surprising is that a lot of my earlier music is very fun and about going out and hooking up, and having fun, and partying so it seems like I live a very exciting fun life. In a million ways with my career, it is the most exciting fun life. But the reality is that now I walk my dogs, I drink my magnesium tea, watch like a hundred episodes of New Girl, and go to bed at 9PM. I am slowly turning into a grandmother, my parents stay up later than I do.

Story and Photography by Vincenzo Dimino