Get your speakers ready ladies and gentleman cause you’ll have “Darkest Hour” on replay!
Charlotte OC
We had the opportunity to chat with the lovely Charlotte OC about her new single “Darkest Hour.” The British singer gave us the scoop on the inspiration behind the single, her music idols, what fans can expect from her new album and more.
Can’t wait to hear it? Good news! “Darkest Hour” is out now! Check it out!
Can you talk about how you decided to pursue a career in music?
Charlotte OC: I think the moment I realized that I would like to do it as a career was the first time I went to my first gig which was at Manchester Apollo watching Alicia Keys, and I just watched her. I think the fact that she was behind an instrument; it was just her and the piano and her voice. It just did something to me as a kid I was just like, “Oh my word. Insane.” The fact that she’s a real artist in what she did and what she does, it wasn’t like anything out at the time. She was doing her own thing. I was really inspired; and I love the fact that she didn’t have her clothes off either, she was just fully dressed, she wasn’t looking slutty, sat behind the piano, looking unbelievable, it was just real classy … I thought I would love to be able to so something like this. When I realized I wanted to make music was when my dad was in a band called Merseybeats when he was younger, not for a long time, he was only in the band for a couple of months, but he played guitar so we always had a guitar in the house. I never really wanted to play the guitar because I always for some reason thought it was a boy’s instrument and at that age I was like, “Eww, boys they’re horrible,” so I never wanted to play it. One day he was like, “Oh we’re just gonna go to the shop, do you want to come with me?” So I went with him and I got in the car and he actually dropped me off at this guitar teacher’s house and he’s like, “You’re actually going inside there I’ve got a guitar in the back, get out.” I was like I’m gonna do this. Then I got piano lessons, but I just couldn’t figure out piano. It just wasn’t my instrument I would love to be able to go back to it now, but it just wasn’t for me. It was the best thing I ever experienced and I got obsessed with playing the guitar and once I got better at learning the guitar and being able to join one chord to another that’s when I started to sing the proper chord and then that’s when I started to write. I was 15 when that happened. Then my dad bought me a 12-track recorder thing and I started recording my own songs. Then I uploaded them to MySpace and then it kind of all started there. I’m part of the MySpace generation where things would happen to you if you uploaded music on MySpace. Through that I got signed to Columbia [Records] when I was 18. I’m not signed to Columbia anymore, but that was when I first started in music and yeah that’s kind of the beginning. When I realized that I could sing I think I was like, well at first I didn’t sing. I used to mime “Bohemian Rhapsody” to my mom and dad. That’s when I realized I was a performer cause I used to properly go through it. It was when I watched Wayne’s World for the first time that I heard “Bohemian Rhapsody” and I was like this is the best song I think I’ve ever heard. I became obsessed. I used to mime it at dinner parties; it was weird, I don’t know why I didn’t sing. That was when I think I realized that I was a bit of a show off. Singing wise I think I was in choir at school and it’s quite profound when you know you can sing when you’re younger, but I knew I could do it even though I wasn’t great I knew that I could do it, which is weird but yeah. That’s kind of the background of me realizing that I could do it and wanted to do it.
Besides Alicia Keys can you share with us any of your musical idols?
Charlotte OC: Yeah David Byrne from Talking Heads, I don’t know where to start I think he’s is the best thing ever. Aretha Franklin vocally I think she’s my favorite vocalist. I grew up listening to both her and a lot of Leonard Cohen as well. A lot of Lou Reed and James Taylor yeah they’re like my favorites.
So I got the chance to hear your upcoming single “Darkest Hour” and I loved it. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the song and a bit about the process of putting it together?
Charlotte OC: The song is about my sister who at the time she met this guy when she was 18 and he basically was just the worst person in the world. She stayed with him until she was 30 and they got married and they had the house and everything. He cheated on her every single year that they were together, but because it was all she had known she kind of stayed with him. He was a lot older than her as well and he was manipulative and it was horrible watching my big sister go through this especially cause I was so young, and because I was young it affected our relationship. In the family dynamic cause I’m one of three and I think the eldest is the one that saw both me and my middle sister grow up. In the family dynamic and because of what happened it just kind of wasn’t there anymore. The song in itself, because it affected our family massively, the song is kind of a bit of an even though I was young while it was happening I understand and love you and I’m there for you. A lot of the time I was so angry at her for going back with him and that’s where it affected our relationship. It was just kind of a bit of an olive branch like this guy’s a d*ck you’re so much better than him; I love you and that’s it really. I wrote this song with a guy named Sean Foreman. I only knew him for a day and I told him the situation and he helped me make the song to say what I wanted to say in a really elegant way I think. It tells a story but it has still got a kind of worldliness to it, which I love. It felt like he’d known me forever the way he just got what I was saying.
I also got a chance to look at the music video for “Darkest Hour” and I see there is a lot of crazy makeup and outfits and paint it’s really cool. Can you tell us what your thought process was when creating the concept for the music video?
Charlotte OC: I wanted it to show all the sides of me and there being a duality to kind of stripped down me to the painted me, the more dramatic side of me. That’s the meaning behind the girl in the t-shirt and the jeans with the paint all over the face. I just wanted something that was raw and emotional and I just wanted to tell the story.
How excited are you about the release of this single?
Charlotte OC: I’m so excited! I actually don’t want to tell anyone how excited I am, that would be uncool. It’s gonna feel like my birthday or my wedding day, I know it is. I know that my wedding day won’t feel as exciting as this moment. I am so ready to get this music out. I have spent two years making it and I am bursting at the seams I can’t actually wait.
Last thing other than “Darkest Hour” what can your fans be expecting from your new album?
Charlotte OC: Emotional songs I guess and a lot of drama, a lot of dramatic performances and emotional lyrics.
