The pop genre’s new alt queen once again connects with fans through relatable lyrics
Alt-pop vocalist Charlotte Sands is back with another angsty, alternative track titled “Out Of My Head” featuring Aaron Gilespie of Underoath as a co-writer of the track and on the drums. The songstress just wrapped up a tour with The Maine and is now gearing up to support My Chemical Romance at their U.K. show at MK Dons Stadium in Milton Keys and perform at Riot Fest, Boston Calling, Bonnaroo, and more.
Hailing from Hopkinton, Massachusetts where she was born to an actress mother and a musician father, Sands established herself as someone not afraid to speak out loud early on and skyrocketed to fame with the November 2020 single “Dress,” which is inspired by Harry Styles wearing a dress on the cover of Vogue. The tune quickly became an anthem for self-expression for millions of listeners across the globe.
But the achievements of the last two years didn’t start with the success of the viral hit. At 18 years of age, the blue-haired artist stole her mom’s car, found a roommate on Craigslist, and left home for Nashville, TN, with plans to take a year off of school before attending Berklee College of Music. She never looked back. Raised on 2000s pop punk and rooted in the lyricism of folk singer-songwriters, Sands makes it her musical mission to create a space for people to be accepted and celebrated for their uniqueness and diversity while connecting with listeners through messaging.
In a phone conversation while on her tour bus, Sands caught up with New Noise to discuss the new single, ” Out of My Head,” artistic authenticity, mental health, and more.
You have a new track titled ‘Out Of My Head’ featuring Underoath drummer Aaron Gilespie. How did the collaboration come together?
So I was lucky enough to work with Aaron when he came to Nashville on one of his first writing trips. He started coming more frequently, and we got set up in a room together. Automatically we became great friends and just loved being around each other and working together. He’s such a sweet, kind, wonderful human. It was pretty easy to make music with him, and being able to mix our genres, lyricism, and stories has been a really wonderful experience. He’s a legend, obviously, so I’m really honored that he took the time to work with me.
“ Out Of My Head” seems to give life to the anxious thoughts in our heads. What was the inspiration for the track?
Absolutely. It has multiple meanings and translations for me. In one part, it feels very much like it’s about a relationship that feels overbearing and controlling, which I’ve experienced in my past. It talks about a relationship that’s very controlling, and they can’t seem to get away from this person, but they’re always around, and even when you do get away from them, they’re still there with you. They have this permanent hold over you.
But I think that (the anxious thoughts) that you brought up is very relative to feelings of self-doubt or any negative feelings, that you can never get away from them, and they always have this constant grasp. That’s what I love about music and songs. Anytime someone talks to me about my music, they almost have their own experience of the song. That’s so exciting to me because I’m like “Oh, I wrote it about this part of my life,” and it relates to them in this way, and I love that. I hope that people see it in more ways than I intended.
How did you get your start in alt-pop?
When I first recorded my first song ever, when I was 14 years old, maybe younger—I think my first recorded song was when I was 9. My dad sent it to me a couple of months ago, and it sounds like a 2000’s Kelly Clarkson song. It’s not as good, obviously, but definitely, that was one of my inspirations coming up. I think that I’ve always had a part of me that wanted to have that energetic stage presence, the same as Gwen Stefani and P!nk, these incredible women who were also insane performers. I was like, “How do I do that but then keep the quality of the songs and the lyrics that I also respect so much from Sheryl Crow?” I really struggled for a while to find how the two things can mesh and make sense.
I moved to Nashville, and I played guitar, and I would do writers’ rooms, and everyone automatically assumed I was a country artist, and I was like, “Am I a country artist? I guess so.” But I always knew. It was like, “this doesn’t feel right.’’ I wanna be standing up; I don’t know if I want to play guitar on stage because I wanna jump around; I don’t know if I wanna make people cry for an hour straight during my set. I want them to smile and (have) fun.’
So over time, I started weeding out the things that didn’t feel right while holding onto things that did. Now I’m at this point where I can still experiment, and I feel like it’s gonna change so much. I’m always gonna grow and experiment more with music. I always hope I have the freedom to do that. But for now, I feel really proud and really excited about where I’m sitting in that pocket and where I am with my music. It feels 100 % true and authentic to who I am as a person.
Your lyricism is rooted in that of folk singers and songwriters. What artists inspired this, and what is it about folk music that appeals to you?
So I grew up on Bonnie Raitt, Cheryl Crow, and Alanis Morissette, of course. They were the first inspirations for me when it came to songwriting, and they told these incredible stories. The music always felt different from the lyrics. You have this thought in your head (of), “Oh, this is a happy song,” and then you listen to the lyrics, and you’re like, “This is not what I felt like that song was about.” It was always really interesting to me that you could create music that is happy, upbeat, and energetic but still have meaningful and deep lyrics and stories and these crazy narratives and I love that. That’s why I started writing music. I just wanted to be like them.
You have an ability to craft honest and relatable alt-pop music, a genre that can be the opposite. Why do you think you’re so candid in your songs, especially about mental health?
My favorite songs in the whole world are the ones where people are the most vulnerable, where you can tell it’s not coming from a performative place and a place where it’s like ‘ Oh, this lyric sounds cool’, it’s from, “I hope people get this, and I hope somebody understands what I’m trying to say.” I think that my responsibility as a songwriter is to translate emotion and feelings into words and lyrics. All I can do is translate mine as well and honestly as possible and hope that it’s relatable to other people and can create an environment where people feel seen and valid like they’re not going through it by themselves.
Speaking of mental health, you’re open about it in your music. What made you want to be honest about it?
I remember being in middle school, and I know for a fact that talking about therapy and things like that were not normal. I remember somebody being in my class in middle school and everyone saying, “Oh my god, did you hear? This person’s going to see a therapist,” and it was such a negative thing. I’m really happy with how much our society and our culture have accepted mental health and checking in on yourself and your friends and taking care of yourself.
I’m glad that it’s changed so much, but I’ve also never been somebody who’s afraid to talk about that stuff. I grew up with my family being very open about emotions and very good at listening and communicating. I got the luck of the draw and she (my mom) was able to teach me how to categorize all of my emotions and deal with them at a very young age as well as teaching me that asking for help is a normal thing that you should feel comfortable doing.
I think that I just started talking about it, and then I realized how many people don’t have people like that in their lives to allow them to talk about it and feel comfortable with talking about it. And then I was like, “OK, this is now my responsibility to people,” and I feel completely comfortable with that. There are followers on my Instagram that have never told their mom certain things about themselves, but they feel comfortable telling me. That’s an incredible thing, and I feel really grateful and privileged to create that space and that relationship with so many people. I’m only giving advice based on the life I’ve lived and my experiences, not professional advice. I think having someone to talk to is helpful and important and allowing people to know that they’re not alone goes a long way. It’s the least I can do for people who are putting so much of themselves into my music and my career.
It’s so great that you feel like your music is authentic to who you are. Is it easy to feel the opposite way about your art?
It’s so easy to feel [inauthentic] in today’s industry There’s so much pressure to create stuff so quickly and to create it with certain people, to release music, to create content. For a while, I was like, “That’s more important,” and, “I’m gonna make videos and do this and that.” You forget about the song and the meaning of them and what you want to portray on stage. It’s really easy to get caught up in branding, and I’ve been there, so I completely understand when artists go through these chapters in their careers where they’re like, “Oh, that’s embarrassing. That’s not reflective of who I am.” So it’s part of our journey. It happens all the time. It’s a hard industry to be in, and it’s a lot of pressure and expectations.
What do you want fans to take away from your music and presence in the industry?
Overall, I think my biggest thing is I want people to feel like they have a place, a community, and that they know that they’re not by themselves. That’s the biggest thing that helped me growing up with music, hearing people talk about problems or emotions or things that I was going through. I was like, “If this person is going through that, and they’re fine, then I’ll be OK.” Being really transparent with my life and how imperfect my life and I are and letting people know that they’re not alone and have a community of people who feel the exact same way is the most important thing. All of us are going through life together and all of us are experiencing ups and downs. It’s about being human and the beauty of it all.
Listen to “Out Of My Head” here:
Photo courtesy of Venice Teeter and Impulse Artists
