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At just 22 years old, Charlie Houston is writing the kind of vulnerable pop music that sticks with you weeks after your first listen. It’s nice to see and hear music/lyrics that have no filter; music that is completely a true snapshot into the artist’s state of mind, something a lot of modern pop music is missing nowadays.
Charlie is still early on in her career and was kind of flying under the radar with her first release I Hate Spring, but eventually got messaged by the Grammy-nominated, electro-pop duo, ODESZA, to collaborate last year. She just wrapped up a tour with them and is gearing up to tour with Charlotte Cardin for a string of shows in Quebec this November. On top of that, she just dropped her Bad Posture EP last week, via Arts & Crafts, as she focuses on her Philosophy major studies.
We spoke with Charlie Houston as she was on tour with ODESZA about her thought process, vulnerability, and motivations.
PAN M 360: You’re on tour with ODESZA still right?
Charlie Houston: Yeah I’m in Sacramento, California on tour with them.
PAN M 360: And I saw that you did a little collaboration with them last year. How did that happen?
Charlie Houston: They reached out to me last summer, just on Instagram, actually. They DM’d me, super out of the blue. And they were just like, ‘do you want to make a song together?’ And I’m a huge fan of them. So I obviously said yes. And then the beginning of this year, they asked if I wanted to come on tour with them.
PAN M 360: What was the experience like collaborating with them?
Charlie Houston: It was cool, but it was remote. I didn’t get to have an in-person session with them, which I mean, I definitely would have preferred because I definitely like collaborating more in person. But they basically like we had a few calls together. And then they sent me some just like instrumental stuff that they were working on. And then there was one track that I really liked. And then I essentially just wrote the top line to it. And then we kind of sent it back and forth and workshopped a little bit.
PAN M 360: You have this new EP, Bad Posture, out now. I relate so much to that title. Being a writer, my posture is shit. Where did the idea for the title come from?
Charlie Houston: I haven’t reached the point in my career where I’ve made a body of work that had kind of a cohesive concept, per se. And so and I didn’t want to like force a meaning to kind of attach all the songs together. Thus far, all of the projects I’ve released have just kind of been like collections of songs that I’ve written at a specific time period, but they weren’t necessarily all about the same thing, or whatever.
But my mental state is obviously changing as I grow up. And I have really bad anxiety. And that translates into me grinding my teeth at night when I sleep and then just naturally having all of my tension and stress, and just that emotional state existing in my neck. Like it manifests itself physically in my jaw and neck. And a lot of stuff I write about is stuff to do with, my anxiety and kind of negative emotions to do with relationships and breakups. So ‘Bad Posture’ made sense.
PAN M 360: Were the songs in Bad Posture written during the same writing period as I Hate Spring?
Charlie Houston: No they were written after and I think they’re definitely a progression. Maybe not a progression, but they were written at a different point in my life. I feel like I’m getting more comfortable with being vulnerable in my writing. My song “Comfortable” is extremely important to me and “Lately,” is about my anxiety about dying.
PAN M 360: And you’re only 22 right? With that much anxiety.
Charlie Houston: Yeah like I think of I Hate Spring as writing about that stuff to be relatable for other people, but I feel like now, I’m writing stuff I’m just thinking about if that makes sense.
PAN M 360: Do you ever think about maybe being too vulnerable in your writing or on the flip side, not vulnerable enough?
Charlie Houston: I mean, it’s interesting. I feel like when it comes to writing about things … just kind of like internal feelings, I don’t really think of a filter when it comes to that. I’m just kind of writing directly what I’m feeling and so I feel like I’m normally pretty honest and true to those emotions. But I definitely find when it comes to writing about experiences with other people, I’m definitely not as vulnerable. I get self-conscious about writing very specific details about like, my relationship with someone. And so I feel like that’s definitely something that I would like to become more comfortable with but at the same time not become more comfortable with.
PAN M 360: Have you been writing on tour at all?
Charlie Houston: No. I mean, like a little bit? This is only my second time touring. And this is by far, much larger than what I was doing before. And so I feel like, for the first few weeks, I was very overwhelmed a lot of the time. And I’m also a very retrospective person in my brain. I don’t know why, but it doesn’t really process things until after they happen. In the moment, I just can’t. I couldn’t explain to someone how I feel about something when it’s happening. And so right now, I feel like I’m almost like, on my emotions feel like they’re on autopilot.
PAN M 360: That makes sense. You’re in tour mode.
Charlie Houston: I’m also in school right now. And it’s like the beginning of the school year. And I’m also about to end this tour. And so, before the tour started, I 100% was like, ‘I’m gonna write so much on tour,’ just because I thought that’s what people did. But I feel like I definitely, like just don’t have the mental capacity right now.
PAN M 360: What are you taking in school?
Charlie Houston: I’m majoring in Philosophy.
PAN M 360: Man, I took a few of those classes in University, and most made me feel like smashing my head against a wall.
Charlie Houston: That’s pretty on-brand. I would say with all classes I take, it’s wanting to smash my own head against the wall.
