Charlotte Lawrence’s Breakout Moment

Charlotte Lawrence knows how it sounds. Her Spotify page goes all the way back to 2017, with two official EPs, north of 20 singles, and a large smattering of official remixes for good measure. But on Friday, June 27, the singer-songwriter will officially, finally release her debut album. “It almost feels like I’m cheating saying that,” she admits.

It’s early May when I meet Lawrence for afternoon coffee in Beverly Hills. As her music can attest, Lawrence is a natural storyteller, and today is no different. “This place is so cute,” she says when I compliment her choice of location. “I used to date this guy who lived three streets down or something — and when I say date, I mean I was obsessed with him. This was was the only place he’d go, so I’d make my friends drive 35 minutes with me from Brentwood to go to this coffee spot just in the hopes that he would be here.”

Lawrence, 25, has almost certainly crossed your radar before. She’s an actor, currently starring on Apple TV+’s Bad Monkey; a model; and often the center circle of the Young Hollywood Venn Diagram. But with Somewhere, she’s cementing herself as a serious musician ready to stand the test of time. “It took me so long to make this album,” she says. “I went through so much making it, and I learned so much. I learned how to play new instruments and dove into my love for music and didn’t half-*ss anything.” A snapshot of her transition from “leaving this blanketed world of innocent childlike joy and snapping into the adult world,” the album shows Lawrence firing on all cylinders; the payoff from years at work having its moment to shine. And what better way to make your debut? “It feels really exciting to be able to be like, ‘This is my debut album. This is my introduction to the world,’” Lawrence says. “Even though I know it’s not, I’m going to own it as it is.”

Here, Lawrence talks the challenges of making the album, working with Ben Gibbard, and more.

How did this process of making a full album start? Did you have a moment of “OK, this is what I am writing for?”

I always knew that I wanted to make an album. The first song I wrote for this album was “Bodybag,” and when I wrote that song, I was like, “OK, I want this to be the start of the album.” But there were a million moving pieces and all these things that come from COVID and sh*t I couldn’t control, but also the sh*t I could control, and with all the stuff, it just took so long. And I’m never going to take this long to make a f*cking record again. But I remember writing “Bodybag” and being like “OK, I know now what I want to say in this album.”

And what was that?

It was the feeling — nothing is as depressive [as “Bodybag”] on the album. I just felt really confident in my songwriting abilities and in the sound, just who I was as an artist. So I wrote that song, and I was like, “OK, I’m going to dive in and work with people that I love and that inspire me, and make a project stemming from this.”

“I’m never going to take this long to make a f*cking record again”

Knowing you’re doing it with an album in mind, was the writing process different from working on your EPs?

Honestly, I was still young when I made both of those EPs. I didn’t have any f*cking clue how the music industry worked. I was just kind of like, “Yeah, I’ll write a song. Yeah, I’ll put out a song.” Like, “Oh, you want to do an EP? I don’t know what the fuck that means, but sure, I’ll put it out.” I was still in high school and loved music so much and loved performing and writing and every aspect of it, and I knew that was what I wanted my life to be and my job to be. But I was very fortunate in that I didn’t, at the time, need to do that for money. I was still at my parents’ house. It was very lackadaisical, which is why I think the music was the way it was. And it was fun and light and happy, or sometimes angry, but just all really fun. And young, which I love. But as I grew older and I entered into the adult world and got out of school and stopped living at my parents’ house, it became my biggest and most important priority. So I’ve since then understood how the music works, understood what an EP means versus an album, and all that it entails. And that it’s not just like “Oh, I’m 16 and I can just write a song and release it and not give a sh*t.”

This is your version of a 9-to-5.

It’s my job now. It’s ridiculous. It’s not a real job, but I always make fun of people to their face that pretend like it is — obviously there’s aspects that are taxing and hard, long hours are frustrating, physical touring is so hard, all this stuff. But when you look at it on a wide scale of things, we’re the luckiest f*cking people in the world.

One of your main collaborators on the album is Ben Gibbard. How did that come to be?

He’s my favorite person in the world. I have been the biggest Death Cab for Cutie fan forever. And The Postal Service — that album changed my life growing up. Ben has been so pivotal in my youth and current adult life. His music has inspired me more than anything else.

What was the first Death Cab song that had you hooked?

“I Will Follow You Into the Dark.” I know it’s one of their biggest hits. I would literally listen on repeat. And Transatlanticism, that entire album is a no-skip album. I’ve been so obsessed with him for so long, and I started noticing a lot of these really incredible musicians in bands were dipping their toes and producing for other people like Aaron Dessner. I was like, “Who am I so deeply inspired by? Who’s a dream collaborator? Ben Gibbard, that would be sick.” But I haven’t seen him produce for anybody else really, so I asked my manager. I was like, “Honestly, I know this is a huge shot in the dark, but if I don’t ask, then the answer is going to be no. So why not ask? Can you get me his phone number?” And I sent him a message.

“Ben has been so pivotal in my youth and current adult life. His music has inspired me more than anything else.”

Had you ever crossed paths before?

Never met. No connections. So from my heart, I was just like, “Hi, I’m such a humongous fan of yours. If you’d ever want to work together, I would be so f*cking honored. Here’s a song of mine I just wrote.” And I sent him “Bodybag.” Two days later, he sent back a text with a fully produced version of “Bodybag,” and was like, “You don’t have to use this. I was just deeply inspired. I’d love to work with you.”

What did you do when you got that text?

I freaked the f*ck out. I was like, “Oh, my God, when?” So I went down to Seattle for two weeks that first time, and we wrote 10 songs or something.

Were you nervous walking into that studio?

I was so nervous. I’m so used to walking into a room and commanding a room and going “You do this, you do this, let’s do this chorus. I like this thing. Let’s write about this.” But with him, my total gut instinct was like “Let me ... sit back and let him do his thing,” because he’s just so fantastic. I had to build up courage for the first few days to even just try and write in. He would be like, “What do you think? What should we say here?” And I’m like, “I don’t know. What do you think?” Then we obviously got into the swing of things and just really connected.

I just am so honored that we worked together. People think of Ben Gibbard as the incredible front man that he is, and the singer and the musician and the songwriter. But what not a lot of people know is that he f*cking plays every single instrument flawlessly. He’s best drummer you’ve seen, the best bass player. He has a million synths and can f*ck with all of them, and also can get on the computer and do all the electronic sh*t. He’s the sauce.

How much of the final album did you work on with Ben?

I made most of the project with Ben and Andy Park, who’s f*cking phenomenal and has been a solid partner of Ben’s for a long time. I had a few songs from before Ben, and then I did a few sessions in between. Then I went back to Seattle for a week, and we wrote three more songs that all made the album. It’s taken so long to put this album out that I can’t wait for it to be out there in the world. And then be like, “Hey, Ben, can we work again?” I want to put the music that he worked so hard on out into the world, and then be like, “Can we do another one?”

You have a text drafted for June 28.

It's an automatic send at midnight. I’m just like, “I can’t f*cking believe he worked with me.”

Would you say the album has a narrative throughline, lyrically?

Every song that was written for this album captured the point in my life that I was in it literally that second that I was writing it. It’s hard for me to write songs about things that I haven’t been through. I have so much respect for people like Taylor Swift that can write a beautiful story about some character in a movie that she saw or from the perspective of a friend. That is so f*cking cool to me. And I know I have enough confidence that I could if I really pushed myself.

She is also on her 12th album. This is still your first.

Exactly. But it’s so much easier for me to do it from my perspective. And I use songwriting as such a therapy that it’s almost like I need to write songs about what I feel or I’ll just be a wreck in my everyday personal life. So with this album specifically, I went through a lot right before, during, and after COVID, as did the rest of the f*cking world. I was 19, 20, and 21. I had a sh*tty relationship before this beautiful one that I’m in now. And there were just a lot of moving pieces, and it felt like everything exploded at once.

I was leaving this blanketed world of innocent childlike joy and snapping into the adult world: This is what real pain is like, in relationships, with family, with friends. It took a second to actually physically go through it. And then when I could see a little bit out of it, I wrote a bajillion songs about it, until I couldn’t anymore. The first time I went to Seattle, I was in such a sh*tty place, and it was nice because I didn’t know anybody in Seattle. I didn’t have anything to do in Seattle. I didn’t even go out to dinner. I would wake up, go to the studio, leave the studio, go to sleep. Postmates every day. I think it’s hard to say what the whole album is about in its total, but it’s the two years of my life that I spent making it.

Something I hear a lot from artists coming out with their first album is “I’ve had my whole life to write this album.” But for you, it sounds like it really is more a snapshot of a specific time in your life.

Yep. There’s maybe 100 songs I’ve written that have not come out, from literally 2017 to now. And maybe they will one day; maybe they’ll f*cking die forever. But I feel like what I went through in 2018, 2019, and after were just so pivotal for me, and not only personally, but as a musician. It just felt right writing the album at that time and using the pain to write it. And not all the songs, again, are dark. Some of them are really fun and happy and and light and beautiful. But the album in its entirety, I would say, is primarily just the perspective of a young girl growing up and going through first real heartbreak and first real love, and a sh*t ton of anger, and also a lot of joy and fun and experimenting with the beauties and the hell of life.