CHARLOTTE ROSE BENJAMIN
Charlotte Rose Benjamin is a pink eyeshadow wearing New York City gal who writes songs about not having all the answers. Born and raised on Martha’s Vineyard, Charlotte began performing original music as a teen at local venues and has performed regularly in New York. Fresh off of her latest release 'Party City - Solo' -- the stripped back version of her debut EP 'Party City' -- she stopped by to talk all things live streams, lockdown, and why releasing the solo version of the EP felt the most authentic to her.
Today I have a very special guest: Charlotte Rose Benjamin is joining me. Welcome!
Hi! Thank you for having me!
Thanks for joining me! Where are you currently in the world?
I am at my parent’s house on Martha’s Vineyard. Yeah, I’ve been here for the past six months mostly since COVID got really bad.
But you were in New York before, right?
I was in New York before, yes. I’ve been back and forth a bit but mostly here.
Awesome! And you’ve stayed busy throughout lockdown; you just dropped the solo version of your EP ‘Party City’ on August 7, which consists of stripped back versions of some of the songs from your full EP ‘Party City’ that came out in February. What made you want to release the solo versions of these songs?
I got my start -- I mean, I’m still starting (laughs) -- I’m really used to playing these songs solo, and I really only very recently started playing with a full band and the Party City EP -- not the solo EP but the big EP that it’s based on -- is all pretty much drums, bass, and electric guitars. I love that and I want to keep moving towards that, but I also wrote these songs in a very solo, stripped down way because that’s all I knew before, when I was just playing them that way. They feel really familiar to me this way, and it’s really interesting to hear them side by side with the band versions. And so much of the inclinations of the lyrics and little things change and it becomes more intimate and romantic; I feel like the band just gives it a sassier, more upbeat feel. I love the big band sounds but they feel really familiar to me this way, and I thought it would be nice to have both.
Totally, I thought the same thing. Even though they are the same songs, they sound totally different on your solo EP. How would you describe your sound, because there definitely is some variation between this EP and the full EP?
Yeah, definitely. I don’t know, I feel like I’m kind of still discovering it which is cool. I’m working on new songs now and I think they’ll even sound a little bit different than the last ones. They’re always really lyric-driven and they definitely have some folk-y undertones. I love really vulnerable, specific lyrics, and that’s what I’m trying to do. But in terms of sound, I guess it’s kind of indie rock/pop, or whatever you want to call it. It’s so hard to put yourself in a genre!
Yeah, of course. Do you have any inspirations that you feel have guided your sound?
Yeah! I really love Big Thief. I love Joni Mitchell and Fiona Apple. I feel like I grew up listening to-- like the first music I listened that made me really interested in songwriting and looking at artists was in middle school. I remember I got really excited about Kate Nash, Lily Allen, and Regina Spektor; they were all from across the sea and had really interesting, weird lyrics and cool voices and sad piano girl music. I feel like that’s what made me want to write songs.
I could see that! So you’ve talked a lot about living in New York, and how some of your songs have been written about your experiences here. How do you think living in New York has inspired you to write? If at all?
Oh, so much. I grew up here on Martha’s Vineyard, on a tiny island. It’s really rural. My dad was a musician so I got to sit in on his gigs all the time when I was really little, which was really fun. Like bar gigs and stuff like that. But I feel like I got to the city and I was like, Oh my God, if I had been here earlier… There are so many young kids in bands that are writing songs and performing their songs. It just didn’t really occur to me that that was a thing, and once I got there I was like, Oh! I had always wanted to pursue music as a career, and I think that’s always been where my head was at, but I didn’t know how to start. New York is so cool because there are so many different artist performing and there are so many different venues you can go to and see music. I feel like I was really inspired by that and the people I’ve met; the people who were my age and doing really cool stuff made me feel validated that my dream of doing something was possible. I love New York!
Besides right now, how long have you lived there?
I went to college there in 2014 for just a year, and then I moved back in 2016, so going on five years.
Awesome, New York is definitely inspiring to a lot of people who live hear to it’s great to hear that reflected in your lyrics and your experiences. So in your song “Party City” you talk a lot about all the things you could’ve done, but didn’t. And you also talk about what you’re looking forward to. I think a lot of people can relate to that introspective message, seeing as many people are sitting at home thinking about the past but more aspirationally, what they’re going to do once all of this is over. What are you looking forward to the most once we get out of lockdown?
Oh my God, so many things! (laughs) I just want to go to a party. I want to go see shows, I want to see concerts so badly. I had so many concert tickets that I bought but I didn’t get to see the shows. I want to perform, I really want to play shows again! That’s the biggest one. We had so many cool things lined up that just got cancelled. We were going to go to South by Southwest and do some stuff in England, so that was really disappointing. I’m so excited to play live again for a real group of people and not on a live stream.
Have you been doing a lot of live streams?
Yeah.
And it’s not the same. (laughs)
(Laughs) I mean, it’s nice. It’s cool that people are doing it and it’s really cool that people are watching, because people do seem to come and watch which is really surprising to me. But it’s not the same at all.
Yeah of course. It’s not the same even from a viewer perspective, but it’s the closest we can get right now.
Yeah, you just don’t get to feel the energy in the same way that you do when you’re all in the room together.
As soon as we’re able to I think everyone is going to be really excited to get back out there.
Everyone is going to be out, I think, if it happens in a way that it’s all at once.
Have you thought about doing other types of virtual things besides live streamed shows?
Yeah! I mean talking about FOMO, there are so many people who are finding really creative ways to play music outside or capitalize on social media and YouTube. People are so good at that. I don’t know, I’ve been trying. I’ve really been focusing now on making new music which is cool and I’ve been doing that more in the last couple of months and that’s been really fun.
I think you're doing the best thing, which is actually releasing music and creating something in this time. Well, thank you so much for coming in and chatting with me!
Thank you so much for having me, this was so nice!
This interview originally aired on WNYU Radio with Bridgette Kontner on August 18, 2020 on The Sound Between at https://wnyu.org/archives/2020-08-18-the-sound-between