FEATURE: Spotlight: Charlotte OC — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Charlotte OC

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EVEN though…

I have been following her for a while now, I have been a bit remiss in not including Charlotte OC in my Spotlight series. The Blackburn artist released her latest single, Start of Summer, recently. Her latest album, Here Comes Trouble, was released in 2021. I know there will be demand and exactment around a new album. I love everything she has put out. Even though I have heard her music on the radio, it is not played as widely as it should. She is a treasure of an artist that you should connect with. I shall get to some interviews from last year. I want to start out by sourcing some biography from Charlotte OC’s official website:

“It takes a special kind of fearlessness to bare your soul in song. The Blackburn-raised singer-songwriter Charlotte OC has entered a new phase of her career, one where ruthless lyrics about mistakes made and lessons learned take precedent. Born Charlotte O’Connor to an Irish father and half-Indian, half-Malawian mother, this wild and willful artist has endured everything the industry could throw at her. Already the subject of praise in Billboard, Vogue, Fader and The Independent, she was snapped up by a major label aged 18 then, when she refused to sacrifice her integrity at the behest of faceless executives, was unceremoniously dropped. After a few tumultuous years living in London and releasing music, she returned home to Blackburn, undergoing a reset that has led her to here; to her best and most authentic work to date. 2025 sees the start of a new chapter for Charlotte OC”.

To date, Charlotte OC has released two acclaimed albums, ‘Careless People' and ‘Here Comes Trouble’ and the EP 'Oh The Ecstasy, Oh the Agony' in 2020 which garnered attention from Paper Magazine, Nylon, Clash, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 and entered the charts in Germany. Her music has over 70 million streams and she has performed on the Seth Meyers Late Late show, Radio 1 Big Weekend, Governor’s Ball, Field Day and Pitchfork Paris”.

Even though there has not been an album since 2021, Charlotte OC released the extraordinary 2025 E.P., Seriously Love, Go Home. I am going to go back a bit further than last year to start, as Fifteen Questions spoke with Charlotte OC around the release of 2021’s Here Comes Trouble. She spoke about her creative process. If you have not heard Charlotte OC until now, you really do need to check out her music:

“Where does the Impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

I hear melodies and lyrics more when I'm full of stress or feeling lost. Or if I've heard a beautiful piece of music. I think I've realised music becomes my mate when I feel rock bottom low which is nice isn’t it. (laughs)

I heard the most beautiful song in one of my dreams the other night and I'm still kicking myself that I didn’t wake up and record it when I woke up as it’s now vanished forever.

I'm quite an observant person so most of my lyrics come from things I've noticed from others or myself.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

It depends. It's usually the melody for me, or both lyric and melody.

Sometimes I have the full song ready and it needs tweaking. Every song is different.

When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

Sometimes they come together, usually when I write on my own.

I remember when I wrote "Inevitable" I wrote all the lyrics down on the tube on my the way to the session whilst crying my eyes out in front of lots of strangers.

But then sometimes lyrics can take a while - months or even a year – to feel fully happy with how you’ve said something.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

Again it’s one of those unfortunate things for me, I need to be full of a certain emotion, or there needs to be an element of not giving a shit. All or nothing. My general vibe.
Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?

With this album, the demos sounded like finished pieces. We left them for a month, then came back to them. Breathing space is important and we made a conscious effort to not listen back to the demos after we’d done them. Which was very hard, but it gave us a clearer idea when revisiting.
The song hits you differently and you hear it for what it is instead of making a demo and listening to it till you have no idea what it is anymore”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Stewart Baxter

Last year, EUPHORIA. interviewed Charlotte OC around the release of her latest E.P. This is an artist I have loved for years now. I can’t imagine why I have not spotlighted her. I feel this is the most important time in her career, so I am glad I can get to her now and right a wrong:

“When Charlotte OC took to the stage earlier this year, it had been years since her last performance. Even longer since she’d last released new music, but she is set to break that streak of almost four years with the release of her new EP, Seriously Love, Go Home.

Returning feels a little bit like having to find her feet all over again, Charlotte confesses when I speak with her over Zoom. “Even just like when I’m talking on stage, I’m like, what the fuck am I going to say? How do I even introduce myself? I don’t want to go on about the fact that I’ve not been around for so long. How many times can I swear? How many times can I swear? How many times can I get away with it?” She half-jokes. “It was so many things, but by the second show I was like – right. I know what I’m doing. That’s the whole process of this whole thing, you just gotta keep doing it, and you learn. But it’s petrifying, I was petrified. I’ve not felt like that for a long time.”

It didn’t help that she’d gotten really ill right before those first two shows. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a chest infection like that,” Charlotte tells me. She’s only now, two weeks later, getting at the end of it. “I hated every minute of it. Everyone else seemed to enjoy it, but I hated it. That first show was shit, I knew it was, but everyone was like – it’s your first show back, don’t worry. But that second show, I was so disappointed that I had in my mind what I wanted to happen, how I wanted it to be. I knew what worked, what didn’t work. I went into the next show with that in mind and just pushed the illness aside. And yeah, that was really good. Still not the best vocally, but performance-wise it was great.”

Charlotte’s being really humble here, as her vocals on a bad day far exceed most artists’ best vocals by a mile. It’s no surprise, then, that a lot of avid music listeners have been happy to see her back on stage. Especially after a couple of rather difficult years. She was battling with a breakup, had been forced to move back to London, and was dealing with the grief of her dad’s passing. On top of it all, she no longer had management. “It was enough for me to be like, the world is fucking shit,” she says. “I always felt like there was something always up against me. I guess that’s what makes a good song sometimes, where you feel like your world’s lost its color. However, I did a writing session the other day and I wrote this song in the headspace that I’m in now, and it’s honestly one of the saddest songs I’ve ever written and one of the best songs I’ve ever written. I’m so proud of it, and I thought – so I don’t have to be in this headspace whilst I’m writing. It doesn’t always have to be like this, where it feels like the world is ending in order for me to make great art. And now, when I held my vinyl the other day, I had this moment where I thought. It’s so weird that all of that has culminated in this. I really had to work for this one, and I feel like I didn’t have anything while I was making it. And now to have it, and to be able to hold it, it feels like I’ve done my homework for the first time. Like I’ve done my coursework and handed it in.”

In other words, she’s proud of this EP – as she should be. The songs are evocative, vulnerable, and have that signature smoky sound that gives so much depth to each track and lyric. But maybe for the first time, it also sounds like Charlotte knows exactly how to wield it like a weapon and a warm embrace; whichever the song needs. Perhaps it’s because, also for the first time, she has a different way of relating to the tracks herself as well. “I think this is the first set of music I’ve done where I feel like if someone was to tell me their reaction to a song and how much it’s helped them, that I’d actually understand. I felt like some of my older stuff, I was so young when I was doing it, or not present – I felt like it was just happening. But now, knowing what I went through making it, and then hearing that somebody else has taken something from this, I’d get it and understand their emotion much more,” she adds.

Because making this album in many ways feels like a fresh start, after having taken a break from music altogether. It was a strange alienating experience for Charlotte – going from music being your lifeline, and an embodiment of who you are, to something that you want to avoid at all costs. “I feel emotional talking about it,” she starts. “I can’t believe that I was even in that dark of a place. It’s weird to think that somebody who loves music so much, that it was literally like there’s nothing else about me. I’m obviously a sister, an auntie, a daughter, but music is so everything that I was. I think when it all started to go tits up, and you’re not feeling great about yourself, I’d always thought – no fuck it, everything’s fine. Until suddenly I was like, no, I don’t want to go near it. And I had the luxury to do so, because I took two years out. I was living with my mum, who’s been helping me. But I think they could tell that I was a real mess. It almost feels like a different person – that version of me. My dad would have been livid that I would’ve even been like that. So I’m glad that period of my life is over.”

Turning the page and stepping back into the light has come with a hard-earned sense of pride and satisfaction, and rightfully so. “I think my main focus [when making this] was just to fall in love with music again, because I didn’t even pick up the guitar for about a year, maybe two years. Whenever anybody spoke about music, I’d walk out of the room – I was not in a good place. The fact that this even happened, yeah, I’m proud of myself. And I don’t often say that, because I just didn’t think I’d get there. I didn’t think this would happen.”

She didn’t go at it alone, and mentions how she worked together with her producer Dimitri on this EP after messaging her label as a long shot. “There was a long period of time where these songs just sat on a hard drive and didn’t do anything. I was stuck in a rut for a long time. But then I got taken to the Lake District, and we had some chocolate mushrooms, and I started listening to my music again. It’s when I messaged Dimi and said, ‘These songs are great – what are we doing?’ I didn’t have a manager, I didn’t have anything, so I messaged my label honestly off my nut, being like – ‘I’ve got this idea.’ Because I felt like I was finally hearing the music for the first time. And I actually said to myself, I’m not shit. I just had this confidence of like, this is what we’re doing. And I didn’t even know if I still had a label at the time, but I just sent them the idea I had. And they luckily said, ‘Yes, we’ll help with this.’ So I ended up going to London for two weeks, and we just worked on these demos and that was it.”

Now that she’s gotten a chance to start afresh, Charlotte’s made sure that her involvement in her own team is a lot bigger. “I’m very much involved in what’s happening at the moment, and that was never the case. I was almost babied, but now I’m in every meeting and I’ve got a seat at the table. I’m being held accountable for a lot of things, and it’s refreshing. I feel like I’ve got a proper job now, I’m not a little girl anymore. It felt like that for a long time, especially when you don’t have a steady income. You don’t feel like you’re living a normal life. Now it really feels like I am holding the reins. I’m 34, and that’s genuinely a first, which is a bit mad.”

It’s why, to Charlotte, this EP very much feels like a stepping stone. “Writing these songs, listening to the music, I know it’s going to help me make whatever’s about to happen next. So I just want people to enjoy this for what it is, and know that it’s me getting my feet back on the ground.”

Because there is definitely a whole lot more coming, if it’s up to Charlotte. She’s currently working on booking more dates to perform all over the world, but is also looking forward to recording a full-length album in September. In fact, some of the first sessions have already taken place. “I’ve been writing on my own for a while, but I recently had this session with Craigie Dodds. I don’t know if you’ve heard of him?” She asks me. Dodds is a multi-instrumentalist who, just like Charlotte, has roots in Malawi. “Nobody is from Malawi, but he has a coffee shop next to his studio. And they make amazing coffee from all over the world. So he was letting me smell the different buckets to see which coffee I wanted, and he went – oh this one’s from Cuba, this one’s from Malawi. I looked at him and said, ‘That’s where I’m from.’ And he went, ‘No, that’s where I’m from!’ He’s been wanting to work with me for ages, but yeah, we didn’t realise. He was like, ‘I cannot fucking believe this.’ It turns out he knows my family in Malawi. So it was mad, but I think that enabled me to open up,” Charlotte smiles. “We started the session at 12, and I didn’t leave until 2 am. Maybe for only one hour of that I wasn’t crying. It was just really special, probably one of the best sessions I’ve ever had in my life. It made me realize how much I love collaborating, but also how much it needs to be right and you need to be able to connect, and not just go in to make a hit or anything like that.”

At the end of the day, that’s what music is about. For so many listeners out there, music is what allows them to put words to their feelings – it helps them understand themselves and others around them, as well. But you need an artist to be brave enough to bare their own soul through sound, and Charlotte OC can be proud that she’s done exactly that. She’s ready to turn the page, ready for a new creative chapter, and we can’t wait to hear it, starting with this EP”.

Atwood Magazine spent time with Charlotte OC last July to discuss her most powerful work to date. It is interesting getting her insight into the songs and the route to Seriously Love, Go Home. I would love to see her perform live. I am not sure whether she has any dates coming up. A London gig would be amazing:

“Few artists deliver emotional extremes quite like Charlotte OC. The British artist (née Charlotte Mary O’Connor) has long dwelled in the space between grandeur and grit, balancing lavish arrangements with lyrical intimacy and vocal performances that smolder, soar, and scar. A two-time Atwood Editor’s Pick, she’s been praised for “owning her grief, her messiness, and the undeniable beauty of trying,” and for creating “beautiful, dramatic, and moving soundtrack[s] to the human spirit.” Across her 2017 major label debut Careless People and 2021’s masterful, independently-concocted Here Comes Trouble, O’Connor has established herself as a fearless force – a modern siren conjuring cinematic soul from the depths of human ache. Released July 11th via Embassy of Music, Seriously Love, Go Home doesn’t just continue that legacy – it crystallizes it, distilling her artistry into five gut-punching tracks that soar with heart, honesty, and heat.

The EP’s title says it all – and yet, it barely scratches the surface. “After a few things blew up in my face while I was living in London, it felt like the universe was screaming at me to go home,” O’Connor explains. “Not quietly either like, ‘Seriously mate….you’re a big mess, go home.’ So I did.”

“I was definitely in a self-destruct spiral,” she adds. “I think I moved to London to run away – officially I was supposed to be in sessions, but everything was just falling apart and I wasn’t dealing with anything.”

The road to Seriously Love, Go Home was far from straightforward. These songs began to take shape during a creatively unmoored period. A chance studio session with Grammy-nominated producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Dimitri Tikovoi (whose past credits include Charli XCX, Blondie, Purple Disco Machine, and Ghost) became the unexpected spark for her next chapter. “When I first met Dimitri, we had this really honest conversation about where I was at, what had been holding me back, and what I felt I needed to do next,” she recalls.

“We ended up making music later that day, and there wasn’t any big plan or motive. I think we both just agreed to let whatever needed to happen, happen. At the time, I felt quite lost and in desperate need of an outlet. These songs ended up being the result of that strange, uncertain period.”

“After a while, I had the tracks just sitting there. I didn’t have management, I didn’t really have a plan, and I hadn’t even listened back to them. To be honest, I’d kind of given up. The people closest to me could see I was losing purpose, so they booked a little trip to the Lake District to help shake me out of the rut I’d gotten comfortable in.”

While there wasn’t a grand vision when she began working on these songs, there was a need to exorcise her demons – and music became her way forward. “At the start, there wasn’t really a vision beyond survival,” she shares. “I needed an outlet. As I started writing, I realised I wanted this record to sound like truth. It didn’t have to be perfect or polished – it just had to be real. And somewhere along the way, I found myself again.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Stewart Baxter

That clarity, as refreshing as it is still raw, fuels every corner of this EP. These songs don’t posture or pretend – they bleed. They’re rooted in lived experience, personal growth, and artistic renewal. “It’s unlocked something in me,” O’Connor says. “I’ve been writing a lot lately, and releasing these tracks has made me realise what I’m really here for. I feel closer than ever to my purpose as an artist. This EP is the start of a new chapter and a new kind of confidence in my work. It’s made me fall back in love with music again, and I’m just so grateful for that and buzzing for what’s next!”

O’Connor beams as she calls this EP “just the beginning” – and in truth, there’s lots to love about her spiritual and creative rebirth. Seriously Love, Go Home is a compact but powerful offering, capturing the arc of a heartbreak and the journey back to self. Opener “God, We Tried” sets the tone with stunning vulnerability, lingering in the ruins of a love that was never going to last. “From the soul-shaking cries of ‘God, we tried’ to the aching acceptance of ‘we just need to bleed,’ O’Connor’s words are heavy, weighted down by emotional turmoil – dark storm clouds that have yet to clear up,” we previously wrote for an Atwood’s 117th Editor’s Picks.

It’s a personal highlight for her as well. “I loved making it,” she says of “God, We Tried.” “It fell out of me like it had always been there. The lyrics are straight to the point, not trying to be fancy, it’s just very literal and the emotion in my voice takes me back to how much of a state of I was in around that time, I’m proud that none of that got lost in the process.”

Charlotte OC’s songwriting has always balanced the visceral with the poetic, and Seriously Love, Go Home is no exception. Her favorite lyrics from the EP reflect the duality at the heart of this record: Sensuality, sorrow, surrender, and strength. “You levitate my heart until it’s in my mouth. You elevate the art of what I cannot live without,” she sings on “Strange Influence” – a line that captures the ache and intoxication of emotional entanglement. From the hot, unhinged energy of “Cider and Black” comes the searing image: “Thursday, angel, you’re facing the wall. Your whole body shakes like a Super 8 ball.”

Charlotte OC has emerged from the chaos not only intact, but reignited – her artistry sharpened, her voice clearer than ever, and her passion fully restored. This EP doesn’t just mark a return; it’s a reawakening – a bold, brave reclaiming of self through sound.

“For me, making this record helped me remember who I am. It showed me that I can still find magic in myself and in music, even after everything I thought I’d lost. And I really did feel like I’d lost it all. It’s taught me to trust myself again and also, mum is where the heart is.”

Charlotte OC has always made music that speaks to the soul, but Seriously Love, Go Home hits deeper – not because it tries to, but because it simply tells the truth. Her songs don’t just chronicle a chapter of heartache, healing, and growth; they live it. They pulse with pain, resilience, and grace, delivered through a voice that knows how to shatter and soothe in the same breath. It’s Charlotte OC at her most raw, most radiant, and most real – standing tall in the wreckage, singing her way back to life”.

I will finish with an interview from last August. I do like Bartek Music’s conversation with Charlotte OC. A snapshot of her in action. A truly wonderful artist who grows stronger with every release. I feel that her 2026 work so far signals a new phase and peak. Though Sorry Love, Go Home, lingers long in the mind:

“The two albums you released in 2017 and 2021 show a consistent approach to your sound, blending acoustic elements with touches of electronica, creating a clear artistic identity. How would you describe your creative process, and do you find consistency limiting or liberating?

I just want the music to feel good to me.

In the past, I think I got a little lost and let a lot of outside noise influence me. But recently, making music has just felt joyful again. I’m constantly learning who I am and what feels truly authentic. That’s what I love most about making music. It teaches me about myself in a way nothing else can.

I find your latest EP, “Seriously Love, Go Home” to be a bit of a departure from that consistency, a sort of evolution in sound and lyrics. Was that intentional?

The main focus was to let me come through, without getting lost trying to be something I’m not.

I’ve spent years doing just that, and it got me nowhere. I’m a pretty “what you see is what you get” type of person, so for that not to be reflected in my music felt like a shame. I was in a really fragile place when I made this, and I think I had no other option but to fully dig into who I am.

Any artist (dead or alive) you’d love to collaborate with and why?

I’d love to write with CMAT. Her melodies are incredible and her lyrics are brilliant.

And I’d love for Stephan Bodzin to use one of my vocals. I think I’d actually combust if that ever happened.

Also, George Michael. I would’ve loved to write with him and just be his mate.

Back to “Seriously Love, Go Home” and my favorite track, “Cider and Black.” Shivers and strong Bond movies vibes. Is there a story behind the making of that one?

I was in a really self-destructive mindset at the time.

I wasn’t being a good person or the kind of person I was raised to be. My morals had completely flown out the window, and I was kind of reveling in that. It became my whole personality. I was just really lost, and this song is basically a snapshot of me in action during that time.

And finally, a big step back into your past. Do you remember your first music-related memory? How do you think it has shaped you as an artist?

When I was younger, I was incredibly quiet. My parents were actually worried about how silent I was. And if I did speak, it was usually about my imaginary mouse, Kenny, who I blamed everything on. So yeah, I was a bit of a strange child.

Then one day, I watched “Wayne’s World” for the first time, which also meant hearing “Bohemian Rhapsody” for the first time. I was completely transfixed and met the first love of my life, Freddie Mercury.

That evening, my parents had friends over for a dinner party. My sisters were doing a talent show, and after they finished, I whispered to my mum to put Queen on. I stepped into the center of the room and mimed the entire thing, despite only hearing it for the first time that morning”.

Go and follow the majestic and magnetic Charlotte OC. I think I first heard her music back in 2017. Since then, she has become one of our most accomplished songwriters. With a voice that gets straight into the heart and head, I am interested to see what the summer holds in store and whether she has some festivals on the cards. I would really love to see Charlotte OC perform. This is a spotlight, shout out and love letter to…