Words By: Emma Hintz
I pressed play on Charlie’s newest release “Drum Highs” at 1:37 am while walking through the empty streets of downtown st. petersburg alone, I then proceeded to listen to the EP in full a total of five times in a row, and then proceeded to text all of my friends telling them that they need to listen to the EP.
As someone who has spent their entire life in St. Pete and has been very involved in the local music scene in the Tampa Bay area since my freshman year of high school, i’ve seen a lot of bands come and go, for better or for worse. Charlie has been able to keep their sound fresh, and truly transcend the typical “Tampa local music scene” sound that a lot of bands in the area seem to fall trap to (if you know you know).
This EP is one of those things that you listen to and you're like, yeah these guys are going somewhere, these guys are getting out of Florida.
If you are a fan of bands like Hotline TNT, Toner, or They are gutting a body of water, chances are you’ll really dig “Drum Highs”. It is the perfect EP for the fall time, very much something you put on the bluetooth speaker while sitting around the fire with your friends. My personal favorite track is Adjusting, but the whole EP is fantastic and deserves to be streamed in full.
We had a chance to sit down and chat with the Charlie boys to discuss their upcoming tour (see dates here), latest release, and how they got started as a band.
First off, can you give us a little introduction? Tell us about yourselves!
what upp ,, we're charlie , a 3 piece rock band from tampa florida , i'm sally and i play guitar and sing the words ,, micah is on the drums and ban plays bass ,, we also recently have been joined by our friend danny whos gonna be playing guitar for us in this upcoming tour , cant thank him enough
How would you describe your sound to someone who’s never listened to you before?
its big and warm ,, heavy even , a slight constant warble that burrows in the brain ,, its kinda like the small ring in ur ear when its super quite ,, it sounds like welling up but not being sure exactly why , something like that i think
You just dropped your newest EP “Drum Highs”, can you tell us a little bit about the recording process and how this EP came to be?
we recorded the ep in rhode island with our main man brad from big nice studios , it was honestly such a great experience ,, we made a demo version of the album a few weeks before then we went up there and knocked it out in about 4 days. most of the songs on the EP we've been playing live for awhile now so it was sick to finally get to record them
Any major inspiration you can name for the ep?
theres a certian sound that ive been really interested in for awhile but its hard to place it ,, its a very tough exterior with a soft inside kind of sound ,, a great example is make out music by 12 rods , really the whole record is a great example but somthing about that song in particular makes me want to cry fight someone ,, another example is world half over by the glands , just a very cathartic feeling sound ,, i'm not sure if that comes across the way it does in my head but i was pretty much just trying to write songs that made me feel similar
How did you guys meet + how did the band get started?
I've known ban since i was born practically , we kinda grew up together and just luckily ended up being into the same things as i got older , and we both met mike through skating and our local skatepark ,, we later found out he played music too after awhile of knowing each other and we kinda just decided to start playing together , but we didn't start playing as charlie till last year.
You have a tour across the US coming up, what can people expect from these shows?
i would say they can expect to go up ,, not really any other way to put it ,, we just wanna hang and rock with friends old and new ha
Do you have any cities on the tour you’re most excited to hit?
were prolly most excited for phl and nyc ,, the crowds are always so great and we always have a great time visiting homies and skating around ,, also hyped for our release show / send off here in tampa at the american legion post 111 , i love my city , its always a great time playing at home ,, but theres lots of new stops this time around so were excited to touch uncharted grass
What’s next for Charlie?
we got lots in store id say ,, drum highs just came out so were gonna tour that for a bit , we just joined our friend pats tour agency , save the cat touring , so were gonna be hopefully expanding our tour routes this next year ,, we also got tapes coming out soon on julias war recs , big shout out to doug and john and the whole jwar fam. besides that we have some newer songs we've been slowly piecing together so were hyped to finish those up do it all over again ,, hope to see ya at show sometime
As well as “Drum Highs” also go ahead and stream pal’s newest double single, Peace and Love, and Bedside Kites newest release, Sleeping Never.
Comments