[Cover photo credit to Kimberly Fongheiser]
Earlier this week, Wildfire Music + News shared Charlotte Dickson’s “2 Attached” from the debut album Collateral Damage by California singer-songwriter by Charlotte Dickson on Blue Élan Records. Now we share four more songs with our readers from Dickson, drawing from relationships to robbery from the alternative pop songstress in today’s interview article, as we celebrate this engaging new release.
Available digitally from Blue Élan Records
Warren Kurtz: Congratulations on Collateral Damage. Let’s begin with a song we have already shared with our readers, “2ATTACHED,” the steady tempo alternative pop song with the harmonies you have created, surrounded by a great band.
Charlotte Dickson: Yes, what a wonderful band we have. There is Adam Menez, Nick DiOrio, Bruce Watson, and Denny Fronheiser, who also produced the album. My music is inspired by Ethel Cain, Lola Young, Julia Wolf, and Maggie Lindemann. I notice that a lot of my songs are slower like Ethel Cain’s songs, but I wanted to throw something musically fun in “2ATTACHED.” When I go on stage, I want a song where I can move around and make it fun for everyone yet have a similar lyrical vibe as the rest of my music. The song is about the attachment to familiarity and love. When you are in a relationship, it can go bad, but you may be too attached to the person to leave. The song addresses sticking with comfortability versus doing what is best for you in the long run and what will make you happy.
WK: “Casualty” has a nice sound and a great arrangement. It shows your vocal range, and the guitar is catchy.
CD: That is Bruce playing the twangy guitar in the background. I wanted the song to have an eerie sound, and he did a great job portraying that. It is a dark twist on a fairytale.
WK: With “Nervous,” there is quite a power that kicks in for the second half of the song.
CD: This song is about being uncomfortable in a relationship because of all of your own things you are going through and how that can impact both people. I wanted it to feel like a lingering slow burn, then all of a sudden, it comes to the forefront.
WK: The theme on “Happy for Now” reminds me of when Alanis Morissette had her breakthrough 1995 hit “You Ought to Know.” It is catchy with a driving tempo, yet it is contrasted by the change in relationship theme.
CD: I wanted this song to explore fighting with your own emotions, with a peppy, upbeat sound, but also sad, when you listen to the lyrics. It is about the feelings you get after a relationship goes bad, specifically about cheating, yet wishing that person the best because you care about them. You were with that person for a while and still have positive feelings. On the other hand, there are negative feelings where you want karma to happen.
WK: The album concludes with “How It All Ends,” and again, your harmonies come through nicely. The song has such a full sound, beginning with the drums.
CD: I didn’t plan on “How It All Ends” being the finale, but the song title certainly fit as the album’s ending. The song itself is about a personal experience that I had in an armed robbery. It is a depiction of my thoughts and memories throughout the entire experience from beginning to end. I wanted to incorporate sirens. There are parts where the instruments build up and I tried to make my voice sound like a siren. My goal with the harmonies was to add as many vocal parts as possible that I could think of, filling it out before it would become too much. There were probably around five layers of vocals to achieve that effect, and we even doubled them. I wanted it to feel heavy.
WK: I am so sorry. That explains the line, “When did I last tell my parents I loved them?” This terrible event inspired such a powerful finale, that I have listened to so many times.
CD: It is not something I ever thought that I would get caught up in. Luckily, I was one of the only people in the store where they didn’t really look at me like a target, because I was around twenty, dressed like a child, in my sweatpants and a bright pink oversized hoodie. They probably thought that I wasn’t someone they were focused on. That must have helped me out a lot, but with the experience itself, I thought about if it did go wrong for me, all the things that could have happened and the things that I did avoid, so I threw that all into the song. Thank you for having me, chatting with me, and all the Wildfire Music + News coverage of my music.
Warren Kurtz, a long-time music journalist and author, can be contacted at fabulousflipsides@yahoo.com
