COLORSxSTUDIOS

The album is titled ‘Cyan Blue’. Can you tell me about the ideas and inspirations behind the project? 

I have a couple of friends who have really extreme synaesthesia, to the point where they’ll equate colors with musical notes. They’ll say, “yellow is C,” “orange is C#”, or “red is D”, for example. I don’t have that, but I’ve always envisioned a yellow, orange, ombre color when I make music. I thought that was just my internal “Charlotte” palette, but then, when I was working on this album, I realized that everything looked different than it did before. It suited a bluey, greeny, almost colder color palette—though I don’t see blues and greens as cold, because I associate them with nature. I used those colors to craft the sound of the album.

Thematically, I always write about whatever’s going on in my life. I then try to tie those themes to another layer of self reflection. For example, if there’s something I’m experiencing in a relationship with someone, I want to write about that, but also to flip the script back on myself and know the role that I played in any sort of dynamic. Sometimes I’ll go even further, and try to understand how I, at different stages in my life, would experience this feeling.

Do you find it challenging to write about personal experiences considering you’ve previously described yourself as “a little stoic and cold”? What journey did you have to go on to become comfortable with being vulnerable with your listeners?

With ‘Cyan Blue’, I want people to feel like I’m literally and figuratively letting my hair down, that I’m not shying away from the feelings that came up for me while I was working on it. Sometimes, I was writing through feelings of anger, which was new to me. At first I didn’t really want to do it because I was scared it would come across in a certain way. I had to remind myself that I was trying to not let external opinions or voices into the room. So, if anger was what I was experiencing, I had to write about it. 

Can you tell me more about your collaborative relationship with Roshon?

He’s an insanely talented musician and producer and one of my closest friends. He connects to something bigger than himself when he plays instruments. I love watching him. I can tell he feels it deeply.

In the past, I’ve been the person doing hands on production, playing, and engineering for my projects. I wanted to get away from that for ‘Cyan Blue’. Having someone else taking care of that liberated me from getting fixated on details. It allowed me to really focus on vocals.

One of the first singles you released from the album was ‘Canopy’. In the music video, we see you ice skating, wielding a hockey stick, and standing in a shower of snow. Where does this imagery come from?

I’ve worked with the director, Sylvain Chaussee, a lot before. He rollerblades and he knows that I skate. He said to me, “I want to make a video of you skating one of these days.” I thought it was such a great idea—if anyone was going to make a cinematic rendition of me skating, it would be him. In the spirit of being more free, loose, and letting my hair down with this album, it felt like a nice, comfortable way to be able to express my self physically on camera. I’m never going to dance, that’s just not me, but this felt like a really natural and beautiful way to accompany that track.

What do you hope listeners get from the album?

I hope that it can help people feel seen. If there are songs that people connect to, or if people feel that I’ve articulated something in a way that noone else has been able to for them, that would be amazing. Music can be very comforting in that way. It can make people feel less alone.