Categories: News

Rising pop-punk star CHARLOTTE SANDS shares her new EP ‘Good Now’

Fresh from winning the Heavy Music Award for Best Breakthrough Album for ‘Love and Other Lies’, Charlotte Sands today unveils her new EP ‘Good Now’. The EP continues Charlotte’s rapid rise in 2023, which has also seen her earn her debut Radio 1 airplay, tour as a special guest to PVRIS and perform at both legs of the Slam Dunk Festival, where she also joined PVRIS and The Maine (performing their collaborative single ‘Loved You A Little’, a Top 5 Alternative hit) during their sets.

The ‘Good Now’ EP captures Charlotte’s artistic diversity, which spans turbo-charged pop-punk, emo intensity and bombastic synth-rock – all of which is united by her powerful and passionate delivery of lyrics which expose her inner vulnerabilities. It compiles her four recent singles – ‘Six Feet Under’, ‘Alright’, ‘Tantrum’ and ‘Lost’ – with two brand new songs in the shape of the title track and ‘Lovesick’.

Charlotte says, “The ‘Good Now’ EP is about a lot of different experiences and stories throughout the last year of my life, but overall it’s about my struggle with disassociation. My entire life my goal has always been to connect with people, it’s why I make music and why I love to perform, so when I started to experience an overwhelming disconnect from my life and the people around me I became extremely anxious, afraid that my biggest motivation and (what felt like) my reason for existing was going to disappear. I still experience these feelings every day and that fear still exists in me, but through creating these songs I was able to find peace and reassurance that I will always find my way out.”

The EP’s two new songs live up to the standards that Charlotte established with its previous singles. Merging punchy alt-pop with raucous rock elements, ‘Good Now’ sees Charlotte battling against a surge of excessive self-analysis that can only prove to be self-defeating – yet emerges with a song that perfectly introduces the EP’s themes. The other new song, the acoustic-based ‘Lovesick’, is the most introspective moment on the EP and showcases her voice at its bare balladeering best.

She adds, “‘Good Now’ is about self reflection and how frustrating it can feel to be overly self aware to the point of being unable to exist without analysing every reaction and emotion. This song is supposed to mirror the feeling of spiralling, ultimately giving up control and giving in to the downfall.

‘Lovesick’ is about being unable to connect to someone but desperately wanting to. It’s about the experience of feeling distant or disassociated and the inability to let someone in even when you need them. This song is also about mourning the version of myself that could let my guard down without the fear of getting hurt and missing the person I was before failed relationships and hurtful experiences made me jaded and self-protective.”

Charlotte wrote or co-wrote all six songs that feature on the ‘Good Now’ EP, which was primarily produced by Danen Reed Rector.

After recently also playing as special guest to Simple Plan, Charlotte’s upcoming live schedule includes North Americandates at Lollapalooza, Reverb Music Festival and Life is Beautiful Music & Arts Festival, followed by the Emo’s Not Dead Cruise early in 2024.

Charlotte’s story could have started at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, but instead she stole her mum’s car to drive herself to Nashville to throw herself into the local community and go straight into her own artist project. It was a gamble that paid off as her music – inspired by P!NK to Paramore via Bring Me The Horizon and Katy Perry – connected with a constantly growing following. It resulted in over 140 million streams to date, plus shows and/or collaborations with My Chemical Romance, YUNGBLUD, Charlie Puth, Taking Back Sunday, Ava Max and Sleeping With Sirens.

Listen to ‘Good Now’ EP – BELOW:

 

XS Noize

Mark Millar is the founder of XS Noize and looks after the daily running of the website as well as hosting interviews for the weekly XS Noize Podcast. Mark's favourite album is Achtung Baby by U2.