The DIY bedroom pop artist releases his new single, “Duvet Days” out today. Charlie Bennett is a 22-year old DIY bedroom pop artist who emphasizes the bedroom aspect of the genre.
“I make songs in my bedroom at 3am and I hope you like them,” he shares when asked to define himself as an artist.
Based in the UK, Bennett is an independent and entirely self-taught artist that values authenticity in his music above all. “I don't try to polish things too much. I like things to just be raw… I usually try and keep the first take of something, even if it's not perfect.” His musical journey began in 2018 when Bennett uploaded his first YouTube video. The inspiration behind his first upload was the channel “The Worst Taste.” The account posts songs from Soundcloud onto YouTube to their larger audience. “Most of [the videos] are just people sat with an acoustic guitar with voice memos just singing a song… It initiated this idea for me like ‘oh, you don't need a big production budget in order to make something that people like.’”
Through that thinking, Bennett began recording covers in his bedroom where he slowly built up a very loyal and supportive community. “I owe everything to everyone who's streamed a song, watched one of my live streams, supported me at all in any way, shape, or form.” Following uploading covers Bennett began wanting to share his own music but this required him to know the basics of sound mixing and producing. So the Googl-ing commenced. “I just sat down and did loads of research on how the industry worked, how you submit music to Spotify, what record labels do, just everything that I could think of.” Bennett adds “Everything I've learned has just been free from Google or YouTube.”
Bennett emphasizes the importance of YouTube and Google to fellow creatives because at times the music industry can “feel very gatekept” but he encourages people to learn and do what they love “that's why whenever I do my live streams and people ask me questions like. ‘Charlie, how did you record this song?’ or ‘What microphone did you use?’ or ‘How do you produce this?’ I'll always take the time to reply to those questions because that information should be accessible”
This DIY method to Bennett’s music release and creation has built him a strong community of creatives that communicate through group chats and a Discord server with over one thousand members. “I'll send snippets [of new music] to my Discord and be like ‘so what do you think about this?’ So my music now is very much feedback led, I'm making it with the guidance of my community. So while it is just me and my bedroom but also I've got one thousand people on the other side of a computer screen.”
Having collaborated with his audience and refined his sound Bennett is “marking a milestone” in his music career with the release of his latest single “Duvet Days.” The single is the title track of Bennett’s first EP, that is set to be released later this year. “I haven't released an EP before or anything longer than a single… It’s just something I really wanted to do. The name comes from the fact that all the songs on the EP were all written and recorded in the same bedroom within a week.”
The title track of the EP “Duvet Days” released August 12th and is about comfort and nostalgia. “You know when you were younger, and you were sick and you couldn’t go to school and you'd spend all day in bed watching cartoons? [The song] represents that kind of feeling where you just like your entire existence is based in this one bedroom.”
Comfort and coziness is a common theme in all of Bennett’s music but this feeling is also exuded through the music itself. The vocals are always compressed accompanied by echoed harmonies that have a quality that makes you feel Bennett is speaking directly to you. Paired with a singular acoustic guitar transports you to Bennett’s stage of choice, his bedroom. “Duvet Days” is no different.
Bennett shares “I'm a very homey person. All of my songs are written in one bedroom, that's the place that they come into existence, you naturally latch onto the comforting elements around you. With “Polka Dot Socks” I was looking at my wardrobe and “Cosy Comfort” was literally written while I was in bed.”
Duvet Days is an amalgamation of Bennett’s music career thus far. As he explains it “I've learned so much over these years and I want to put it all together into one big project.” Bennett is his own team as he has produced, written, performed and designed every aspect of the EP. Including details like doodles he hand draws to be added to the covers, all the photographs featured being taken in the room the EP was written in and even adding snippets of his own childhood videos into songs like “Tell Me Something.”
Following the release of the single and the EP Bennett already has three more songs lined up to be released in early 2023. The singer is also “stepping up” his live performances. Bennett has played a handful of local gigs but is currently preparing to open for a few bands he cannot disclose yet but is “very excited for.”
Published at Returner Magazine
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