interview with Charlie Harlow

What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you?

Nicolas Franck, 26 years old plays guitar and sings.

Erik Jansson, 27 years old plays lead guitar and back-up vocals.

Philip Berneblad, 26 years old plays drums and back-up vocals.

Erik Jansson, 26 years old plays bass and back-up vocals.

(Yes we have 2 Erik Jansson in our band)

Where are you from? Gothenburg, Sweden.

How is it that you started playing music? Originally we all went to the same highschool and the majority of us even in the same class. It started out that the singer (Nicolas) wrote some music on his own and was somewhat looking for a band to play with. The short story is that the bass player (Erik) and drummer (Philip) bought their respective instruments and from there the three of us gave it a go. And the guitarist (Erik) joined in a few months later. It was somewhat a coincident, but it all came together quite nice.

Have you had other previous members? No we are the same original set up.

Did you make music even when you were young? Some of us did, the singer (Nicolas) and guitarist (Erik). The drummer (Philip) and bass player (Erik) started playing the instruments as they joined the band.

What year did the band form? In the start of 2011.

What's your style of genre? Indie pop-rock

What inspires you? There is a lot of things and especially other bands and types of music in general that inspires us. Each of us have more or less different inspirations and when we come together and bring all these together, that is what creates the sound of Charlie Harlow.

Do you have other interests of work outside the band? We are all gamers. So video games is another interest we all share outside of music.

Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? Having a booking agency would be great for us in the place and time we are now. We are releasing new songs at the moment and the main goal is to try to reach out to people out there that could enjoy our music.

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? Of course. Having a label for us at this stage would be something we are interested in. There are some good opportunities that can come from having a label.

What are your songs about? Our songs are usually about relationships, life’s ups and downs and the experiences we encounter. The main focus is to try and be as transparent and honest as possible.

Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? We all compose the songs and write them together, but the lyrics are mostly written by the singer (Nicolas).

Do you start with the music or the lyrics? The music always comes first. Sure, we have some lyrics ready to be used for a song or two, but thus far we write the music first.

Do you compose in a certain environment? We have a rehearsal space were we normally write the music, but it is usually the music that creates the environment for us. Sometimes you hear something in a song and you start imagining a totally different place. Music can create vivid images.

Have you done any covers live? We have actually covered a bunch of songs, but that has just been for special gigs, it is not something we normally do.

What language do you sing in? English only.

What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? The biggest crowd we have played for was at a music festival in Croatia, their largest open-air festival called InMusic Festival which we played the summer of 2015. We played one of the smaller stages but there were a couple of hundred people there.

What ages are most of your concert attendants? Since we normally play clubs they have to be at least 18 to attend, but the average age would probably be 23-26.

Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? Since we have played for 7 years now, we have a couple of songs up our sleeves. The songs we play depends on the type of gig; how long the gig is, what setting of the place we play, is it more acoustic or do we have a full set-up.

When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? We have not yet started to sell merchandise, but one day maybe. We got some ideas for sure.

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a Days? It is just the development of the business really. The capability and accessibility of the streaming sites makes it easier for people to use them instead of downloading the music for free. But if people were to download our music for free we would not care at the moment, it might come to benefit us in the long-run.

How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? More music is available at all times to more people, by having one of these available streaming apps, there are thousands and thousands of different songs and artists that is just a few “clicks” away.

What do you think of my work? We’ve read some of your previous interviews and we think it’s really cool what you are doing, reaching out to a bunch of different bands and letting them tell their story.

Do you have any role models or idols? Not like specific role models, but like most bands we are inspired by listening to what other bands and artists are doing.

Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? It varies a lot for us, sometimes we find inspiration in the more recent music and sometimes older music. Normally we mix it all.

What advice would you give other bands or artists? Have fun while you do it.

Do you have any new material? Yes, we have released two new singles this year and the third single will be released on the 16th of november.

What are your web sites? We don’t have a website up at the moment but you can find us on Instagram and facebook. * https://www.instagram.com/charlieharlowmusic/ * https://www.facebook.com/charlieharlowmusic/

How can people reach? People can reach us by sending messages on Instagram or facebook, or email us at [email protected]

What are your plans for the future? Keep releasing music and try to make this into a career choice. It is not easy, it will take a lot of work, but none of us would like to have the “what if” thoughts when we’re getting older when it comes to music. As long as we like doing this, we will continue.

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