It’s a combination of talent and dedication that makes artists such as Charlotte Berg stand out in a musical busy world. Musik Radio Promotions is ensuring this well-trodden music path she is traveling, culminates into getting her music heard with worldwide airplay of new single, Unnatural.
Great music has the ability to talk to the head, the heart, move the limbs, sway the hips, stimulate the senses and stick in the memory. A great voice, however, does nothing less than talk to your very soul. It is Charlotte’s combination of pure, crystal clear deliveries and worldly-wise narratives that do just that.
“I discovered Australian artist Missy Higgins when I was 20”, she says. “This coincided with a bad year in college, and both her songs and the depression I was experiencing prompted me to start writing. I played piano for three or four hours every day that year. It was an escape and a way to work through my emotions. When I was 23, I moved to Australia and wrestled with the idea of persuing music for about eight months. I was an anxious mess because I knew how hard it would be but finally decided it’s what I love doing most. Shortly after that, I started playing in pubs around Melbourne”.
They say that travel broadens the mind and with time served gigging in Melbourne, touring Sweden and the UK and now based in Nashville those miles and years spent pursuing her career has filled her songs with an experience, integrity, confidence and honesty that you don’t find in many modern, studio bound musicians. Those sentiments drove the The Huffington Post to describe her music as “….stubborn and hopeful and fueled by a vendetta against a ‘normal life”.
It could be easy to base yourself in Nashville and get seduced by the Music City’s signature sounds, the glitz and rhinestone glamour of its heritage. But Charlotte is nothing if not her own person and as such pursues her own sound, a mixture of understated rock, the leftfield stance of indie creativity plus enough pop-awareness and melody to place her in both the cultish and commercial markets simultaneously.
Charlotte credits her independence to growing up in a very progressive household. “My right to my own opinions and interests were never questioned while growing up. Moving to the south has brought the issue of sexism to the forefront of my attention. In subtle, but harmful ways I am often treated like a second-class citizen and musician. Equal rights have been a big topic of discussion throughout the world this year, so I would like to throw in my two cents and emphasize that, relevant to this interview, male and female musicians are of equal caliber, creativity, and ambition. If you think otherwise you’re missing out on a lot of awesome music.” Charlotte emphasizes, “Support the female artists you love by buying their music and going to see them play live.”
Charlotte goes on to voice many of the concerns and frustrations that indie artists and indie labels like Musik and Film experience today, “Being treated poorly by venue owners, having no one show up to a show, friends not believing in what I’m doing, trying to navigate an incredibly corrupt music industry”. Through it all, Charlotte remains excited about her chosen profession.
This multi-instrumentalist has pretty simple goals, to write music for half the year and then take travel as far and wide as possible, touring the songs and playing to new audiences. She revels in the highlights of her chosen profession. “Touring in Sweden and the UK last summer was definitely a highlight. I got to see parts of the world I hadn’t before and meet lots of people from what I think are enlightened cultures. I played Iris Festival in south Sweden and spent the day hanging out with a band full of doctors. They were practicing doctors and successful musicians and could have had huge egos but were incredibly humble and kind instead. They talked about how in Sweden nobody is considered better than anyone else. I hope the U.S. can adopt this attitude in the future”.
And it is that combination of talent and dedication that makes artists such as Charlotte Berg stand out in a musical busy world. It isn’t her song writing skills, her striking voice, her dedication to the career, the well-trodden music path she has travelled, the musicians and promotional team that it all rests on. It is the perfect blend of all of those things.
And finally, when asked about what advice she would give to others pursuing a similar musical path, “Find talented people you trust and let them critique you without taking it personally. They are trying to help you. Then mostly ignore everyone and do what feels right. Make music for yourself without enormous expectations”.
See Charlotte Berg on tour this month!
