CHARLOTTE MEADE

Writer: Aysha Swanson

Images: Alex Smith (@_alexssmith)

There’s a certain kind of song that doesn’t just play through your headphones — it folds you back into a memory, a kitchen, a Sunday afternoon you didn’t realise you’d been missing. 'Still Life', the debut single from Brisbane-based artist Charlotte Meade, does exactly that. Rooted in the golden light of Townsville evenings and the smell of her mum’s homemade Bolognese, the track holds the ache of homesickness in one hand and the thrill of autonomy in the other.

Since moving to Meanjin, Charlotte has been building her own sonic canvas alongside bandmates Lily Wade (bass), Karissa Liu (piano), and Alex Smith (drums). Together, they’ve created something both intimate and expansive — a live-tracked piece that captures the warmth of being in a room with people you trust.

Charlotte’s songwriting moves between the sentimental and the unflinching, balancing nostalgia with clear-eyed lessons about growing up, losing, loving, and learning. 'Still Life' feels like a confession and a release, a portrait of girlhood, friendship, and family that’s as specific as it is universal. We sat down with Charlotte to talk about nostalgia, connection, driving songs, and why the best lyrics sometimes start with a smell drifting through the air.

AYSHA: 'Still Life' feels like a memory you can step inside of. What made you want to translate that very personal scene into something communal, something listeners could step into too?

CHARLOTTE: I feel like I was definitely experiencing a sense of homesickness after moving from Townsville to Brisbane. I was just thinking about home, and I feel like those Sunday afternoons are the moments that I feel most nostalgic about and something that I wanted to connect with again to bring myself a place of comfort.

I wanted to make it a communal experience – I feel like it's not necessarily a unique experience, I've been to friends' places, their moms are also cooking Bolognese and I feel those same senses. So it's really cool that I could share this collective experience with others.

AYSHA: For those who don't know, you are currently studying art history at UQ, describing the song as a kind of “still life” painting of your childhood, what do you think makes music uniquely suited to holding memory in that way, compared to say, an actual still life on canvas?

CHARLOTTE: I guess a still life on canvas is something that you look at, whereas in a song you can kind of feel it and you can move with the song. A still life is an assemblage of inanimate objects, like flowers, fruit. They're representative of fleeting moments in life. So, I guess that's something that I was trying to capture in the song as well. It's not until sitting with the song and deconstructing it, I realised that the verses especially are individual experiences that I'm putting together as if they are like the fruit or flowers in an actual still life on canvas. Then it's kind of creating this documentation of my life so far or like the experiences that I've had.

AYSHA: Nostalgia is all over this track, but so is autonomy and moving forward. How do you balance the ache of homesickness with the excitement of carving out your own world in Brisbane?

CHARLOTTE: I feel like balancing nostalgia, homesickness and moving forward in this song is a representation of a transformative period in my life. It's definitely a point of reference to see how far I've grown. Songwriting is a very meditative practice for me, I can put my feelings into words in a way that I probably wouldn't have otherwise been able to do or been able to achieve. I can just make sense of my feelings and my experiences in society, especially moving to a bigger city. It's really interesting to reflect on this song and see how far I've grown, how much I've grown.

AYSHA: Like a time capsule?

CHARLOTTE: Yeah, it's like a time capsule. I feel like it's kind of the foundation of my artistic journey, I guess. I can use it as the basis to move forward with my other songs.

AYSHA: Is that why you think you decided to pick this song as your first release? Because it's so foundational?

CHARLOTTE: Yeah, I definitely think that was why I decided to use this as the first release. It was one of the first songs I wrote that I was actually proud of or wanted to show people. I've written a lot of songs in my life that no one's ever heard. So I think this was the first time I was like, I actually am okay with people hearing this. It was the first time that I'd tried using an alternate tuning. I feel like I was able to uncover these other worlds and melodies that I don't think I would have discovered if I wasn't in that kind of space. So yeah, it was really awesome and I just thought, let's do this.

AYSHA: There’s this vivid sensory thread in 'Still Life' — smells of Bolognese, the sound of table-tennis, the Dan in Real Life soundtrack. Do you find yourself often writing through the senses, or was this song an exception?

CHARLOTTE: So I don't think I was specifically writing through the senses. It wasn't like I smelt my mum's Bolognese and was like, alright, let's write. But yeah, I just I feel like it was all about feeling for me in this song, especially recording it live as well. Writing it, I just wanted to achieve the feeling of being on a drive and I feel like we all have that song that we go back to every time we're driving late, maybe with some friends, you turned up full volume.

Kind of like in Perks of Being a Wallflower when they're listening to David Bowie's 'Heroes' on a drive, I feel like I wanted that feeling to come out and so you could just feel your nostalgia and your present self all together in the ending. That's what I was trying to achieve, that feeling, especially towards the end of the song. So yeah, I don't necessarily write off of senses, but definitely feeling.

AYSHA:  I feel like as well when you're writing about nostalgia, often memories are kind of attached to senses, so it's like you're evoking that nostalgia by singing about them because that's like what you're probably remembering the most is your senses being triggered.

CHARLOTTE: Smell is crazy as a kind of reminder of nostalgia, but you don't remember it until you actually smell it. Like I'll smell your old perfume and I'm thrown straight back to when we first met.

AYSHA: You tracked the song live with the band, capturing that energy in the room. Was there a particular moment in the recording process where you felt — “yes, this is it, this is the sound we needed”?

CHARLOTTE: I was always scared to record songs. I've been kind of holding off on this for a while because I was honestly terrified of isolating myself in the process - having drums recorded and then bass and then I play on it. I was just stressing about that. So yeah I wanted it to be a collective experience so I felt like we're all in it together. I really value live sound. I love that there's the imperfections in it. It becomes perfectly imperfect. It's contingent on the actual moment in time, that's what we sounded like then.

I feel like there was a moment when we knew we had the right one. We had probably done too many takes to be honest. I think we had the right one early on but we just didn't really realize until our friend Jack from Blue Diner, was saying that one was great and to just go with that one. Karissa also said "that was it. I had goosebumps", and we all agree like, "okay, yeah, this is it". It definitely was a feeling in the room where we were all just like, holy shit, that was it.

AYSHA: The live track's also awesome because when you played it at The Triffid Beer Garden the other day, it sounded exactly the same in the best way.

CHARLOTTE: Yeah, I really value the live sound of a band and I feel like you can feel the energy and hear it. So I was super happy with that. I mean I'm not sure if a lay listener would hear the imperfections or the hits of the drum or someone dropping something, but it just makes the song what it is.

AYSHA: Some of your lyrics are almost like lessons, mini-proverbs — “the sun is always fun, until it burns your skin” — while others are confessions. Do you see songwriting as a way of teaching yourself things you can’t say otherwise?

CHARLOTTE: Like I said earlier, I feel like songwriting is a meditative practice for me and it's a way of making sense of my experiences and just society in general. I think at the time I was thinking about a lot of different things that were happening in my life and to people around me. I think it's interesting to make links between all these different singular experiences and how they do connect in a way that you wouldn't think about.

I think then it ends up representing growth, exploration and a documentation of my life thus far. I feel like definitely after listening back so long after writing the song, my past self is teaching me things now. So I'm like, "thank you, thank you, past self".

AYSHA: Food, family, and friendship all weave their way into your writing. Do you think connection — in all its forms — is at the heart of what you want to create with your music?

CHARLOTTE: Yes, definitely. I think my goal as an artist moving forward, because obviously I'm just starting out, I've always wanted to foster a place of connection for people to connect with themselves and others. That's something that I just admire so much with artists that I really connect with.

I watched Ruby Gill the other day and just watching her interact with the crowd and how the crowd was interacting with each other, it just felt like such a real experience and like something that you could really walk away feeling like you thought and felt things that you hadn't felt in a while or let yourself feel.

Definitely all those elements of life will play a role in my music, I'd say. I think I'll see something, see an interaction or feel a certain way, and then I just have to write about it, like I went outside and did this. It's just very literal.

AYSHA: You’ve said the closing mantra of “you’re on my mind” feels like both a release and a confession. Was there someone or something specific lingering in your mind while writing it, or is it meant to be a more universal refrain?

CHARLOTTE: Again, I feel like that was the moment in the song where I was like, this will be the feeling of being on a drive and having an otherworldly experience - when you are thinking about things and people in your life. I wasn't thinking about a specific person or a specific time or experience, but I feel like sometimes I feel guilty about thinking about my past loves or friendships while I'm also in love in the present or have new friends now that I am sharing similar experiences with.

I think I just wanted to encapsulate how all at once people in my past and present, or experiences that I've had or are still having, all kind of interconnect together and are shaping who I am today. I just feel guilty sometimes for thinking about someone that I loved in the past when I, for some reason, I feel like I shouldn't be, but I think it's only human that you still think about people that played such a huge role in your life. I'm never going to forget them, and I know the people that I am loved by now understand that.

Moving forward I feel like I'm going to be still writing about an experience that I had when I was10, when I'm 30. I don't want to forget these things. That's why I write songs. I'm able to just remember weird moments that might be super random in my life. Maybe when I was in primary school and I still remember it to this day. It's like, "why do I remember that?". I feel like I used those moments to start writing because I feel like it must have been significant, it must mean something.

AYSHA: I mean when you think about the past it's permanent. It's done, it's happened, and it's never going away. So it's always going to be a part of you.

CHARLOTTE: I feel like my past is still living inside me. Yeah, forever.

AYSHA: Moving from Townsville to Brisbane is such a huge shift in climate, culture and community. Do you think that sense of in-betweenness, of longing for two places at once, will keep shaping your music going forward?

CHARLOTTE: Yeah definitely, I feel like moving to a new city, a bigger city, things are different for better or for worse. I find it really cool to do a bit of a compare and contrast of how society might be different and how opportunities are different in both places. Also looking at myself in these two places and how I've changed and also how I haven't changed. I feel like the parts of me that don't change from such a significant move must be the core of who I am and so I like to hold on to that.

AYSHA: The band’s energy clearly means a lot to you in this project. How do Lily, Karissa, and Alex help bring your songs into their fullest form — what’s something they add that surprises you every time?

CHARLOTTE: Yeah, the energies of Lily, Karissa and Alex are super important in this song. They are just such caring and interested people. They're interested in everything and also my music (which is a bonus). I think something that surprises me about them is just how passionate and talented they are and how they make me feel so safe. I really need that because I'm talking about things that feel a bit vulnerable, which I sometimes feel a bit silly talking about, but they've never judged me.

They always have great musical ideas too. I write the song starts to finish, bring it to the band at a rehearsal and they'll start adding their parts. Then Karrisa might say, "Oh, I think we should do this" and I realise "you're so right. We should definitely do that. Thank God you said that". So just them bringing in their ideas is invaluable. I think we've just kind of created this really safe space and I really love them. I think they're awesome people.

AYSHA: What can we expect from you in the future going forward?

CHARLOTTE: I am hoping to be releasing another single in a couple months. I have a whole lot of songs to record. So the band and I will hopefully start recording an album in the start of next year. So that should be rolling out within the next year or so. So I'm excited about that!

AYSHA: I can't wait.

FIND CHARLOTTE MEADE HERE

INSTAGRAM  |  LISTEN TO 'STILL LIFE'