Charlotte Cardin on Jim Carrey, Touring, and Her Newest Album '99 Nights'
[UNPUBLISHED:] Hi Charlotte! How are you doing?
[CHARLOTTE:] I’m good, thank you.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Congrats on the release of your newest single “Jim Carrey” - can you tell me a little about it?
[CHARLOTTE:] I wrote the song a couple of summers ago when we started writing the album and I had always been a Jim Carrey fan, but mostly for his comedy, his acting and his stand up. I wasn't familiar with his inspirational talks that he had been doing for years. I was kind of going through a lot of different things that summer on a personal level and the moments that I was spending in the studio were like my escape moments - they were just moments that I was enjoying with friends, really just trying to write music that was extremely connected to how we were feeling in the present moment. At one point, my producer Jason was like, are you familiar with Jim Carrey's ego talks? I feel like we should write a song about the ego and you should deep dive into those talks because they would help you on a lot of levels and you would relate to a lot of stuff that Jim Carrey is saying. I was like, I had no idea that Jim Carrey, I mean I knew that he did speak about the ego a few times, but I didn't know it was like a full on thing and that he was like a literal genius in that aspect of life.
So I went home at night from the studio and fell deep into the Jim Carrey inspirational Talk Vortex. I watched all of his videos, all of the speeches he did in schools and all the talks that he did online and all of that. I was like, wow, he is fucking brilliant. He was explaining things in such an eloquent way and I related to all of that and to everything that he was saying about our ego basically holding us back from seeing all the doors that are opening for us throughout our life and just our little inner voice that's always negative and always being like, you're not good enough for this. You need to fit the mold, you need to be like everyone else and all of those things that he was mentioning in those talks. So the next time we got into the studio and we came up with a story where I asked Jim Carrey to marry me in order to free myself from that ego that's been holding me back from everything. And so, it's a song that's obviously very playful and kind of funny in certain ways, but it's very connected to things and themes that are super important to me, so I do hold it very close to my heart,
[UNPUBLISHED:] What’s your favorite Jim Carrey movie?
[CHARLOTTE:] My favorite Jim Carrey movie is The Truman Show tied with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I guess I’m more of a Jim Carrey drama fan than a Jim Carrey comedy fan. Those two movies are pretty sad, but I just find him so, so touching in them. Those are the ones that I've watched the most actually.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Can you tell me a bit about how you got your start in music?
[CHARLOTTE:] I did start on the piano when I was maybe five years old, but I didn't like it very much. My mom plays the piano and my parents are in a completely different field. They're both scientists, but they're music lovers and it was important for them that me and my sister had some kind of musical background just to have music be a part of our life and to know little bit more about music theory and stuff like that. My mom put me into piano lessons when I was five and I didn't like it, I never practiced. I was kind of not into it, but I loved singing. And so at one point, my mom was just like, I think when I was seven, why don't we put you into singing lessons? And immediately it was just like my life changed, I loved it so much and it was something that I had been doing in a very unconscious way, just always singing my entire life became something that I felt I could work on and I could work on this craft and this special skill that I felt I had and it really helped me discover a lot about myself, about working hard on something and working on a very specific thing that was just mine and that just belonged to me.
That’s how singing came into my life. I took singing lessons for about 10 years and loved it and, and just loved working on the craft behind singing. I started writing music when I was a teenager. It was just a therapy for me, writing stories both completely imaginary or anchored in real life. I just loved how I could escape through music. That was always a way to connect with myself and learn more about myself. To this day that's still how I approach songwriting. That’s how music came into my life before it got more serious, that's the place it had in my life.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Do you have some artists you look for inspiration or musicians you looked up to while writing 99 Nights?
[CHARLOTTE:] I was listening to a lot of different things. I always listen to pretty eclectic music. That summer I was listening to a lot of Mac Miller, his album Circles was definitely on heavy rotation in my phone, car and everywhere. A lot of country inspired music. I have a country playlist with all these different songs. It’s not just one artist; it goes from Chris Stapleton to Johnny Cash to Kasey Musgraves. I was listening to this really good Brazilian classics playlist that has a lot of bossanova on it, but it's all these different songs. It's a playlist on Spotify called Brazilian Classics and it's amazing, I still listen to it a lot, but I think I discovered it that summer. So all these very different things.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Where do you most find inspiration for your music?
[CHARLOTTE:] I think I find most of my inspiration in the people around me and in my relationships. To me, human connection is the most fascinating thing ever. Whether it's like my friends going through different things or myself that's the main thing that inspires my music. On a more like artistic level, I think I am very stimulated by music itself. Listening to a lot of music, going to concerts. Whenever I feel like I need inspiration the most efficient thing for me to do is to see live music. Going to live concerts is a really good way for me to reconnect with music whenever I feel like I need inspiration and to just feed my creativity, live music is a powerful tool for that.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What are you most excited about in regard to your new album, 99 Nights?
[CHARLOTTE:] I'm just excited to share new music with my fans. It’s such an exciting concept to have worked on something for so long and to finally be able to share it. More specifically, I'm very excited to play those songs live and to connect in a real moment with people. To me, that’s when music makes the most sense - when it's shared live and when everyone can feel similar emotions at the same time. It's so special both as someone who loves going to concerts and who loves performing. I'm going to discover those songs at the same time as my fans will on some levels, so that's pretty exciting.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Do you have a favorite track off of the new album?
[CHARLOTTE:] I have a few favorites, but I think the one that's the closest to my heart is “Next to You.” It’s the last song on the album and it's a very personal song. It's the last song that I wrote off that record and it took about six months to write it. I’ve never spent so much time on one single song. There was a lot of work, but it's also special because I was going through a lot at the time, so I feel like the song was built a little bit chronologically as I was experiencing different things over the course of those six months. That was definitely a unique way of writing a song for me. When I play it or when I listen to it, I hear that baggage that I was carrying at the time and that's why I think it’s special. It’s a song about moving away from my hometown and it feels like I'm talking to someone, but really, I'm talking to Montreal. It’s about needing to leave something behind in order to grow and it’s a special song to me. That one just hits different to me.
[UNPUBLISHED:] You’re also going on tour soon, are there any places you’re most excited to play?
[CHARLOTTE:] We're playing at the Olympia in Paris, which is a really, amazing iconic venue. All these amazing artists have played there. Lana Del Rey was actually playing there like a week ago. It's just such a sick venue, so that one is gonna be really special. I can't wait to go to Istanbul. We played one show there before in Turkey and it was just so special. I can't wait to go to New York, our New York shows are always super exciting. We’ve never been to Arizona, we're playing a show in Phoenix so that should be really fun. It's nice to have these places where I'm excited to go back to and also these places I'm excited to discover and to connect with the audience for the first time.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What items do you take on tour that make you feel close to home while you’re away?
[CHARLOTTE:] I still sleep with a blankie. I’m 28 and I still have a little blankie and I take it everywhere I go. Not to the supermarket but like if I go somewhere where I’m sleeping. It's in the shape of a tiny little pillow, so it's really comfortable. That’s the one thing and I've had the same one since I was born. I think my my mom had bought it at Walmart when I was a week old and it's still the same one. It’s so beat up, but I love it. That's the thing that makes me feel closest to home for sure.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What are some items you can’t live without while in tour?
[CHARLOTTE:] I can't live without my steam machine that I breathe into. You can buy it at the drug store, it’s Vicks. They make a machine that you can breathe into and you breathe in steam and it's really good for your sinuses and your lungs and whenever I feel like my voice is a little bit tired. I can't tour without that machine, I love it. That’s the one thing I need more on a technical level for singing. I love having a good set of pajamas to sleep comfortably. Sleeping is a very tricky thing on tour. I like having all the necessary items to have a good night's sleep, so I like buying new pajamas before going on tour. That’s something I’ll do often, just to have a fresh set.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What is one thing you can’t leave the house without?
[CHARLOTTE:] Maybe it’s a boring answer but ChapStick. I just put on ChapStick like 1000 times a day. I always have a few lip balms in my pocket, everywhere in every pocket of every jacket or every pair of pants. I need something to hydrate my lips.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What are you most excited for fans to takeaway from 99 Nights?
[CHARLOTTE:] If people feel certain emotions, whatever those emotions are, whether it's sadness or happiness or a sense of freedom listening to music, if they feel something that they wouldn't necessarily feel in their day to day life - because I feel like music sometimes allows you or gives you the space to embrace certain emotions – if this album can do that for someone or for a few people it will have fulfilled its purpose. I wrote that album grasping the present moment and trying to express exactly how I felt, encapsulating certain emotions into songs and into stories. If that comes across in any way and people can feel some sense of freedom listening to the album, I think it will have fulfilled it’s purpose.
