And now for something completely different…
Today we have with us Charlotte Eriksson, aka “the Glass Child”. Charlotte is a singer/songwriter originally from Sweden that recently collaborated with two dancers for a video that showcases her new song. It’s also meant to raise awareness of an important issue that is near and dear to her heart…
1. What is your background in the arts?
I’ve been writing since a very early age but I started writing music when I was around 15. When I got into music I just knew that this is how I wanna spend my life. I’ve been dancing since childhood too, not on a professional level, but dancing and the way dancers can speak so loud without words, will always stay with me.
2. Can you tell readers a bit about your single, “I’ll Never Tell” and why you decided to use professional dancers in the video?
I released this song to raise awareness of domestic violence and personal struggle. The idea for this started by all these people I connect with online through my music. I get so many heartbreaking stories on Twitter, Tumblr and email every single day from young people who are going through these things, but no one seems to dare to talk about it out in real life. I wanted to speak up and let all these people know that they’re not alone, there are so many struggling with these things, but the people are still so uncomfortable around these subjects.
3. How did you choose these dancers?
I find a lot of inspiration through finding dance-clips and choreography on youtube, and I’ve been a fan of Francesco and Enza Cara for a long time through their youtube-channel. So I basically reached out to them, told them about the song and the message and asked if they wanted to collaborate with me by telling this story through their language, through dance.
4. What was it like to work with them?
It’s been such an honor to see how they embraced my story and put their heart into it. They worked so hard with both the choreography and the video-editing and I couldn’t be more happy with the result.
5. What did using dancers bring to the mood of this video?
Everything, really. Art in every form is so powerful and it can reach you in ways you never thought, and I think to have dancers speak my words through their movements makes every single word mean so much more.
6. How do you think dance helps illuminate the subject matter?
I think dance has a way to take something really uncomfortable and horrible, like this subject, and make it bearable with just the natural beauty in dance. It’s like they’re blurring the hard edge between something dark and something beautiful. I don’t know how I could talk about this subject without using art.
7. Do you know what the dancers thought about the experience?
They decided to focus on the meaning of the text instead of using technique with turns and jumps etc. to fully ’speak’ the song, and I’m really happy about that decision. In the beginning of the project I told them hear this song in their own way, and they have definitely put their own personalities as dancers in it.
8. Did you learn anything about dance in the process of making this video?
What’s amazing with dancers is that even though we hear the same song, they hear it completely different. They can really take a melody, a rhythm or a word and give it a whole new meaning or focus, and that’s exactly why it’s so amazing for me to see how they choose to hear my song. It’s also amazing to see how my fans embraced the dancers and the choice to have dancing in my video, even though most of them aren’t familiar with this sort of dance at all.
9. Would you use dancers again in a video of yours?
Definitely, I’d love to and I really wanna work with dancers in other ways too, to create all kinds of magic and art with music, dancing and visuals. When you combine two art-forms it opens up so many new ways to create and reach out to people, and I’d love to use dancing more to reach out with what I’m trying to say.
10. What is next for you?
I’ll be promoting the single while touring the UK all summer long and then hopefully Europe tour this fall!
BIO: the Glass Child, Charlotte Eriksson, is the girl from Sweden who left everything she knew to prove to the world what she can do and live her life on her own terms. Only 19 years old she moved all on her own to London to give her life to the music. Since then Charlotte has started her own record label ”Broken Glass Records”, produced and released 2 EPs critically acclaimed EPs. In September she released a charity-single ”I Will Lead You Home”, for the Swedish cancer-organization Ung Cancer, to support young victims of the disease. The song exploded and reached # 2 on the Swedish Itunes-charts and has been played over 460,000 times on youtube. She was named Breakthrough Indie Artist of the Year by Lemonade Magazine and has been played on BBC6, Sveriges Radio (Sweden) and 3FM (Netherlands), and is currently touring the UK together with the British artist Tiger Lilly. And most of all, she’s done everything on her own, with nothing but a dream, hard work and determination.
”I think you have to decide what kind of person you wanna be. Do you wait for things to happen, or do you make them happen yourself? I believe in writing your own story.”
After the chart-success with the charity-single ’I Will Lead You Home’ she released the single ’I’ll Never Tell’ on May 17th, to raise awareness of domestic violence and personal struggle. With art as her language, she did an international collaboration with two Italian dancers to create an official music-video to reach out with her message.
”There are no words for it. So I’m speaking through my music, these dancers are speaking through their movements, and the result is an official music-video to my song ‘I’ll Never Tell’, with these dancers speaking their language, and I’m speaking mine. Together we’re hoping that we can open someone’s eyes. That it can leave a scar, make a mess inside someone, just like it has done to me. Hoping that it can make someone out there aware. Hoping that maybe if we dare to acknowledge this, and say that it’s okay to talk about, because you’re not alone, then maybe one single person out there dare to talk up about it too. And maybe, if more people dare to accept these truths, and that it’s probably happening to someone you love, then one day we might be able to do something about this. But that’s not gonna happen as long as we’re shifting our weight, averting our eyes when someone mention domestic violence or self-harm.”
”My lyrics might be too honest, edgy and make people uncomfortable, but if that’s what it takes to reach them, I’ll do it. I want to shock people. Shake up the world. Make them think thoughts and feel things they never felt before. Leave a scar. I want to go above and beyond what’s expected of me. I want to do this so well that they can’t take their eyes off me. I want to be breathtaking.”
www.twitter.com/justaglasschild
