INTERVIEW; Paul harmer chats to charlene clease about talent competitions, the new ep, and of course 'that' #1.

This week, Paul Harmer caught up with the lovely Charlene Clease - #1 Amazon Download Singer / Songwriter from Weymouth, with news about a future EP in the making. Here’s what they had to say!

PAUL; Hi Charlene, Thankyou so much for joining us for a chat... First things first, you are relatively new to the scene here in Weymouth... Have you always lived here?

CHARLENE; Hi Paul! Thats okay, thank you for inviting me to chat, Yes I have lived in Weymouth all my life so just over 23 years now.

PAUL; You have performed quite a bit over the last year or so and we'll come back to that but when you go out, who do you like going to see perform?

CHARLENE; I don’t manage to get out a lot, however when I do, I like to go see local bands such as Blazin’ strings, Under The Carousel and Stereoironics.

PAUL; Is there anyone performing locally that you havent seen yet but would like to?

CHARLENE; Yeah I’d like to see The Ruff Cutts perform and also I think Mordern Disciples do some gigs locally so I’d like to try catch them perform some time too.

PAUL; We touched briefly on the fact that you have been quite busy over the last 12 months and we are excited to see what the next year holds for you, what have been your highlights so far?

CHARLENE; It has indeed been fairly busy, my highlights so far would definitely have to be; playing Yeovil Beer Fest and Anonymous Festival because those were the biggest crowds I’ve performed to so far and they were both just great atmospheres to be apart of! And also of course managing to get a number 1 on Amazon, especially since I wrote the song for such an important cause that definitely deserves more acknowledgement than it gets!

PAUL; Having had a number 1 on Amazon is a huge achievement... Really well done! We would see this as huge motivation to see how far you can go but what is it that motivates you?

CHARLENE; Thank you so much! I was certainly overwhelmed by the amount of support I received for it! Yes absolutely, it has been a huge motivation. However my main inspiration/motivation is my son, I just want to make him proud and also prove that you can still achieve your dreams and what you want to do even after you become a parent. You know a lot of people say that your life kind of comes to a halt after parenthood but I want to show everyone that it is possible to still push for your own goals!

PAUL; You clearly love performing and we have been lucky enough to see you play live... Can you tell us 1 local person and 1 other from anywhere that you'd love to perform or collaborate with?

CHARLENE; Ooh, there’s a lot of people that I would love to collaborate with and will hopefully collaborate with in the future if i’m lucky enough to do so, she’s not completely local but i would have to go with Rea (Andrea) and Lucy Spraggan.

PAUL; I would assume that Lucy Spraggen is a big influence, especially after hearing your original music, and seeing you perform live. Who else influences you?

CHARLENE; 100%, Lucy Spraggan has been a huge influence on my music/writing style, I have been lucky enough to see her perform live and her whole stage presence was incredible to watch! I also have so much of her mercy, I spent way too much money, but the jumpers are just so cute! Ed Sheeran is also another big inspiration along with Julia Michaels, Melanie Martinez and Gavin James mainly because they all have very unique styles of music and can just write brilliant songs!

PAUL; Ok; here’s an odd one for you; You have a dinner table that fits you plus 4 others, anyone you can think of and you have £100 to spend on food and drink, you have to cook. Who are you cooking for, what are you cooking and finally how much of the £100 do you spend on drink?

CHARLENE; Oh wow okay, so the first 4 people that came to mind where Cara Delevingne, Seth Rogen, Margot Robbie and my boyfriend Frazer (can’t leave him out really). I’m not going to lie, I’m really not the best cook and I wouldn’t want to subject anyone to that, so forget the cooking, I would buy some snacks and spend the rest of the money on booze, also feel like that’s also a group of people that’s up for a good laugh so I’m sure they won’t mind that haha.

PAUL; You might have a sore head in the morning! So, what gets you out of bed? What do you like to get up to when you aren’t performing?

CHARLENE; Well every morning without fail my son likes to wake me up early so I’m sure that would still be the case! And when I’m not performing mostly all my time is spent with him so I guess you could say I’m still doing some sort of entertainment haha, then when I get a bit of spare time I try filling it up with songwriting and recording. I’m currently recording an EP with Jurassic Coast Records so that’s taking up a lot of my spare time!

PAUL; So, it's also the season for the competitions; we're right in the middle of loads of singing and talent contests around Weymouth; which ones have you applied for? How far are you now? What's Occurring!

CHARLENE; I’m am currently in two talent/singing competitions, one that is being held at Hardy’s pub in Dorchester, I’m actually in the final of that one on Friday the 21st of February and I’m also in the Boat’s got talent, held at The Boat that Rocks on Portland, I’ve just made it through to the Quarter-finals and am still waiting to find out the date for that so I shall be sure to keep everyone updated on my social media pages

PAUL; And apart from music, do you see yourself moving into other areas of performing like stage or film perhaps?

CHARLENE; I did actually want to be an actress to begin with and studied performing arts for GCSE and in sixth form, but unfortunately I let things get in the way, but I’m also grateful in a way because I then learnt how to play guitar and realised that it was actually songwriting/performing musically that I wanted to do. However I would still be up for giving other areas of performing a go if the opportunity arises.

PAUL; Weymouth is full of up and coming talent from as young as 10-11 years of age, so finally, in no more than 12 words, what advice would you give your 10 year old self?

CHARLENE; Don’t let other people’s negativity hold you back from achieving your dreams.

PAUL; That’s a great answer; and one I hope these youngsters take on board.

Thanks a lot for chatting to us, and I guess I’ll see you around?

CHARLENE; Thanks a lot, and yes! See you soon!

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