Music of the Mountains: Charlie Lou

Musician and artist Charlie Lou has found inspiration in the forests and mountains of Nederland for the last four years and has embraced performing since then. Today, we talk to her about her artistry and her upcoming show at the Nederland Farmers Market on Sunday, August 30th.

Our theme song is courtesy of singer-songwriter Brittney Wagner. Stream her record Better off Dead here.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:27

All right. Do you mind introducing yourself real quick?

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Hey everyone. I'm Charlie Liu. I reside in Netherland, Colorado, and I've been living in the forest up here with you for four years. So I bought my first guitar at Brightwood Music and started playing four years ago.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Amazing. And you'll be performing in Ned very soon as part of the farmer's market.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Yes, I have always been a lover of food and especially farmers markets. In my twenties, I spent a lot of time traveling and and I always felt like market food and farmers market culture resonated with me no matter what country I was in. And yeah, I've been really lucky to just befriend folks in the farmers market and the community that have both agriculture and then market goods for us all their enjoy. And yeah, I've just been connecting with the community in that way and through music, of course.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Sweet.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

Yeah, August doesn't hope to see you there.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

How did you kind of get started in music in the first place?

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Yeah, so I think I came here as someone that really had a great ability to love and express joy and and from a young age, um, you know, just with my sisters, with friends, performing, singing, you know, just really just a part of growing up. And then I would say, yeah, I just didn't really have the I guess environment for creativity for some time until like my mid to late twenties. And so, yeah, and I think also through, you know, healing different parts of my experience and myself and that allowed for more freedom to create. And, you know, when I started walking in the woods here, songs came to me. And I've been a writer or a poet or you know, I've always been playing with words and music has always been around me and has highly influenced me. So now, you know, it now that I just have enough space both in my environment here in this beautiful land at, you know, 8,000 feet, and also in my own personal life that I have space to call in art, create art, and dedicate myself to being an artist.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Absolutely. Yeah, are there any particular influences that have kind of stuck with you throughout all the all this time and and styles that you've leaned toward, all that kind of stuff?

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Yeah, I think I'm influenced by a lot of different eras and and styles and and also just enjoy a lot of wide-range, big spectrum music from all different cultures. And I think as my current artist expression, Charlie Wu, which that name comes from my grandmother and my grandmother's side of the family, and I feel this artist expression is very much into sort of folk and old country. I grew up on with music, and people like Bobby Gentry, John Prime, Dolly Parton. I really love the art of their storytelling as songwriters and the realness and also the imagery. It's really beautiful. It takes you somewhere, you know, it moves you. And and so I'm interested in yeah, moving people through music and songwriting, and which right now those are a lot of my influences. But I'm finding myself really interested in like gypsy jazz and different blues sounds and like modern artists, Sierra Farrell, Cat Clyde are big influences of mine.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

For sure. What in particular has kind of stuck out to you about the about the Colorado music scene, especially since you talked about you know your first guitar, you got your first guitar at Brightwood, and so clearly the community is very special to you in general. But like, yeah, what about the music scene here kind of sticks out to you?

SPEAKER_01 4:05

I feel there is again this space, this openness that everyone is welcome. And as an emerging musician, which you know, learning guitar is hard. There's an interview with Prince, and Prince says it's hard, but you know, dedicate yourself to the practice. And I'm still so early on my journey and having a community and people to, you know, learn with, play with is so I think important to be out in the world playing with people, you know, beyond my living room, beyond a lesson online. And so it's been I feel so, so lucky, so fortunate to be embraced by the music community and also have just genuine friendships and and co-write songs and sit in our natural environment and sort of be inspired by the present together. So that I feel so fortunate.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

For sure. And what is kind of your process in terms of writing songs? You know, what what inspiration do you kind of take from and all that kind of stuff?

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Yeah, well, you know, you're talking to me at a funny time because I just got back literally last night from the Planet Bluegrass Folk Song School. So it's they have a song school leading up to their folk fest, which is this weekend. And, you know, it was my second music education outside of one 16-week songwriting course last year with Swallow Hill in Denver, also a great musical education group. If you don't know about any of those, definitely look into it. And Song School just brings in really incredible musicians and teachers. And I would say now with this whole new set of tools to put in my, you know, amazing sparkly bag of tools that I I get to now approach my songwriting differently because I have new tools, which is exciting to me. I like the learning process, especially that I didn't grow up with music education. So yeah, I think originally, you know, my first complete song was last year. And now I have about anywhere from ten to twenty depending on the day, because they're all in, you know, a living, breathing piece of work still. But uh I think the process was what is the story I want to tell? Where do I want to take people? Who am I talking to? And so I think right now I'm drawing on my own life experience and how does my story resonate in some way. And also I really want to kind of surprise people or make people dance or open people's hearts and have a sense of feeling like wealth or openness. Yeah. So that's kind of my process right now. And then and then yeah, there's an editing process. I am doing my best to stay organized, but there's things on documents, paper, and recorders, right? So there's a big process, and I just have to be open to the process. That's what I'm finding.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

I mean, what do you love most about the process of writing songs in general? You know, what's what sticks out to you most about it?

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Mm, well, I think it could be different from song to song, but what sort of comes to me first is sometimes there's this maybe not even just one magical moment, but you could be like you have the words and you're really trying to find the right feeling with like the notes, the progression, phrasing, all of this, and you want to convey the feeling. And so I think there's often this like click moment where like, ah, my ear really likes that, you know. So that's really beautiful. And I also just really love meeting the divine inspiration in whatever moment it is. I could be walking down a trail with a friend, or I could be working on a song on my guitar, or sitting on my porch looking at the moon. So I think honestly, just when there's this like, oh, reach for the guitar, reach for the pencil, you know, reach for the phone to record, like it's almost like there's that moment, here's the idea, and then you can build on it. I think that's a really exciting part of the process.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

For sure. What do you put most about being able to perform and sharing these songs with an audience?

SPEAKER_01 8:03

Yeah, I think again, coming back to the movement, hoping to like awaken something in someone, whether that be joy, wonder, curiosity, sensuality, femininity, colorfulness, dancing, these are things that I'm excited about as a performer. Inviting people to play, I think is so so important. And especially on a Sunday farmers market. I'm, you know, this will be the longest that I've ever played, which I'm stoked about. And there's also like a lot of newness to that. And so h what better place for me to get to practice in such a you know loving space like a farmer's market.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

For sure. And is there anything that you hope people will take away from your shows or your music when they come to when they come to see you?

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Yeah, I think I hope that they can kind of experience my music as a doorway into a story, which I don't know about you, but when I was a kid I loved being told stories. And I really hope that I can sort of just create a little spark or a little glimmer of, hmm, maybe that really fun idea I have. What would it be like for me to explore that? You know what I mean? So like I think wonder comes to mind. Yeah. I want people to walk away smiling or like, oh, okay, that that shifted something in me. So I think essentially movement. Hopefully they're grooving or smiling or hugging each other or being curious.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

For sure. And yeah, I don't know, is there is there just anything else in general about new music or or things coming up? Just anything else that you that you would want to add?

SPEAKER_01 9:38

I think it's just, you know, something that is important for us all to remember is that music is a journey, and so there's a lot of different directions I could go with my music. And I and I think right now it's really fun, you know, as a as a beginning songwriter, to practice this forum and this expression, and then also to be open to continuing to allow myself to be sort of shaped by my experiences, and and then I think through that music shifts and and moves differently through every songwriter. So yeah, I think also just as a reminder to stay curious no matter what age you are. I started playing guitar at 30. You can start anything at any age, and I think it takes a dedicated practice. But if you know, if your soul's calling to you to do it, that thing, then I think follow that. That's where I want to leave off. So yeah, I'm excited to see everybody at the farmers market on there every week, and I'll be playing on the 30th. So I hope to see this.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Amazing. And yeah, I think I think those are the big questions that I have on on my end.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Great, great. I'm curious about your involvement in the you know music community here, after shocking the musicians, what you're picking up on.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Oh man, I mean I I've been singing for as long as I can remember. I've been getting better at instruments how I can for the last couple of years, playing guitar usually, a little bit of piano just kind of casually, if nothing else. I can play them enough to play what I want to play, and that's good for me. And yeah, I love being able to talk to musicians in the community and see how the music scene has grown, see how you know I love the I love how flourishing the arts community has very much been over the years. Beautiful. Yeah, definitely love our flourishing arts community. We have a great arts community in Colorado for sure. I feel lucky to be a part of that.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

I agree. It's you know, Colorado is a special place that has its own welcoming energy, just just like the land. And yeah, it's such a gift to live up here and share living in this beautiful environment. And I think interesting inspiration comes from a life lived up here. And so yeah, it's it's really neat to see how everyone all the musicians are writing a lot of music and putting music out there and that has a ripple effect, I think, for everyone, you know, and sort of that creative energy, that inspiration.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Yeah. Well, thanks so much for having me, Jamie.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk about your music. This was really great.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Yeah, thanks for having me.