Charlotte Lawrence Interview

For many, Los Angeles exists somewhere between myth and memory. Aspiring artists romanticise it as the land where everything feels possible, soundtracked by Hollywood or lived out like the pages of Eve Babitz’s diaries. It’s a city of meetings and muses, of lovers and legends, where the ghosts of The Doors or Guns N' Roses still haunt the Sunset Strip and the sleazy gloss of ’80s glam rock never really left. Paradise, depending on who you ask. It’s also home for Charlotte Lawrence.

“Getting to grow up where rock and roll history was made was pretty awesome,” she says, fresh off tour supporting Sombr, whose The Late Nights and Young Romance tour has taken her across Europe as an opening act. With mousy brown hair and an on-stage style that nods to Hope Sandoval, Charlotte feels like a natural extension of the city’s lineage, part rock romantic, part modern American pop girl.

Like the coolest girls in the City of Angels, she grew up doing it all: modelling, acting, making music, writing, performing, and occasionally swerving paparazzi outside the city’s hot spots. “I’m born and bred in Los Angeles. I love the weather, the beaches, the food, the people, the Lakers. I’m an LA girl through and through.” It tracks. She’s graced the pages of Harper’s Bazaar and Teen Vogue, and sits comfortably within a new generation of multi-hyphenate girls broadcasting their lives in real time.

Naturally, her influences feel very Californian too. She mentions Jeff Buckley, Red Hot Chili Peppers or Joni Mitchell—influences she has grown up around. Being born into a showbiz family shaped who Charlotte is as an artist: her mother is actress Christa Miller and her dad is Bill Lawrence, creator of TV shows like Scrubs or Ted Lasso. “Growing up in a Hollywood family, it was awesome. And crazy,” she comments. She grew up performing for family friends, and it felt only natural that she would evolve into the artist she is now. “My parents are the sickest. They really nurtured my passions and made it feel truly possible for me to actually do this. I was surrounded by creativity all the time.”

She is also part of the first generation of social media mavericks, rising through fame by building more direct and personal relationships with audiences, in the same orbit as friends like Kendall Jenner, who attended the same high school, or Kaia Gerber, her childhood best friend.

That visibility bleeds directly into the music she makes. Everything she’s lived, the city, its people, the parties, her relationships, ends up in the songs Charlotte writes. She released her first EP Young at age 18, followed by Charlotte in 2021, produced by her now fiancé Andrew Watt, building a catalogue that leans into a darker, more emotional strain of pop. In between, tracks like “Joke’s On You”, featured on the Birds of Prey soundtrack, positioned her as part of a new wave of emotionally driven alt-pop.

Before arriving at her debut album Somewhere in summer 2025, she had already toured across North America, from West Hollywood to Toronto to New York, refining her sound on stage. The record plays out like torn pages from a diary no one was meant to read: honest, soaked in longing and heartbreak, with collaborators including pop starlet Gracie Abrams and Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie.

There’s a noticeable shift happening across pop right now, one led by women who are less interested in perfection and more in saying exactly how things feel. Charlotte exists in the middle of that, her work with Gracie Abrams on “Ophelia” reflects a wider move towards something more intimate, more diaristic. “Women are ruling the industry in such a dope way. The past nine best new artist winners have been female. That’s rad.”

It’s something she sees less as a trend and more as a change in what audiences are actually looking for. “I think people crave authenticity, and this generation is really defined by vulnerability and storytelling. Gracie is an amazing example of that. She’s a true authentic artist, a powerhouse,” she confirms. 

That way of working isn’t new for her. She’s been writing songs since she was young, long before any audience was attached to them, and that instinct to turn experience into lyrics has stayed the same. For Charlotte, songwriting is a way of making sense of things as they happen. “I use my songwriting as therapy in a sort of way, to work through whatever I need to work through. I always found it easy to go there without fear. I also think I’d be doing a disservice to anyone listening if I wasn’t completely vulnerable and honest. I want people to be able to relate or feel heard or helped or comforted in some way, and I think that can only be reached with brutal honesty.”

Her dream collaborators say just as much about her world as the music itself, somewhere between indie softness and pop scale, “Lana Del Rey, or Bon Iver, or Sufjan Stevens, or Sombr… or Justin Bieber, or like a sick ass alternative pop boy.” In particular, she describes Sombr as “an angel. The coolest, kindest, most talented, loveliest human.”

Her personal style too plays a part, one can imagine it comes natural for someone often dressed by designer brands. She describes fashion as “a true form of artistic expression,” closely tied to her music, especially on stage, where what she wears needs to reflect who she is as an artist. Drawn to houses like Valentino and Saint Laurent, she points to designers like Anthony Vaccarello and Alessandro Michele, and their ability to make women feel powerful. “Their designs are like works of art. I feel so lucky when I get to wear their clothes.”

Alongside it all, she’s stepping further into acting, in what she calls her “dream job”. After making her debut in Bad Monkey, a mystery TV series developed by her dad, she returns for season two, starring opposite Jodie Turner-Smith. Charlotte plays Caitlin, a complicated former model and recovering addict. “Getting to work with all those incredible actors like Vince Vaughn and John Malkovich was a masterclass. I tried to soak up every second.” As she settled into the role for a second season, her confidence grew. “I think I became a lot less nervous, anxious, self-conscious… I started to trust my instincts more and lean into it.”

Looking ahead, her ambitions remain tied to the city that shaped her. “The Hollywood Bowl is a big dream for me [to perform at] or a packed sunset-into-nighttime huge Coachella slot,” she says. “I grew up in LA, so those places hold a lot of weight and memory for me. I’ve seen my favourite shows ever at both, and every time I get to go, I always dream about being on stage.” To make this happen, she believes in both fate and agency, “Maybe certain things are meant to find you, but what you do with them is up to you.” 

As for what’s next? Charlotte Lawrence just wants to keep evolving. “Another album quickly, more touring, more experiencing. My long term goals are to reach all my dreams in music and acting, make enough money to start a dog rescue or sanctuary, and then take over the world.” Given everything she’s already achieved, it’s hard to imagine anyone telling her no.