INTRODUCING CHARLEY + NEW SINGLE ‘HARD FOR ME’ OUT TODAY
Sydney-based, Gold Coast-raised pop siren Charley today makes her debut mark with the single Hard For Me, out via EMI Music Australia.
Written on the singer-songwriter’s first trip to the fast evolving US music hub of Nashville almost three years ago, and produced by Stephen Schmultz, Hard For Me is a glossy & fun yet fiercely honest pop anthem, an embracement of female sexuality & falling hard and fast in love.
“Me and my boyfriend had kind of just gotten back together again at that point. All of the butterflies were heightened again. I just wanted to write a song about how I felt about him and how it gave me such a rush when I looked at him. Everyone has been there! When you just… melt.”
Co-written with Schmultz alongside Tom Jordan & Mitch Thompson, who make up the Sydney-via-Nashville duo Seaforth, the song is the result of what Charley refers to as “the best session I've ever done in my life.”
Hard For Me has been “a long time coming,” Charley notes. “And as a Virgo, I am not patient.” “In my head, this has always been my debut release. It’s got such a special place in my heart. I’ve had such a vision for every single part of it.”
Part of that vision is a self-written direction treatment for the official video, directed by MY Media Sydney’s Mitchell McKay. A professionally trained makeup artist, Charley’s video looks are self-designed for the Clueless-inspired clip that takes the potently visual lyrics of Hard For Me and brings them to life, with a huge pop of colour & sass.
Born in Sydney into a multi-generational musical family, Charley grew up on the Gold Coast, raised on a healthy combo of starring in local musicals, Kelly Clarkson and The Veronicas CDs on her discman. A move back to her birth city in 2017 opened the window for Charley to find her musical kinship, discovering a mentor in UK superstar Jessie J before regularly collaborating with Australian pop limelights including Xavier Dunn, CXLOE & Carla Wehbe and revisiting the pairing with Seaforth that made Hard For Me possible.