Charlotte Lawrenceβs debut show on the βSomewhere Tourβ kicked off at Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco this week and delivered a captivating blend of raw emotion and intimate storytelling. Stay tuned for an exclusive kitchen interview with Sam Short below!
To begin the evening, Sam Short set the tone with a captivating synthesis of brooding ballads and bold pop swagger, sitting comfortably between the moody depths of Midnights and the edgy confidence of reputation. Her set was rich with dark, atmospheric songsβsomber piano leads, shadowy synth textures, and emotionally charged lyrics reminiscent of Taylor Swiftβs storytelling intensity, Lana Del Reyβs cinematic melancholy, and The Weekndβs haunting tone.
From one moment to the next, Short alternated between slow-burning ballads to high-energy tracks. She danced and hopped across the stage with playful energy, yet made each performance feel deeply personal by occasionally singing directly into the eyes of individual audience members. In an especially memorable moment, she taught the crowd heartfelt choruses from her new songs, and beamed as the room joined in. Shortβs show wasnβt just a concertβit was a collective catharsis, a night of intimate connection framed by lush, moody pop that perfectly set the stage for Charlotte Lawrenceβs set.
Immediately following Shortβs set, she took time to debrief with Music Forever Magazineβs Story DeWeese in the DuNord kitchen about her experience as a songwriter and performer, her pre-show rituals and some of the strangest fan interactions to-date.
Story: First of all, how does it feel to perform on the first night of this tour?
Sam: Really fun. I feel like I got a warm up last night. I played an LA show, that wasn't Charlotte's tour, but really fun. I feel like I got my jitters out, and now I'm in a new city, new vibes, and the crowd was so sweet. It was so much fun.
I love it. It seemed like everyone was very interactive.
They were so interactive!
Yeah. You were teaching everyone the new songs, and everyone was super into it.
Yeah. Yeah. It was really great.
I loved that. Great energy! Do you happen to have any pre-show rituals or anything that you go through to get in the zone?
Pre-show ritual. We have somethingβme and Des, whoβs my bandβwe have this little handshake thing that we say and do and have a little huddle. Honestly, I usually drink a glass of white wine, but I didn't do that tonight, and I actually did a really good show. I was just like, βI don't want toβ and whatever. So, yeah, we do a huddle. Team huddle.
Team huddle? I love that. Youβve got to get in the zone. That's awesome. What was your favorite song to perform tonight?
Ooh, tonight? I really liked performing βflatline,β which I did completely stripped. That one was probably my favorite. I've never performed that on tour because I feel like I've done a lot of tours that are kind of dancier and more upbeat, so there just wasn't really room, but, yeah, it was really special.
It felt very intimate. It was a really beautiful moment. So, thanks for sharing.
Yeah.
What draws you to performing live or going on tours with this?
Iβve been performing since I was a kid. I did musical theater growing up, and I was all about that. I kind of just knew this is what I wanted to do, but I was also not one of those people that was like, βI have to be the center of attention, and I have no fear.β I always had stage fright. I always was scaredβ¦Now it's just been practice. The more shows I've done, the more tours I've gone on, the more Iβm just wanting and willing to do them. But I think the coolest part, honestly, is it's the only opportunity I feel nowadays to meet your fans in person. And what I saw the, like, physical, personal impact, I was like, βoh, there's like nothing that beats this.β Like, it's so cool.
That's awesome. Because you can actually see the reactions of the fans and it seemed like you're actually singing to individuals throughout your performance, which was really beautiful.
Yeah, no, we like hanging out like, βhey!β [mimicks waving to fans in audience]
Why is performing live so important to you? We talked about meeting the fans. Is there anything else?
It's meeting the fans and being able to live in these songs in a new way. Like, even old songs, every time that I perform themβ¦writing them is so cathartic, but performing them is a completely different catharsis that's really cool. And sometimes, songs that you't expect to be fun to sing live are so much fun, and some then songs that you thought would be the best live, don't go over well. So it's kind of a fun trial. It's a fun way to have a new relationship with the music.
That's really awesome to hear. So in terms of your fans, is there anything super weird, that youβve been asked to sign or anything super interesting that you've had with a fan interaction?
Sam: [speaking to her team Des and Liza] Guys, I was asked to sign something really weird. What was I asked to sign? What is the weirdest thing I've been asked to do?
Des: I think Iβve seen you sign a shoe.
Sam: I signed a shoe? Oh, I did sign a shoe!
Liza: Someone brought a really old photo of youβ¦
Sam: I signed an iPhone.
All: Oh! [gasping and laughing in surprise]
Des: Like the actualβ¦iPhone.
Sam: Yeah. So, I signed an iPhone. I was like, wait, why? Like, dude I don't need to be doing that. Yeah, that was pretty intense.
Story: An iPhone. Okay. Yeah. That will go down in history for sure!
Sam: I know. I know.
That's great! Okay, so focusing more on your music, I know that you just released βearthgirl,β which you performedβthat was incredible. And you also released a music video as well. Can you talk about that experience of creating the music video, going through it, and inspiration around it as well?
Yeah. So the songβs kind of about going through this other world and it's very surreal. And so we used a lot of real-time footage. Then, I took it to my friend who's an animator, and she kind of did this very cool dystopian edit on the entire thing, which I think kind of symbolized the surrealistic lens that I'm trying to play with. And so that was really cool. And it's really fun. The visuals are all different per song, but I think that one was a really good introduction into the world and everything else now is just putting all the pieces together.
That's awesome. It felt very dreamlike in the music video itself.
Okay, I love that. Totally, totally. That's a vibe.
Yeah, that's awesome. So, do you have a favorite song off your new EP? It doesn't have to be of all time, [just] at this moment.
At this moment? Hmmβ¦I'm a sad girl, I like the sad songs, so I feel like a song that I released literally a couple days ago βneedle and thread,β I would say that's probably my favorite right now. Or βi wishβ is another favorite of mine. I love a ballad. I really do.
Yes, those are so good. So for βneedle and threadβ specifically, what does the song mean to you?
I wrote βi wishβ first, which was the song I did on piano, and that one was the super long run-on sentence list of reasons why you want someone, you wish someone would love youβ¦Technically, the entire project is a narrative, so it's all chronological. βi wishβ comes at the beginning and βneedle and threadβ comes at the end. Theyβre one and the same, and βneedle and threadβ ends up [as] the response to βi wish.β And so it's just a very long, extended metaphor of like, βWhat did I do? Was I this? Was I this? Was I this? Was I this?β [listing items off on her fingers] And then kind of accepting, βitβs maybe okay that you didn't love me back. Like, I love you.β That song means a lot to me because it's sad in a happy wayβ¦So it kind of is, like a different perspective on the same thing, just reinvented.
Yeah, youβve got the bookends there, and it seems like as you go throughout this journey, then you come to this sense of acceptance.
Totally. Literally. Retweet.
Can you talk me through your process of songwriting or how you actually go through this?
Yeah. I mean, it's different every time. I actually love performing so much, but writing is my favorite part. And so, it really depends. Sometimes I'll start, [and] I'll have a line in a note app that I really like. Sometimes I'll have a title that I really like. Sometimes I'll just have a melody that I really like. I'm definitely a bottomless pit of ideas. I don't know if they're good ideas. A lot of them are actually really bad ideas. But, I'm always having an idea, which is kind of fun, honestly. They come in many different shapes and forms. Like, they come at three in the morning, they come at noon, they come in full form, they come in short formβ¦It's like, I get these downloads and they just happenβ¦I wrote this whole project with my best friend, who is a songwriter as well, and our producer, Chris. We just ended up getting in this flow where we would just book a bunch of days together and like start an idea and stop and start another idea and stopβ¦A lot of times, I feel like in sessions in LA it's like, you have one day and you write one song and you finish the song or whatever. But the ability to just keep chipping away at all of them was kind of our process, and that was really fun.
I love that, and then you can sort of tie them all together, too.
Well, that's what we ended up doingβ¦We didnβt start the process being like, βoh, this is a concept album. This is the first chapterβ or whatever, we kind of just realize that we were, like, centering around a theme and we were like βOh sh*t, what if we put these puzzles pieces together? And then we finish them so that they were actually, like, connected?β Yeah, it was a really weird process, but it was really fun.
It sounds like a great time.
Yeah. It was really fun.
Shifting more towards your role as a performer, how did you know you wanted to become a performer? You talked a little bit about, when you were younger, being involved in musical theater, [is there] anything else that you want to add to that?
I just was always singing. I mean, I was putting on a show every night after dinner. My mom said that it was like dinner and a show literally for my whole family. Yeah, my mom would cook dinner. Iβd do the show. And that was kind of just what I always wanted to do. I just knew it in my heart. I really thought for a while there, I was going to be Hannah Montana. Thatβs what I hoped for at that point. Then it evolved [to be] just like, βoh, I want to be a writer,β and then βI want to be a singer,β but I always knew. So my parents, they got that. I was in singing lessons and piano lessons.
That's sweet. So how long have you been playing piano?
[I have been] playing piano since I was like five, but I would take little breaks. I'd do like five to eight, and I stop, and then I'd do like nine, ten, eleven, then I kind of stopped. I was classically trained, but I was not practicing. To be honest, I just wanted to sing. I wanted to be able to play the chords so I could sing. That was my thing. I wanted to write. I kind of regretted not locking in as much as I could have, but it works for me.
You're making it work, I would say! And what about guitar? You play guitar as well.
Guitar was my rebellion against piano. So when I was 13, I was like, βI hate piano.β I would cry because I had this classical teacher who was super strict. And she was amazing, but I wasn't practicing, letβs be real. And I was like, βI want to play something else. Iβll play anything else.β She was like, βokay.β And so I started playing guitar, and I kind of did that for, like a couple years until I was like fifteen [or] sixteen. And so I got just good enough to convince my parents that I could quit piano, but not quite good enough to be good. I'm not good at guitar, but I'm having fun. I'm doing what I can to write songs.
That's what mattersβ¦I love it. Okay, so sort of reflecting back on a younger version of yourself, do you have any advice that you would give her?
Oh, my God. Damn, I think put yourself out there. I waited for so long despite the fact that I knew that I always wanted to do this, I was so fearful. I grew up in a very small town, and I was always afraid of people judging me, and I was always afraid of singing a lot. I was just always concerned about what other people were thinking.
And I was also thinking βjust trusting the timing of your life.β All I wanted to do my whole life was to move to LA. When I was seven, I literallyβfor my birthdayβasked for an agent. I was like, βcan somebody get me an agent?β My parents were like, βyou donβt know how to do that. You live in Oregon.β And so I ended up moving to LA when I was eighteen, and everything kind of fell into place, even though it didn't make sense at the time.
Trust the timing, nice. And do you have any role models that helped you or any mentors that guided you throughout your process so far?
Yeah. I mean, I think as a female songwriter artist, I grew up, obviously with people like Taylor Swift, and Lana Del Rey, and all the galsβIβm a Swiftieβand Lorde, like, anyone that was really writing her own music, because that wasn't really a thing for a while. It was like, oh, you would get songs written for you, and you would perform them. And I never really saw myself in that kind of pop star, a βpop it, lock itβ type of pop star, that wasn't me, but then when Taylor emerged and reset the tone, I was like, βoh, I want to do that.β And I remember seeing her concert when I was like twelve and I thought βIβve gotta do that. We've got to do this thing.β
In terms of when I moved to LA, I'm really lucky to have like a bunch of great songwriting mentors and people, like producers who believed in me even when I was random as f*ckβstill am random, but whatever. [laughs]
Yeah, but you're making your own path. I'm a Swiftie, too, so I love to hear that.
Love that.
[There are] so many great singer/songwriters out there. So, how do you stay motivated if you get into writer's block or a rough period? Do you have any Imposter Syndrome and how do you navigate that?
Oh my god. I'm always scream-crying about something. I'm always having the best day of my life, the best day ever, and then and then end the day scream-crying into the pillow. It's a really validation-based career. It's really f*cked up. It's not normal. Like, I'm not emotionally regulated ever because you're looking at your phone, it's so dumb, but it's like, you're seeing how many likes youβre getting, you're seeing if people like your song, how many streams you're getting, how many people cheered for you at your show. And Taylor talks about that in her documentary a lot, when you don't get that validation, it's like, βoh sh*t, am I doing something wrong? Do I need to pivot?β I'm kind of always dealing with that, but I think that that comes with the job and I'm getting it now, and it is what it is.
In terms of writer's block, I don't necessarily get that, but I burn out a lot, where I'll just feel like, βI can't f*cking do this anymore.β It's usually whenβ¦life just isn't going my way, but I always come back up. I have amazing friends, who I talk to. If youβre living in LA and youβre young, youβre all in the same boat. We're all just like, βIt sucks. Letβs get through it together.β
I think having friends, who you can talk to and who are living life with you is so important. What exciting projects do you have coming up? What can we look forward to?
Okay, so βearthgirlβ the EP is coming out in a couple months, and with that, I'm filming a visual narrative short film that tells the story of all the songs together. That's coming. Some collaborations are coming with other artists. I can't say who, but that's really exciting. Yeah, that's what I know so far.
I love it. That's so exciting. Okay, my last question for you: is there anything, any question you wish that people would ask you?
Honestly, when youβ¦asked about βneedle and threadβ was a really good question, because it gave me an opportunityβ¦where I could explain, βi wishβ and βneedle and threadβ topic thread. The one thing I've been wanting to do is talk about how this project all binds together so that was really fun. I'm really open also. Like I say whatever.
Okay, sweet! I love to hear it. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate you chatting with me.
Oh, my god. Thank youβso much fun!
Pivoting now to Charlotte Lawrence, this tour celebrates Lawrenceβs debut album Somewhere. While the recorded version of the songs include many dynamic sounds, on tour Larence decided to strip back the songs to take them slowly with only guitar. This acoustic set along with guitarist Matt led to a more intimate connection with fans. Lawrence herself even mentioned that it felt as though we were all at home as if playing the music in her room.
Before performing βOphelia,β Lawrence described how she co-wrote the song with Gracie Abrams in just a couple hours. The song immediately set a heartfelt tone. She introduced βGod Must Be Doing Cocaineβ with a reflection on artβs irreplaceable human touch in the age of AI, confidently praising authenticity in the creation process. The performance was charmingly vulnerable: she even paused to laugh off a dropped guitar due to the strap malfunction, showcasing her downβtoβearth connection with the audience.
In honor of Ozzy Osbourneβs passing on the day of Lawrenceβs show, in the last hour before taking the stage, she decided to cover βChangesβ by Black Sabbath. Lawrence led the crowd in singing βIβm going through changesβ on repeat. The entire room shook with the power of the collective voices. The heartfelt tribute carried genuine emotion, amplified by her personal connection to Osbourne.
Near the end of the show, Lawrence performed the title track βSomewhere,β the only song of the night with a backing track. Lawrence joked that the audience can simply imaging that the βdrummer is in the back.β The audience cheered as she hit the high notes beautifully in the song. The honest moments heightened the eveningβs authenticityβCharlotteβs debut show of her tour was a moving blend of fragility, passion, and powerful storytelling.