Charlotte Lawrence discusses working with boyfriend Andrew Watt on their new project “Dog” in an exclusive interview

before anyone knew who they were. She was at Studio 54 and Max’s Kansas City, just the really cool iconic places. They’ve definitely played really good music in the house. I grew up on a lot of Fleetwood Mac and the Police, and then they got way into Sonic Youth. That got me into the cooler side of rock that I feel like I wouldn’t have just randomly started listening to.

Charlotte Lawrence Reflects on Debut Album: How Did the Sound Evolve?

All the music that I’ve put out, if you line it up in chronological order, you can definitely hear an evolution. I’ve made a lot of very sad songs that are very introspective and raw to the bone. With my first EP, Young, that’s the hardest thing I’ve done because it’s so raw and emotional. A couple of the songs on that I wrote when I was 15 and some of them I wrote when I was 18. It’s hard for me to listen to now, and I don’t really listen to it because it’s like a breakup with an old version of myself that I don’t associate with anymore.

Going from that to the first EP to this [upcoming] album, there was more production value and still pretty introspective but also a little bit more fun, or catchy or poppy — basically, just more put together. I found my producer, Gian Stone, and my executive producer, Stefan Johnson, that I’ve made the entire album with. The way the world works out with music is you come in with an idea or some beautiful emotion, and you sit down and you talk about it for a half hour. Then two hours later, there’s a masterpiece. That’s how this album was made. It was made with a lot of trust, a lot of love and a lot of growth.

Charlotte Lawrence Opens Up About Boyfriend Andrew Watt: How Did the Music Come Together?

Working with Andrew is the greatest. I think he’s the best human being on planet Earth. It’s the most comforting, inspiring experience to be creatively involved with him. I have this feeling, and other people who work with him also feel this way, where when you sit down with him, it’s like… you just get it. You give him an idea, and he immediately expands on it. You’re like, ‘Holy s—, that took me so long to explain, and you got it in two seconds.’

He’s, I think, a true voice of our generation. Andrew’s done a lot of work with her as well, from Ozzy Osbourne to Elton John to Miley Cyrus to Justin Bieber to himself. He’s the grand pap of our industry, and that’s what makes him so good. He’s such an amazing producer and brings something that nobody else could bring. That’s what we grow off of. It’s not like we’re in there making a song, saying, ‘Okay, that lyric makes sense, that lyric makes sense.’ We’re like, ‘No, no, that part has to make someone cry, and then that part makes someone laugh and then another part makes someone go crazy.’ It’s a euphoric experience, everything that good music should be.

Charlotte Lawrence Discusses Upcoming Album: What Can Fans Expect?

Andrew Watt, Jessica Penzias and Stefan Johnson produced the whole album, and rifffs produced a song on it with Gretta Ray (who is a dream), sg lewis did a sound with me that i lovveeee, and then i did one with subdiv, lily moore & nathan dawes from clean bandit which is it’s own little beautiful galaxy. and then rothchild co-produced what’s going to be the next single, previously entitled “butterscotch bitch” or the most iconic song on the album, we have two versions of it.

There are some super introspective songs, so listeners can groove with it like a super solid rock album, you know every word and you can belt every word when you’re a little stressed with life and feel like an angry teenager in your car and you can cry out a lot of feelings. Then there are songs where you can just feel happy inside — you can dance around your room feeling good. It’s a good mix. It’s like a good ol’ smoothie, filled with all the stuff I love from the ’70s, the ’80s, the ’90s and then now. It’s a good mix of really cool music and fun stuff. It’s definitely me in an album.

Charlotte Lawrence’s new single “Dog” is out now.