Charlee Remitz

We’re seriously loving these videos this week, so it’d only be rude if we didn’t share them with you. Take a trip to Cali with Tessa Dixson, get your neon fix from Charlee Remitz, follow Claire Ridgely through the sun kissed streets of Montreal, make it last with DVBBS & NERVO and go on a surreal night out with Mount Kimbie. - Nicola Phillips

The Montana native songstress Charlee Remitz writes compelling pop songs for listeners who appreciate music that doesn’t fit a particular mold. Her lyrics are often reflective and carry specks of wisdom. Being that September 23rd marks the release date for her second EP, Saints Until Friday, she shares with us the premiere of one of the singles, “Younger Blood.”

The singer describes the single as song “about wishing time away.” It’s a wistful dark synth number that showcases Charlee’s sincere and open lyrics on the struggle of not valuing the present moment. Though the lyrics may illustrate an internal conflict, the end result of the production is truly a beautiful breakthrough.



CHARLEE REMITZ - YOUNGER BLOOD


The artists goes more into detail on how she came about creating “Younger Blood:”

"Younger Blood" was the first song I ever rewrote in its entirety after recording and almost sending to my mixer. As a songwriter, I find myself constantly straddling the line of what is and isn't okay as far as lyrical content goes. I think I like to push myself to fall outside of the pop mold, which is music tailored to exist in a tiny time frame with the one goal of getting to the radio and not over-burdening listeners with substance that might take a few listens to digest. But I have a reputation for writing music that is cataclysmically honest, and typically get away with it. I always find trouble when I orbit around subjects that don't just involve me, but people that I'm very close to. It's hard to look outside of my immediate situation to find inspiration for a song, and typically each song is a representation of where I was at that time. So "Younger Blood" didn't always used to be "Younger Blood." It was originally titled "Fevers in the Foothills," and after weeks of agonizing over whether or not I had crossed a line and written an esoteric song that would not only offend the people around me, but the people closest to me, I decided I needed to rewrite.

I definitely fought with myself over the decision. I didn't want to rewrite because I wanted to stand behind my words. I wanted to be able to create freely without limitations. I wanted to be authentic and live completely in my truth. But I think I learned a valuable lesson in that sometimes you write a song and sometimes that song is only meant to unfetter you from the story it tells.

So when I went back into the studio to rewrite, I was hearing echoes of the old lyrics and melodies in my head and had to combat the direction they were trying to pull me in, eventually finding myself singing the line, "We bang our heads on walls all night, like handprints in cement." After that, it was game over. All it takes is one really good line for me to find my groove.

"Younger Blood" is about wishing time away. Sitting in school and wishing the day away so you could be home. Sitting at home and wishing three days away so it could be the weekend. Laying around during the weekend and wishing away months so it could be summer. Sitting around during the summer and wishing away two years so it could be graduation.

It's about me wasting my years as a teenager wishing I was already grown up. Because having gotten here, I can't believe I spent so much time idolizing this moment. It's a lot less anticlimactic than I thought it would be. And even now I struggle with time. I struggle to value it, to not wish I was three years in the future where I swear to god I'll be 100% satisfied with my circumstances. I struggle not to idolize my life down the road because at the end of the day, I can't possibly know where I'll be and whether or not that place will be any better than the place I'm in right now. - Beca Arredondo

You may not recognise the name ‘Charlee Remitz’ now, but we guarantee you- she’s one to watch!


We spoke to American singer-songwriter Charlee Remitz about her new EP (Saints Until Fridays), the songwriting process and her aspirations for the future!

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AMPLIFY: Congratulations on your debut album, Saints Until Fridays! We love listening to it in the office! Tell us about it!
CHARLEE REMITZ: Thank you! It’s a new era. I love new eras!
Saints Until Fridays was a song. And then it was two songs. Three songs. Fine–let’s make it four songs. Well, no, four seems like an awkward number. Five. We’ll stop at five.
And we actually did. My producer, Mike, and I managed to stop at five. I’m deeply impressed with us.
I didn’t analyze the meaning of Saints Until Fridays until recently. And when I sat there, in the car, listening to it over and over, trying to forget I wrote it, I realized I had written an album based around something I do so terribly much of–wish time away.

A: Where does the album title ‘Saints Until Fridays’ come from?
CR: There’s a lyric in the title track, Saints Until Fridays, it goes like this: I swear I’m in a purple haze, where time is plastic, and we all snap back into place. Snap back to yesterday. Snap back to being saints until fridays. When the kids are never home. And nobody dies at all.
At the time, it was a classier way of saying, we have to sit tight in our desks all week until we can throw down on Friday. But now, it’s sort of tying into this whole idea of sitting there on Monday and wishing it was Friday. Sitting there on Friday and wishing it was the next year. Because I’m always swearing I’m gonna have it figured out by then. By that random date. By that random year. And that I’m going to be completely satisfied. But I’ve gotten to the years I wished for, and I’ve never felt satisfied. And now I guess I’m searching, one forlorn song at a time, for satisfaction–for the present moment. Because I know, through trial and error, that it doesn’t exist in any future I know of.

A: We’re literally obsessed with your single, Chlorine! Is the song based on your own experiences?
CR: *Blushes* *Lowers voice* Well, the obsession goes both ways.

It is! Sometimes a track pulls you under. This song pulled me under. What Mike and I came up with production-wise sounded like a really good part of the past. And I wrote about it. About growing up with the same cast of girls–the ones embedded in me–and being there, in a swimming pool in my grandparent’s backyard, with those girls, in the present moment, where for thirty seconds I wasn’t so grown up. I wasn’t wondering about my future. I wasn’t predicting an untimely death or mass destruction (I tend to do that). I wasn’t disappointed with where I was. I was just there. Under a cotton candy sky. With a wine mustache. Watching my best friends pass around a deflated basketball. It was magical. The present moment is magical.


A: What’s the process you go through to write your own music?
CR: I wish there was a fixed process. I find the one recurring thing to be when I go into the studio with a song title already in mind. I seriously have no idea why I do this, and keep doing it, but I do. And then I get into the studio and I stare at a wall trying to write lyrics based around the fricken song title until I’ve gone brain dead. And then I spend the next four plus hours trying to forget I have a brain at all until everything’s been wiped clean and there’s no longer this huge road block of a title in the way limiting what I can do creatively. And then, when my headspace is barren, I allow the music into my veins, and from there, I swear a muse of some sort takes over.

So I guess the process would be: getting out of my head.

A: Have you always wanted to be a singer/songwriter?
CR: I had outside influences convincing me I wanted to be a lawyer or a professional golfer for a long time, so that slowed the music career down quite a bit. But I’ve always been a singer. Not a classically trained singer, but, like, a sing in the car and say I sound somewhat okay type of singer. Which morphed into a sing in the car and damn I’m getting good type of singer. Which morphed into a sing in the car on the way to the airport because I’m so good I should try out for The Voice type of singer. Which then morphed into avoiding that audition song forever and ever until I’ve passed over into the afterlife type of singer because my mom obviously lied to me and I actually suck.

I’ve since figured out the art that is: not taking rejections personally.

But the only other career path I seriously wondered about was meteorology. I’ve always had a strange obsession with tornadoes.


A: Where do you hope to see yourself in five years?
CR: I try not to see myself anywhere but right here, because the future is a scary place. I don’t have the luxury of traveling there and not getting trapped in it. But I do know that I want to be the type of happy that isn’t tangled in the future, or drowning in the past. But I fear that type of happy sometimes. It feels so ruinous, like I’m taking selfishly for my own. And I want to get past that. I want to find the person I am when I’m not rationing out happiness like it’s something to save for a special occasion.

A: What advice would you give to aspiring performers?
CR: Don’t feel pressured to take everybody’s advice. Don’t feel pressured to take any advice at all. Know your sound and your worth well enough to be selective. It’s okay to second guess yourself, and it’s okay to doubt, but it isn’t okay to let it become you. And only when I’ve listened to somebody I shouldn’t have do I find myself caught in a moment where my insecurities have become me.

Don’t let somebody else’s career determine the future for you. There’s room enough for all of us to rise to the fullness of our beings together.

Also: Taylor Swift said it best. Get a lawyer.


A: Why should people listen to Charlee Remitz?
CR: I’m terrible at talking myself up–ask my mother. I’ll sooner tell you I’m an expert in something I’m not an expert in than brag about something I’m known for being somewhat decent at.

So instead I’ll say this: I’m real. I’m honest. I’m never gonna fall into line. - Jenna Benson

Watch out Lorde—I think this girl might take your place in Taylor Swift’s girl squad. Montana-native turned Los Angeles-based new artist Charlee Remitz is bound to be the next big female voice in pop. The young singer-songwriter first stirred up some well-deserved buzz with her first EP, These Veins, and is now busy promoting her anticipated debut full-length album called Bright White Trims. Her music is packed with great lyrics, dark pop melodies, and some seriously fantastic production that you won’t be able to get enough of.



CHARLEE REMITZ - FILLIN' IN FOR A GODDESS


I imagine “Fillin’ In For A Goddess” is what it would sound like if Lorde and Taylor Swift ever did a song together. Everything about this song is totally perfect— the playful vocal melody, the raw electric guitar, the beat and even the subtle backing electronics. The chorus is simply infectious, and with lyrics like “you could wear a bowtie/ I could wear a gold dress/ I could be your side bitch/ you could be my heart’s fix…I ain’t fillin’ in for your mother f***ing goddess,” it’s a blunt and edgy track with a cute edge that you’ll totally become obsessed with.



CHARLEE REMITZ - STUCCO HOUSES


“Stucco Houses” is about being young and partying in the suburbs, and I was instantly hooked from the second she sings, “we drive to stucco houses in Honda Civics.” Mystical electronic elements and thundering frantic rhythms suck you in as her ethereal vocals take you on an adventure through their drunken shenanigans. If for some crazy reason “Fillin’ In For A Goddess” didn’t already make you a fan, I’m afraid that you’ll be unable to resist the greatness of “Stucco Houses.”



CHARLEE REMITZ - KING'S CUP


“King’s Cup” is an edgy, gloomy pop track that is perfect for mainstream radio as it features a skittering beat, futuristic synths, and a hard-hitting chorus. I love the vocal melody in the chorus, especially how she sings the line “playing games like the kids playing king’s cup.” Things take a heavier edge after the two minute mark as thundering bass and and guitars are introduced, which helps switch things up a bit. It’s a solid track that totally works as a single. - Erin Crider

Chlorine…
I think being aware of the present moment is a very enchanting thought. A romantic idea. Something I dream about but can’t fully wrap my brain around. See, I’m never here in the grand scheme of things. I’m always somewhere else. Floating off in the cosmos trying to predict my future, fearing my future, resisting my own existence, trying to plan for impending doom because I’ve forgotten how to let go of what I can’t control. And because I can’t control everything, I have the unfortunate propensity to assume the worst of things.

But there was a moment. A minute out of the many when I didn’t have such an aversion to life as it persists when I’m not pretending I can orchestrate it. I was with my friends, drinking wine in my grandparents’ pool. The sky was being all perfect. The air was being all perfect. The night was settling all perfect. And I remember looking around at all the people I loved. Looking up without trying to understand the universe. Drinking wine that wasn’t all that great. And thinking everything was wholly and truly perfect. And I was fine. And I had nowhere else I wanted to be. Not even five years into the future where I constantly swear I’ll have everything figured out, and life will be so so good to me.

I wanted that moment to be a song. That moment became Chlorine.

If I can say anything at all about the process of writing and recording this song, it’s that from the moment we perfected that intro, I couldn’t forget how it all sounded so much to me like the word Chlorine.



Saints Until Fridays…
was wholly an exploration of time, and the present moment. How much you lose when you forget to be mindful of what you already have, including this moment. And the one that will follow.

From new music you can expect a new range. I’m known for being meticulous in the studio. But I’ve given myself more freedom to define exactly who I am as an artist. I’ve stepped into new shoes. They’re sexier and more mature. And they terrify me.

I’m daring to be more feminine in a world where feminism has become negative. I’m daring to wear a low-cut shirt, and sing about love while demanding the same amount of respect as a businesswoman, singer, and songwriter. And in doing so, I hope to embolden. I hope to overcome. I hope to become strength.



I live in Los Angeles…
The music scene is ever buzzing. Whether it tiny clubs and bars, big venues like the Hollywood Bowl or the Greek Theater, the music industry arrests every night in Los Angeles.

Places to go? I’m a home dweller, but I’ll step out for a trip to The Grove, a drive to Pasadena really late at night, a quick stop at Vroman’s, Skylight Books, or BookSoup.

The music business overworks…
I’ll say that. It pulls the ugly out of you. It’s a machine. It never stops churning. And, in my experience, when you get caught up in it, you lose parts of reality. You self-doubt. You forget the music. You become the brand, the streams, the views, the numbers.

But it’s a dream. It makes and it breaks, like every good romance. No matter how many times you step away, you always come back.

Music industry pro tip: get a lawyer.

John Mayer…
As previously acknowledged, I live in the future. But I can latch onto reality when I’m listening to John Mayer. He’s just got this infiniteness to him. Like I could sit around listening to Born and Raised and forget completely that I’m gonna die someday. And the words he writes. Anyone will tell you they go deep. But I’ll tell you they never stop introspecting. They cut open a little hole in the universe and they disappear inside like it’s no big thing, like they aren’t exploring a new piece of existence. They inspire you to do the same. Walk a little farther into the unknown. Break just a bit more so you can understand the impossibility of pain. His words don’t compromise or sacrifice. They transcend.

He’s the lyricist I want to be. - Jaqueline Jax

“Saints Until Fridays” is the upcoming second EP by American emerging singer-songwriter Charlee Remitz. It’s expected to be released on September 23rd via Trend Def (pre-order from August 21st).

This project arrives after the promotion of her debut album “Bright White Trims“, released in 2015 and it’s preceded by the first and lead single called “Chlorine“, which we have the honor to premiere it exclusively.

The song a fabulous and magnificent dream pop piece with a glorious and quite atmospheric synths and of course the breathy and quite smoky vocals of Charlee. The result is just bloody brilliant. - Josep Vinaixa

It’s sometimes nice when music shakes you out of those comfortable, tribal music zones you build around yourself, ones that probably have more to do with a younger version of your self than any rational reasoning. Weird but nice. There is certain PR company in Minneapolis who has the habit of doing this to me. Here I am running a site championing leftfield and under radar music and they send me music, which is decidedly of a pop vibe. Not pop in the obvious, chart bound, crass commercialist vein, more like pop that is the modern continuation of the post-punk explorations that took place in the early eighties here in the UK, music that follows an alternative, parallel, alt-pop trajectory.At first Bright White Trims seems like another female diva looking for a career. Then you play it again and you notice the subtle textures framing the vocal. You notice the smoky, late night feel, the drifting ambience that fills the place where less thoughtful artists would pile on the hooks and employ the more obvious studio tricks. After a while you realise that this is an artist who has started with the depth and emotion, the feel and the groove and added the more mainstream elements on to that rather than the other way around. A trojan horse bearing wonderful gifts surrounded by a field of donkeys packed with the same old pop fare.The result is a set of songs that would give any current pop diva a run for their money but it is also an album that delivers something that her peers fail to. This is pop with soul, real soul, real depth, real integrity. Where most pop goes for the jugular as a way to get to your wallet, nothing so crass happens here. This is music that goes for the heart as a way of getting to the soul. So here I am praising what is essentially an electronic-pop album. Damn it, they have done it again. - Dave Franklin

Charlee Remitz - Bright white trims (2015) The answer to the hit equation
What a talented artist she is, the young girl from Montana, USA by the name of Charlee Remitz who should be selling lots of records if you ask me.
She writes melodies like it was the most natural thing in the world, because there are no uncertainties in her new album "Bright white trimes".
It´s even better than her first EP "These veins" that was good too, Charlee sound so self-confident and clever in these new songs. Her crossover of ambient pop, dance and electronica is irresistable. Songs like "Bmw" and "Juicebox season" totally shout out hit potential all the way from Iceland to Japan.
Listening to Charlee´s music must be like how it feels to be swimming with dolphins, lots of love. - Kaj Roth

How would you classify your music?
I’m not really sure. It wasn’t until I heard Lorde for the first time on the radio that I truly identified with a type of sound. I’ve pulled so much inspiration from that sort of somber, melodically tame, lyrically driven pop sound that she created and so I must credit her for opening up that genre and publicizing the importance of writing what you know. Similarly, I grew up listening to Taylor Swift, marveling at the quality of music she was able to write at such a young age. But country was never really my flavor, though I did do an alternative rock album that I wrote primarily on my guitar, inspired by Taylor, which opened up a lot of doors creatively for me. I would say after stumbling blindly through that phase, the dreadful Garageband-lead techno phase that followed, and then the electro-pop phase that came after that, I eventually tripped into Mike Gonsolin’s home studio in West Hollywood, Trend Def, where we reinvented my sound, something that I have described as ambient pop u
p until recently when someone suggested that dream pop would be a more suitable label. Perhaps I should have just said pop and saved the explanation, though I think the term “pop” is exceptionally shallow and will never do justice describing the music it is typically associated with.
Who are some of your top 5 musical influences?
Taylor Swift, Troye Sivan, G-Eazy, Frou Frou, Lorde.
What do you want fans to take from your music?
For me music is the purest form of expression. I have a particularly hard time staying present and the only times that I don’t have to continually interrupt my future-based, fear-driven day dreaming is when I am writing. I, like so many others, write to heal. I write what makes me passionate and more often than not I draw inspiration from those who have hurt me and those I hurt for. I hope that fans will be able to relate, I always hope that I am writing what needs to be heard and what needs to be said. A lot of the lyrics on Bright White Trims burned bridges I hadn’t previously spent much time nursing, but tenderly, managed to keep somewhat stable foundations of and I hope fans will realize that I don’t write for others, I write for me, and the person that they are getting and interpreting through my music is the most honest and vulnerable version of myself that I could give them. The greatest justice that one could do for me is just to listen. While there is an abundance of listener
s in this world, the type of listener I strive to reach is the one who listens to hear.
Can you tell us a bit about your latest album? When will it be released and how does it differ from your previous work?
My latest album is called Bright White Trims, and it’s sort of driven on the idea that I had for the longest time felt the need to hide for the sake of others and for once in my life, while I have always been a very abrupt and blunt person, I decided to give myself the opportunity to make use of my entire wingspan, if you will. Since I can remember, I’ve been indefinitely independent, but I’ve never been without outside influence, and I grew up under what felt like a very strict tyrant that I unfortunately strived to please. Breaking those ties was the best thing I ever could have done for myself, and I have grown to be very self-aware since and it has been an absolute blessing to have the support from friends and family to grow in that way. I can’t be positive, because I haven’t put this assumption to the test, but without my grandparents and my mother giving me the emotional support I’ve had thus far, I would be playing golf for some dismal University and abiding by their curriculum
despite my distaste for being forced to learn.
As far as striking up a difference between Bright White Trims and past works, including my EP, These Veins, which was the first body of music I had released, the possibilities are endless. To me, the albums just don’t compare. I was very blocked during the writing of These Veins and the work before. The production doesn’t even begin to compare to the musical capabilities of Mike Gonsolin, and being the artist of both, I like to criticize past works when I have new work because that’s just how I operate. Out with the old, in with the new, right?
But I am currently working on new material that I imagine will be released early 2016 and it will be different from Bright White Trims in that Mike, my producer, and I have grown incredibly over the past year since the creation of Bright White Trims, and as a writer I have strived to continue to develop my sound and be more impossibly honest than before.
What do you love and hate about the Music Business?
I love the passion of dream-chasers and I hate the egos that they have to battle. I have worked very closely with a company in Minneapolis since what was nearly the beginning of my career and it’s a great example of what I love about the industry. When they reached out to me about working on Bright White Trims about a year after working on These Veins, it was with this excitement that was so fresh and magnificent. There’s no better feeling in the world than to pull people onto your team that are actually excited about what you do and passionate about helping you. One should only build their team with those such people. While the flashy name dropper has definite use, I’ve found that dealing with their ego while simultaneously dealing with your own unease over trusting them isn’t worth it.
As far as what I hate, I’ve narrowed it down. I hate the slime of the industry, I hate how small 99% of the people make me feel, I hate flashy name-droppers who label clientele in two ways: dollar signs and dead ends, and I hate how insignificant you will be, regardless if you’re the most talented person in the world, if you don’t have money.
What is the best concert you have been to? What do you like most about playing live?
The best concert I have been to is hands down Taylor Swift. I went to the 1989 tour when it was coming through LA and it was flawless. Taylor Swift has the ability to make a room of tens of thousands of people feel intimate and it is something to behold. She’s an incredible crowd-reader and one of her many strengths is personalizing a scripted performance so each city and each night feels special. I strongly believe she is the eighth wonder of the world.
Playing live, hmm. I am your typical tortured artist. If the music industry wasn’t bad enough, the self-doubt and pressure to “make it” in a timely manner might just kill me. I talk myself down from the “overnight success” day dream constantly and it becomes wearing, so wearing in fact that I often think that it isn’t worth it. But it is. I had my first performance this past summer and I learned that when you’re performing your craft, you are doing it. You are actually doing it. You are living the dream. That’s what I liked about it most. Being up there I wasn’t concerned with the non-commercial thickness I awkwardly ambled around the stage sporting and I certainly wasn’t concerned with the concert footage going viral, I was just concerned that I was putting enough emotion and passion and presence into it because for once I was living the dream and that full-body embrace of my craft was incredibly glorifying.
Is there a song on this latest CD that stands out as your personal favorite, and why?
“Fillin’ in for a Goddess” is definitely the stand out for me because it was sort of the “final straw” song in that it was created in record time without creative limitation after the final blow out of a dreadfully disappointing relationship. And, quite frankly, the song makes me feel powerful. I finally stood up for and respected myself enough to realize that being the side bitch, excuse my French, wasn’t cool anymore. It’s not cute. Being the piece of ass someone turns to when the person they truly want doesn’t return their affections isn’t a relationship worth my time. We are all more than a second choice.
How have you evolved as an artist over the last few years? What made you decide to come back into the music business?
I always miss the music industry when I am gone. When I was eighteen I moved to Nashville, and while stewing in my West End apartment disappointed that music wasn’t taking up enough of my time to please my inner desire to be busy like a celebrity, I developed hypochondria, an anxiety disorder than causes its victims to be abnormally anxious about their health. After six months of self-diagnosing in my spare time I returned to my home town of Bozeman, Montana to heal for three months before making the even bigger move to LA where I currently live. I think taking control of my mental health has been one of the primary focuses of mine since starting my career and I think it has made me a stronger writer, person, and business woman. It’s been an upward battle with the hypochondria, I have bouts here or there, and it comes in self-destructing waves where not only do I have this odd feeling that my body is riddled with cancer but I’m also one hundred percent certain I’m going no where! It’s
been an exhausting journey so far, but I have stumbled and fallen and climbed back up, and I have learned, and I believe as an artist I have never stopped striving for maturity, authenticity, and creative freedom.
If you could meet, play a gig, co-write a song, have dinner, get drunk with any band or artist (dead or alive) who would it be?
Every so often when I get stuck in one of my many future-based day dreams, I have a vision of Taylor Swift introducing me as one of her many star-studded guests on the 1989 Tour, so safe to say my answer is Taylor Swift.
So tell us what’s next?
Later on this week I’m hopping back into the studio to record a mini EP to follow up Bright White Trims, which I’m ferociously excited about (we already have one song done and I couldn’t be more pleased). If there’s one thing I never want to stop, it’s the flow of new music that I have been able to consistently maintain. But what’s next in the broader sense? Stay tuned, I’d love to list some of my future-based thoughts, but best not to encourage them. - RJ Frometa

Montana native Charlee Remitz, alongside contemporaries like Lana Del Ray, represents a brave new world of sorts for pop music. Her style synthesizes hard-nosed lyrical realism, steadfastly rejecting sugarcoated songwriting, with the glistening textures of modern pop to spectacular effect. The eight tracks on her album Bright White Trims covers a gamut of sonic possibilities with a distinctly modern sheen, but nevertheless carries substantive musical and conceptual weight. She demonstrates a penchant for surprising imagery and, while there’s never a moment on the album where the keyboards and posturing fall away into a four-piece rock band, Remitz’s raucous spirit is pure 100% rock and roll to its core.
Vibrant keyboard work and a thunderous rhythm section highlight the opener, “King’s Cup”. The aforementioned synthesis is on full display here. Remitz’s flexible voice exploits the pop and r&b strengths of the track equally and her phrasing is key. Bright White Trims isn’t afraid to embrace hooks as “Fillin’ In For a Goddess” makes clear – the track employs Remitz’s vocal melody in such a way that it’s virtually impossible to finish this track and not find yourself humming it afterwards. Remitz brings guitars out in a much more pronounced fashion here and it helps spin the song in a different direction from the album’s other entries. “Cake Eater” veers into decidedly adult territory, but Remitz clearly has the time of her life with this material and the backing track similarly pops, twists, and turns in exciting ways.
“BMW” has a nice songwriting twist not often found in this genre, but the music covers familiar ground with its keyboard playing and hip-hop style percussion. Remitz emerges from songs like this not sounding like she’s cut from the same cloth as any number of bling-obsessed performers, but instead, she positions herself as a strong-willed individual focused more on people in her songs than artificiality. However, she takes rap/hip-hop on in full with the track “Bitches and Ladders”. Any inclination you might have to dismiss the ability of a white girl from Montana to deliver credibly this sort of material should be immediately dustbinned. Remitz keeps a firm pop influence guiding the track, but bristles and burns with attitude that any gangster rapper would cheer on gleefully. “Juicebox Season” is a much more club-oriented tune that bubbles over with catchy effervescence and a steady, propulsive tempo that pushes the listener without ever overwhelming them. “Stucco Houses” isn’t far removed from the preceding song in terms of intent, but this is clearly a little more reflective and eschews percussion in favor of slowly developing electronic melodies. Bright White Trims closes with the lightly Ska influenced “Routines” and, after the wildly contrasting elements defining the release up to this point, this bit of pleasing and quietly confident musical fun ends the album perfectly. - RJ Frometa

It isn't difficult to admire the effort and talent required for this album. Charlee Remitz's debut bubbles over with a thousand and one ideas, surprising instrumental voices, and daring fusions of form. More impressively, she carries much of it off with chest-thumping confidence common to veteran performers. It's a strongly produced work as well that places Remitz at the forefront without ever demoting the backing music to mere vehicles for her singing. However, repeated listens leaves her open to the observation that, perhaps, there are too many ideas for this eight-track album to bear. Like a first time novelist, Remitz seems unduly eager to pack an entire lifetime of experiences into her debut and approaches it seemingly hell-bent on proving her talents.
Tracks like "King's Cup", "Juicebox Season", "Stucco Houses", and the Caribbean flavored finale "Routines" compromise half the album and play like her attempts to enter the mainstream pop world on her terms. Listeners will be able, if they wish, to cherry pick a range of influences in these songs, but Remitz rises above mere imitation thanks to her distinctive phrasing and the character of her lyrical content. The first song and album opener "King's Cup" is, arguably, the album's safest fare, but it is perhaps the album's most focused effort and bears the hallmarks of a strong pop single. The remaining songs fuse trance pop and other "club" genres with such confidence that it's easy to forget this is a debut release. Remitz sounds like she's been doing this for a long time.
The other half of the album couldn't be more different. Remitz clearly feels quite an affinity for rap music and songs like "Cake Eater", "BMW", and "Bitches and Ladders" are unapologetically adult romps bringing hip-hop's energy and aggression together with more traditional pop structures heard in the lighter songs. It's a combustible mix. Some might find it a little gratuitous, but none will say that Remitz isn't surprisingly convincing in the role. The album's second track, "Fillin' In For a Goddess", is probably the album's finest song. Remitz sings with considerable conviction and the slowly evolving tempo gathers intensity at crucial points, particularly the chorus. The addition of guitar, a seldom heard instrument on Bright White Trims, gives the track an added melodic layer.
Some might find Remitz a little too eager to shock her audiences, but as mentioned in the introduction, the strongest criticism you can level at Bright White Trims is it takes on too much for its own good. Listeners thankfully hear reflections of this phenomenon in the album's musical energy and her vocals, but the dizzying creative designed to impress us all sometimes seems restless and overexerted. There's no question, however, that this is a fine debut, if not among the finest from this genre in 2015, and positions Remitz ideally for the future. - Cyrus Rhodes

Pop music comes and goes in waves. There will be periods where the genre is polluted with poor songwriting, pretty faces and music with absolutely no substance whatsoever. We’ve been stuck in that period lately with a lot of young, fresh stars making faceless music without a tune in sight to save the day.
Bright White Trims by Montana’s latest hopeful Charlee Remitz is certainly packaged with plenty of gloss in both the music and studio trickery that brings it to life, but something is a bit different here. Everything appears to be the same old, same old on lead in track “King’s Cup.” Filled to the brim with syrupy keyboards, sunny day choruses and the standard mix of electronics and shiny vocal melodies, “King’s Cup” is practically a how-to guide on writing a pop song. The double-tracked, call and response vocal harmonies as well as the inoffensive songwriting only further that assumption. It’s a fun if not completely forgettable piece, but things change with the second song “Fillin’ in for a Goddess”. Remitz’s vocals, though sleek and finely polished, are coming from a more downtrodden personal place even when delivering stark, beautiful hooks. A guitar intro with a scant few psychedelic chords build the atmosphere which soon turns into a stormy sky of slow beats, bleak but soothing keys and a searing chorus. While memorable enough to be labelled as “pop” the song toys with a sort of goth-y, indie darkwave full of minimalist twisting and turning… it’s a good song and one of the album’s strongest.
“Cake Eater” changes the game again with foul lyrics referencing crack and hard living (or perhaps a warning against it) and a hood rattling, windows down rap thump. Numerous vocal tracks congeal into a singular melody to follow with Charlee putting particular gusto behind the chorus. There are subtle shades of European trance and techno heard throughout, albeit unfolded at a slower place, but the song is an interesting melting pot where different sounds hold a universal meet n’ greet. The same flow and influences works its way into “BMW” and the knife-edge, gutterball rap of “Bitches & Ladders.” “BMW” fares better with a swaggering sequence of beats that emphasize progression as it builds to a pop relief in the chorus, but “Bitches & Ladders” quickly morphs into common rap tropes with plenty of unnecessary expletives. Punchy, floor-shaking r & b is the order of the day on “Juicebox Season” with plenty of pop on the side carving another standout chorus practically molded for summer weather, setting the stage for the even more early 2000s, MTV tailored “Stucco Houses,” it’s only too bad that MTV doesn’t play videos anymore because this breezy tune would be all over the channel if it had video representation. The album finishes up with “Routines.” Mingling light dance elements, pop, indie guitar jangle and rap together, there is a bit of everything going on here, although the end result ends up sounding mighty similar to “King’s Cup”, which was not one of the release’s stronger tracks, even if it has a pleasant, gently swaying groove.
Bright White Trims isn’t a perfect album but it’s certainly way above average for modern pop. Charlee Remitz isn’t content to play the same old pop as everybody else and that facet of her sound/identity works to the album’s advantage. She takes some trances and pulls some pretty fancy tricks for the genre with a pretty consistent hit ratio overall. Anyone into pop and other popular genres who is looking for something with equal parts style and substance should lend an ear to Bright White Trims. If nothing else, it’s a unique release when stacked up against its competition. - Brad Johnson

Montana born Charlee Remitz, fortunately, has little patience for pouring old wine into new bottles. It makes her debut album, Bright White Trims, an unlikely revelatory experience. It’s easy to finish listening to this eight-song collection and think, “You know, I didn’t get what sort of substantive appeal this music has, but she clearly does and so do I”. Writing and recording meaningful pop music requires certain deference to formula, but requires breaking from it and infusing the work with your own individuality or else risk being forgotten soon after your music hits. Remitz recognizes facts like this early on and pursues a clear path throughout each of these tracks relying on fundamental elements intrinsic to the genre and yet never neglecting to transform the music with a twist of the individual.
While efforts like the opener “King’s Cup” and later tracks like “Juicebox Season”, among others, operate within a firmly defined pop framework and sport some obvious influences, nothing is ever paint by numbers. She enlivens songs like the opener with a mature appreciation for melody and displays a surprisingly commanding presence as a vocalist. Singers who can elevate solid material to something rarer, finer, aren’t common these days. Performers are content to lean heavily on the familiar and artistic risk is virtually synonymous with commercial failure. Other pop-slanted fare, like the finale “Routines”, benefit from the introduction and tasteful use of guitar that, wisely, isn’t given short shrift in the mix as some sort of instrumental anomaly.
Bright White Trims truly excels on its harder edged fare. On songs like “Cake Eater”, “BMW”, and “Bitches and Ladders”, Remitz recasts herself as a worldly wise, slightly profane performer unwilling to mince and words and sharply observant. The individualistic strain distinguishing these tracks sets them fare apart from the album’s more benign numbers. She sees through the silly and dangerous machinations of the opposite sex in the first two tracks and, in the last one, lets loose with an impressive amount of attitude. The truly remarkable thing about these songs lies in her potent stew of street and structure – make no mistake, wherever these tracks fall in the musical spectrum, they are supremely well crafted tracks. They blend rap and pop with finesse and, once again, tastefulness. It strikes a memorable contrast against Remitz’s lyrics and vocals.
A final standout worth mentioning is the album’s second cut, “Fillin’ in For A Goddess”. Guitar makes it presence felt here to worthwhile effect and helps the song stand out as one of the album’s most compelling compositions. It’s decidedly sophisticated pop incorporating a number of musical voices. Charlee Remitz has a number of musical voices at her command and she gives most, if not all, free reign for a time on her debut effort. Bright White Trims is often daring, solid throughout, and betrays none of the butterflies one might expect to hear from a “rookie” performer. She dominates the album without ever shutting her collaborators out of the spotlight and has poised herself for a possibly remarkable future. - Todd Swan

Few young performers are as brash, ambitious, and ultimately as talented as Charlee Remitz. Taking some of her cues from performers like Lana Del Rey and others of similar ilk, Remitz goes a step further and rejects attempts to pin her down in one particular area. Instead, the eight songs on Bright White Trims maintains a solid modern base while exploring a number of different musical textures seemingly determined to keep listeners on their toes. The exemplary production wisely focuses on Remitz’s voice without sacrificing any sonic balance. In the end, however, the most impressive aspect of this album remains Remitz, bristling with attitude to burn, and showing supreme confidence in her vocal talents.
She seems content to play the role of pop princess at some points. A strong example of this is the opener, “King’s Cup”. Veteran admirers of many young female pop icons of today will recognize Remitz’s nods to contemporaries like Swift, Cyrus, and others. Remitz dispatches these sorts of songs with ample finesse and cool, unflappable confidence burning through every line. “Fillin’ In For a Goddess” takes a distinctly different turn. It incorporates all of the customary elements in this genre, vivid keyboard textures and highly physical rhythms, but Remitz introduces guitar into the song and peppers it with a touch of the exotic. It’s easily one of the album’s best tracks because it isn’t aiming for a narrowly defined audience – instead, “Fillin’ In For a Goddess” has the feel of a track drawing bead instead on widespread acceptance. “Cake Easter” pulls Remitz into decidedly adult territory once again. She adopts a rougher-edged voice with this track and displays a flair for harder fare than songs like the opener suggest. It’s a sexy, if not entirely new, hybrid mixing the uncompromising rhythms and subject matter of serious rap and hip-hop with the melodic strengths of top shelf pop and Remitz has nearly perfected her personal formula on songs such as this.
“BMW” follows a similar path but percolates with a clearer pop surface than heard on tracks like “Fillin’ In For a Goddess”. Once again, like the opener, Remitz handles material like this with sure-handed skill, but her talents seem to dwarf the song’s relatively modest goals. “Bitches and Ladder” probably deserves a parental advisory more than any one track on the album, but her target audience will surely delight in the song’s gleefully unrepentant raunch and romp. The album’s final three songs, “Juicebox Season”, “Stucco Houses”, and “Routines” find Remitz settling back to earth with much more traditional fare. The first song of this trio, “Juicebox Season”, is perhaps the album’s strongest pure pop confection, but the album’s final songs are equally memorable. She will wow some listeners with the undeniably catchy “Stucco Houses” and sunny, reggae flavored guitars help “Routines” sparkle brilliantly to close to the album.
If you harbor bias about this sort of music going in, leave it at the door. Charlee Remitz’s performances and material will confound your disdain and awaken you to the genre’s possibilities in the hands of talented artists. Bright White Trims is a strong pop album, seldom content to remain merely pop, and will likely earn many fans for this promising young performer. - Gilbert Mullise

There’s always a new generation coming on. Montana native Charlee Remitz initially might seem like an unlikely performer to stand among the forefront of a new generation’s dance pop icons, but her debut album Bright White Trims contains plenty of hints that this is the dawning of a potentially transformative career. The album’s eight tracks cover a spectrum of styles while retaining keyboard-based pop as their foundation, but yet are never afraid to add alternative musical voices into the pot. It’s a highly unpredictable, yet strongly familiar, outing that enjoys confirming your expectations as a listener while plotting to overturn them with the next track.
“King’s Cup” opens the album with a pure pop confection full of well-produced, often double-tracked, vocals and sparkling keyboard textures. The vocal melody here, as elsewhere, is quite strong and it demonstrates a talent for writing strong choruses that never deserts her. “Fillin’ in for a Goddess”, however, is the first surprise among many thanks to its dialed back tempo and distinctly darker musical hue. Guitar figures prominently in the song but it’s used in such a way that it never threatens to dominate the song. It’s Remitz’s best vocal performance, without question. Remitz gears to shock listeners somewhat with “Cake Eater” and undoubtedly jolts a few. The lyrics refer to drug abuse and downtrodden times against a mammoth backbeat that explodes into a fierce, memorable chorus.
She adopts a similar approach for “BMW” and “Bitches and Ladders”, but the former songs subvert the usual songwriting formula with a little song title sleight of hand. This sort of sophistication, however cutting or light you might believe it to be, sets Remitz apart from many cruder and far more successful practitioners of the form. The latter song practically revels in obscenity, a trait capable of alienating some listeners she might not otherwise want to lose, but the musical appeal overcomes any car crash quality it might possess. The album’s final trio of tracks, “Juicebox Season”, “Stucco Houses”, and “Routines” close things out on a much more approachable note. Remitz abandons the two-fisted bluster heard in those tracks for a much more musical point of view. “Juicebox Season” is untouched R&B groove with one of the album’s best choruses while “Stucco Houses” charms with a loose and encompassing slant. The final song, “Routines”, closes things up with another light-hearted romp with a dance beat and some guitar for added measure.
Charlee Remitz brings together a number of seemingly disparate elements with such off the cuff skill that you might ask yourself why people don’t do this more often. The answer is that they can’t or else they would. Remitz and her collaborators didn’t enter the studio to simply punch out some chart-minded fare and leave it at that. Bright White Trims clearly aims for a wider audience while still maintaining a tight grip on personal integrity – Charlee Remitz is determined to do things her way and, based on this release, will undoubtedly succeed. - Pamela Bellmore

It’s hard to believe this is a debut because Charlee Remitz’s musical and vocal qualities come across pretty strong and flavorful over the course of Bright White Trims’ eight harmonious offerings. The style is pretty typical for pop music, blending everything from Miley Cyrus to Madonna from Shakira to Kelly Clarkson’s second. Each of these self-penned compositions is made of a multitude of sounds and well-textured ambience with every one featuring a stellar chorus that you can hum along to. The formula isn’t risky, but there is something risqué to Remitz’s trip-hop pop.
“King’s Cup” is probably a wise choice of first single. I’m not sure if it’s the one that she actually went with, but it’s a good candidate. The building blocks of a great pop song are right here; melodic verses peppered by keyboards and studio enhanced vocals, nicely thought up vocal harmonies, speaker shaking dance beats, homerun choruses, a little rhythm, a little blues and a sparkling chorus made for a party and cool drinks. While I’m not a pop reviewer by trade, it might speak volumes that I was won over by the catchiness and coolness of this track. Striving to prove that she’s not a one trick pony, Remitz halts the pacing on “Fillin’ in for a Goddess”, a slower, more deliberate track revolving around soothing synthesizers, restrained beats, layer upon layer of studio fabric, clean guitar chords and another slam-bag chorus from Charlee that downplays the party vibe. This would impress both fans of mainstream music and the harder to find pop stuff. It has this winding, snakelike rhythm beneath the shower of starlit keyboards and just feels like an entirely different trip than the opener. She again shows chameleon like prowess with “Cake Eater”, a song that finds Remitz embracing a tough girl persona and toying with gangster rap on a crunching, rhythmically anchored tune. Instead of simply borrowing that genre’s formula and format for her own desires, Charlee takes harder beats and dirty, alley-prowling lyrics and seamlessly blends them into her silky pop. “BMW” and “Bitches & Ladders” shift the album strictly into that pop rap direction. The detour is fun and welcome, but it’s good to see her only use it momentarily and go back into a hip-shaking, booty-moving trance pop crescendo on “Juicebox Season” and the single-worthy “Stucco Houses”. Tropical guitars almost give off some vibes of Sublime during the final track “Routines”, but soon the inspiring, technotronic pop returns. Her vocals are a true highlight on this song with the chorus particularly showing off a pretty set of curves and fluctuations in tempo and style. Charlee Remitz has it going on with her debut. While the music is obviously pop, she manages to stretch the format as far as it can go. The results are splendid with several memorable tracks to be found.
Despite the middle section of the release staying in the same mold a little too long, she changes things up when they’re needed most. Fans of anything from rap to pop should be pleased with the exciting, exotic grooves of Bright White Trims and its constantly shifting song arrangements. - David Halderman

Hailing from Montana, up and coming pop Charlee Remitz drops her debut album Bright White Trims. A shifty mixture of clubfriendly, beat-driven tunes and darker, ethereal indie electro pop, the record packs plenty of vibes into eight fresh, infectious tracks without overstaying its welcome. The production emphasizes the multi-layered keyboards, dub step thumps, and Remitz’s charming, multi-tracked vocal melodies.
“King’s Cup” is an immediate opener kicking off with a shimmery synth loop that continuously cycles its repetitions over a percussive bump n’ grind heavy on the bass. Charlee’s croons dip from traditional pop melodies while packing an r & b/rap sensibility especially on those big bright choruses. Comparisons could probably be made to Taylor Swift, Kelly Clarkson’s second more dancefriendly album and some of Blondie’s remixes. It’s a good listen for when the sun goes down and you’re about to go out on the neon lit city. The echoing, reverberating indie guitar progressions add a different feel to “Fillin’ in for a Goddess.” This one’s not as immediately poppy and bouncy as its predecessor, coming off like a peppier, darkwave Lana del Rey with gangster style lyrics delivering a similar amount of edgy, somewhat profane lyrics. Remitz’s style is definitely different favoring a danceable, downbeat techno sound over Lana’s gritty lounge act, but there are noticeable similarities. A slick hook is imbedded deep within the song’s inner-workings thanks to vocal layering that repeats the melodies like clockwork until they are committed to permanent memory.
Playful keyboard FX creates playful, treble-heavy rhythms in the early going of “Cake Eater.” Auto-tuned backup vocals mirror Charlee’s lead nicely as the beat washes over the listener like peaceful ocean waves. The lyrics are far from G-rated and it gives this trippy pop sound a bit more adult content than most are willing to attempt. Cut ups and mashes are applied to the multiple beat redirections and softer breaks see the vocals and instrumental keys adopting sweeter touches before the chorus brings in a slightly harder thump with another pleasing vocal melody. “BMW” is more street level with its rap-influenced keys and deliberate, percussive syncopation with lyrics that ring true with a similar materialism found in the vocals. Only Charlee’s case it’s not about her stuff, but the boy who chose to replace her with a brand new car. The rhyming isn’t forced and, even though the phrasing is mostly laid out in rhyming couplets, Remitz never lets you forget she’d rather ignite the dancefloor than be the soundtrack to a drug deal. There is no doubt that “Bitches and Ladders” is a much more straightforward attempt at buoyant, subwoofer shaking rap defiance, but the pop sensibilities shine through amidst a barrage of sampled handclaps and teasing synth grooves juxtaposing themselves against a staccato rhythmic grind.
Returning to the club and hoping to kick bodies into motion “Juicebox Season” dabbles in sultry indie-pop tinged r & b topped off by smooth house influences. It’s another catchy number where the keyboards soar and roar as if they’ll unleash a full techno fury at any moment, but the music stays within the confines of a polished mid-tempo. “Stucco Houses” works with the same format though drops the pace a notch and replaces the busy beats for an emphasis on dreamy keyboard melodies. This is the album’s most obvious ballad and it sticks out as one of the album’s strongest tracks. Bringing in a little bit of reggae guitar, closer “Routines” lifts the mood up with a lovable, poppy swagger; rounding the album off with some appreciated variety.
In a crowded pop pack, Charlee Remitz combines the best of several styles and artists into her own thing on Bright White Trims. Some of the lyrics tend towards the juvenile which don’t always work in Remitz’s favor, yet the singer/songwriter displays a strong ear for dynamics that elevates her material above all of the G-rated pop fare out there. For that merit alone, Bright White Trims stands out as something special and makes Charlee an artist to watch in the future. There’s no reason she shouldn’t be picked up by a major label with the quality of her work on this album. - William Elgin