Jendayi and Gyasi continue to defy preconceptions,
telling a musical story as Black artists who don’t make music that society expects.
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Charlie Belle (L-R): Gyasi Bonds, Jendayi Bonds. Photo by Kees2Life.
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“Makes melodic indie-pop feel like a viable option for the first time in eons.” — The Guardian (UK)
“Now more than ever there’s a spotlight on Black
artists, and what Black artists have to bring to the table in all genres of
music,” Jendayi says. “We’ve been a
band for 12 years and Black our whole lives. There’s a sort of reckoning right
now for what Black artists can bring to the table.”
Gyasi is blunt: “People always assume I’m a rapper, I tell
them I make music or that I’m an artist and the first question I receive is,
‘Are you a rapper?’ We are put in a box by our skin that people have deemed
‘Black music,’ but all music is Black music.”
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PLAY, POST & SHARE
[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEWV8zccZMM
[STREAM]: https://Fanatic.lnk.to/CharlieBelle-LookingForMagic
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Charlie
Belle | About
When national attention came to the sibling duo Charlie Belle in 2014, Jendayi and Gyasi Bonds were literally just kids.
Sixteen and fourteen-years-old at the time, they were
both already veterans of the Austin music scene when their debut EP “Get To Know” blew up. Press came from NPR, Nylon, MTV, Vice, Wired and others, and Jendayi
and Gyasi appeared together on the
cover of their local paper, the Austin
Chronicle.
“It was weird and exciting and interesting and fun and
flattering to say the least, that randomly by chance, our debut EP really hit
it out of the park, right?,” Jendayi
says of that crazy time. “Man was it cool!”
She continues, “Nothing in my life until that moment
showed me that perhaps I could truly pursue this. Maybe I had a perspective
that other people might want to hear. Maybe I could make an impact on people
with my music in the same way that bands like Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes,
and Local Natives made an impact on
me.”
“I’ve been the drummer in Charlie Belle for 12 years,” Gyasi
says, now a 20-year-old college student.
Jendayi has graduated college, she’s 22 now, and while the
pair took time away from schooling us with pop tunes too damn accomplished for
teenagers, it was the right thing to do. They were always plotting a return,
and now they are educated, wiser, and ready to present new music to a world
that is much different from the one they played for just six years ago. The new
tunes are clearly by two independent, self-actualized artists, who know exactly
what they’re doing.
“He went off and became his own human,” Jendayi says of her brother, “I went
off and did that too, and I jumped into my songwriting. We were supposed to
move and grow like this, so we could tell our story with intention.”
Part of that story is of being Black artists who don’t
necessarily make the kind of music that society thinks they would be, or should
be, making.
Look, Jendayi
and Gyasi just want people to know
that they are creative, multifaceted artists, who happen to be a brother and
sister who grew up gigging around town in Austin. But they also want people to
know that as Black artists, their lives and experiences are just as rich and
nuanced as everyone else’s.
“I want more of our stories to be told,” Jendayi says.
It’s important to the band that their sociopolitical
stance and their personal cultural awareness co-exist in harmony alongside
their pop sensibilities. Those blown away by the catchiness and thoughtfulness
of Charlie Belle’s debut can look forward to new songs by young adults who have
now been doing this for half their lives.
What was already great is even better: Fun, upbeat,
buoyant, while also keenly aware of the moment in a way that only Jendayi and Gyasi can speak to.
Two new singles, “Looking
For Magic” and “What About Me?,”
by sister-brother duo, Charlie Belle,
are out now.
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Charlie Belle | Links
ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : BANDCAMP
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Josh Bloom at Fanatic
Promotion | Contact
WEBSITE
: FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL
Charlie Belle (L-R): Gyasi Bonds, Jendayi Bonds. Photo by Kees2Life.
“Makes melodic indie-pop feel like a viable option for the first time in eons.” — The Guardian (UK)
[STREAM]: https://Fanatic.lnk.to/CharlieBelle-WhatAboutMe
“I
wrote the entire song around my love for the E major chord the song starts off
with and always returns to,” Jendayi
Bonds tells
American Songwriter about writing
the latest Charlie Belle single, “What About Me?” She continues, “But if
I’m being honest, I was taught music by ear and that’s how I write my music:
sound first. So it’s a chord that I experimented with because I’ve been playing
guitar for so long, but I don’t know its technical name. Honestly, if anyone
wants to tell me what it is, that would help our band practices out I’m sure!”
Listen to “What About Me” by Charlie Belle at American
Songwriter or at the link above!
Jendayi and Gyasi
Bonds of Charlie Belle are
available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.
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Charlie
Belle | In The Press
“Easygoing yet innovative vibes.” — NYLON
“Definitely a band you want to know.” — AfroPunk
“Wanna feel good? Press play.” — Vice
“The most infectious kind of power-pop.” — Wired
“Outstanding... Brit-flavored indie-pop
confection.” — NPR
“Everybody is getting to know Charlie Belle.” — MTV
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PLAY, POST & SHARE
Charlie
Belle | “Looking For Magic”
Check out “Looking For Magic,” the new video from Charlie Belle over at Glide Magazine, which says it “captures the close chemistry between brother and sister, and the fun that they can have together making music. There is a smoothness... that is conveyed both in the laid back groove and in Jendayi’s effortlessly cool vocals that linger in your mind long after listening.”
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