Stellar future for Charlotte Geary

Exclusive interview by Marilyn Barber | newseditor@dorsetview.co.uk

Rising star will appear at Pulford Publicity’s Charity Gala event in aid of Dorset Mind

There probably aren’t too many school pupils who can say that the Covid lockdowns helped them to hone their skills for a successful career – which has already started.

But singer, musician and songwriter Charlotte Geary can.

Now in the sixth form at Ferndown Upper School, Charlotte who lives in West Moors, wows audiences wherever she performs.

She has sung at the Friday night folk evenings at the Café @ the Allendale in Wimborne, receiving an enthusiastic reception. And she will be appearing at the Pulford Publicity Charity Gala event in aid of Dorset Mind on 14 October.

Charlotte is just 16, with a confidence that belies her years, however, it hasn’t always been so.

“I had bad anxiety from Year 5 when I was at Hillside School,” she said, adding that in Year 7 at Emmanuel Middle School it was alleviated when she started to play the ukulele and guitar, and by the time she reached the age of 13 she was singing too.

During the lockdowns, as well as doing her school work, Charlotte was writing a song a day and recording herself in her bedroom studio.

She did her first gig in 2021. Although she admits she sometimes gets a bit nervous before a show, she said it was easier in front of larger audiences, and she wasn’t fazed at all by the more than 1,000 people who watched her at the Coronation event in Verwood this year.

Songwriting is very important to Charlotte.

“I have things I want to say and I can write wherever I am. Sometimes I can’t sleep as I am composing and so far I have 1,718 voice recordings. I sit at my piano or my guitar and just start strumming and I find the more I practise the more it becomes natural.”

Although she sings numbers in a variety of genres, her first love is country music and she has been inspired by American singer-songwriter Maren Morris and Canadian singer-songwriter Ruth B.

“I also love the lyrics of Tedeschi Trucks Band, but I sing in more of a pop style.”

However, she gears her set to the audience and will do numbers by such artists as Bryan Adams and Whitney Houston.

“I also sometimes take a well known song and rip it apart to produce my own version,” she said.

Charlotte comes from a musical family. Her father and his brother had a band; her mother plays the cello and her sister the drums.

She has continued to hone her skills and, during the summer holidays, attended a four-day songwriting camp funded by West Moors Town Council’s Jean Ware Legacy Award – and wrote six songs.

“I was working with other people and it was so much fun and very revealing,” she said. She is studying music, drama and art at A level and hopes in the future to do a degree in songwriting.

And looking ahead?

“I hope to record an EP and to put it online and after A levels it would be good to do a degree in songwriting,” she said. Watch out for this young woman. She is heading for a stellar career.