DEXTER: “LONDON IS MY FAVOURITE PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE”
Each month at VOCAL GIRLS, we’re spotlighting the loudest and proudest artists from different UK cities. This week, we caught up with London artist dexter, and talked about starting out in lockdown, exposing her vulnerability through music, and the challenges of being a young artist discovering who you are.
The first year of life as an artist has been unconventional in more ways than one for Charmaine, also known as dexter. First releasing music on Spotify just over a year ago aged only 17, Charmaine used the time away from school and ‘normal’ life to explore the creative need she’d always felt. Since then, she’s been championed by the BBC, is working with a manager, and has landed a distribution deal with Common Knowledge, via AWAL.
All of this happened without the knowledge of her mum and siblings - “it didn’t even cross my mind to tell them that I’d put out a song”. For all this initial coolness, the quietly charming bedroom-pop of early singles ‘Good Time’, ‘In the Dark’ and ‘Same Way’ drew all the right attention. Meetings were taken quietly after school, phone calls were made on daily walks, and Charmaine didn’t end up telling her mum until February this year, once her song ‘Maybe the Problem Is Me’ was played on Radio 1.
Image credit: Lucy Hickling
For our chat Charmaine calls from an empty classroom in her school - she is two days away from finishing up for good. This was her first interview, but you wouldn’t have known; The South-West Londoner has a laid back cool about her that marries well with the vibrant, dreamy sound she’s focused on so far. Influenced by Beabadoobee and Rex Orange County, dexter has already been producing music that has drawn attention from the likes of Annie Mac, but is keen not to be boxed into any one sonic direction at this early stage.
Charmaine says of the creative process “You make these songs when you’re really young, and you kind of feel stuck. I didn’t find my sound before I started to release, I just put the first thing I made out”. This is a testament to raw talent, and a sign of more great things to come, but it’s understandable that receiving attention at a young age, before you’ve had the chance to define yourself, must bring with it some worries. “You’re growing up at the same time, it’s not like I’ve had years of experience with making music and I’ve found what I want to create. I’m putting out music whilst also exploring, which can feel like you put yourself in a box”. Maybe this is just part of being an artist. You write music, and it goes through long periods of production, management, and distribution before it reaches the fans; maybe you learn to accept that music is still relevant and new to those who connect with it, even if it may feel like an age since its conception.
Connection to music has been a huge motivator, and experiences of live music in London have been a particular revelation. We gush over our shared love of Solange and her 2019 Lovebox set, and then talk about skipping school to queue for Tyler, the Creator’s 2018 return to the O2 Academy Brixton. Charmaine laughs about the dedication she showed to her ‘favourite person in the world’: “We queued from 5am to 7pm, and it was so funny, no-one else even came until 10”.
A moment that seems to shine particularly bright in her memory was seeing Rex Orange County at Koko, Camden at the age of fourteen:“[This was] the first time I was like “I need to do music as a job otherwise I’m wasting my life” The last song he performed was ‘Happiness’ and there was confetti and balloons; everyone was looking up at the confetti but I was staring at him thinking “I need to do this, I need to do this, I need to do this”.
For dexter, gigs have yet to be part of the journey. The hope is that soon the opportunity to perform in the city she loves will arrive, and that she will experience the joy of sharing her music with others in the same way that the artists she admires have. We talk at length about how music has that unique ability to alter the way you feel, and even to make you feel things you may not have felt before, particularly in that live setting that we’ve all missed so much over the past year and a half.
“Seeing the person on the stage, and knowing that they can make me feel that way from just their music and these lights, and that nothing else around me matters - I want to be able to make someone else feel that way.”
As someone who’s grown up in the city, Charmaine admits she feels incredibly lucky to have had so many musical experiences in her youth - “I feel very, very fortunate to have grown up here. 100% growing up in London has helped me get to this point, it is the hot spot for arts. It’s very rich and diverse, being around so many cultures and races really helps”. Here she is also appreciative of her mother, who emigrated and made the life she has in the city possible.
Image credit: Joseph Clarke
“London is my favourite place in the universe!”
This is a person who possesses a high level of self-awareness, and clearly has been ruminating on what it might mean to put yourself out there as a young woman in particular. Touching on the pressures of entering the music industry, Charmaine asks me if I believe that there is such a thing as being conventionally attractive. We agree that there is, if only according to wider society's standards. “That’s a lot of pressure as well, especially as a young girl, attractiveness of a girl is so disgustingly important in society. It makes me feel like if I don’t do well, it will be partly because of how I look”. Many people struggle with confusion and insecurity in their teens, and most of us can only imagine the amplifying effect that exposing yourself, physically and artistically, would have on these feelings.
When it comes to dealing with any pressure that might be felt, a good group of friends is key for support, some of whom made an appearance in the joyful video for ‘Blue Skies’. Filmed around home in south London, from the train station near school to one of their favourite buildings,Dawson’s Heights, the video and the song is a bittersweet taste of summer when it’s needed most. Watch and you’ll be left feeling hopeful for better days to come.
The school bell rings as we’re talking about what’s next, firstly the video for a more pop-tinted track ‘I Like Me’ will be released in early July. Then, once the full EP is released, and live music becomes more of an option, the opportunity to explore London as an artist will arise. This will be an adjustment for a young person who’s largely witnessed their own success from home and school so far, but if where they’ve come so far indicates anything, it’s that this is only the start for a talented, thoughtful and passionate songwriter. dexter has cemented a place as one to watch, and we can only look forward to hearing the next step in the journey ahead.
