Charlie Cello

bizzarre
40 minutes ago
2 min read

Toronto-born, London-based artist Charlie Cello releases his debut single “CAN I GET UR NUMBER” via Agent Anonyme Recordings.

Written by Cello, and produced by Ali Tildersley, the track continues a songwriting theme that began in childhood.

"When I was 10 years old, I wrote my first love song. The girl I liked told me she liked both me and my friend.

The song was called Choose. For the next 13 years, I’ve kept writing those little love songs, over and over again, whether they came from real life or my own daydreams.

This lover boy loves love. I grew up running around downtown Toronto, from art school to bars, from girl to girl, from band to band, always ending up back in my bedroom with a guitar.

Like Maria, looking for her Von Trapps, I came to London with just a bag and a guitar. I happened to meet Ali Tildesley. We became friends. We started making music. Ali made me realise how many songs I’d been sitting on.”

he says.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvjFBo0qxhw

The accompanying video, directed by his best friend Kimathi Bwomono, was filmed at The Communist Daughter, Charlie’s favourite bar in Toronto.

Says Charlie,

"we didn’t have much money. So me and Kim asked Michael, the bartender, if we could film there. Every Monday they do something called Record Night.

Someone picks a record, and we “D-SIDE on the B-SIDE”. Michael stops the whole bar so everyone can vote; play the B-side or move on to the next mystery record. People bring their own vinyl. As the night wears on, opinions get drunker, and sloppier.

Me and my friends used to go every week. All those nights of debauchery finally paid off. Michael let us shoot after hours. We invited all our friends, threw a party, filmed the whole thing, and then put our blood, sweat and tears into shaping it.

The video is really charged for me. The day we were supposed to hand it in, my ex (who’s in the video) called to tell me she’d been seeing my best friend, who’s also all over the video, for the past year. I couldn’t even look at it or work on it for a week.