CHARLIE CUNNINGHAM

Artwork by @mystupidsketchbook

UPDATE: Charlie Cunningham’s debut album Lines (January 2017)

WHO is he?
Charlie Cunningham is a singer-songwriter originally from Bedfordshire but currently based in London, via Oxford and Spain, renowned for his percussive guitar sound. Breather, his second EP is out 9th March through Kissability in the UK and Butterfly Collectors in Europe.

WHAT is he singing about?
Longing for security, tenderness, being a baby, surrender, friendship, thinking about taking drugs.

Title track “Outside Things” off his first EP (2014) is sung from the perspective of a newly born baby. It goes “I’ma get back inside, you can rely on your mother. This is all yours not mine, I’m fine, not bothered.” Charlie explains that “none of us can remember what it was like to be a baby, but it must have been pretty overwhelming. “Outside Things” is about that.” (x)

“In One Out” is about trying heroin when he is really old just to see how it is, while “Plans” was written for a lost friend because of malaria.

It’s good that it rolls in the mind, it means it survives and is still alive – Plans

UPDATE: Charlie Cunningham’s debut album Lines (January 2017)

WHERE does his unique style of guitar playing come from?
“I played guitar for years, since I was 12, electric guitar, and then I got into kind of fingerpicking stuff on acoustic guitar playing bluesy kind of stuff and then I kind of got a bit stuck, I couldn’t really go much further with it and I wanted to get a bit more humph behind my playing, cause I was listening to a lot of Flamenco music where it is guitars but it’s so much drive out there playing. So I went to Spain for a couple of years, in Seville, and just kind of listened to a lot of Flamenco and played a lot and had some lessons over there. So I wanted to apply that kind of thing to my kind of music, to the kind of music I listen to so I was using that [Spanish-influenced] technique to make it into beats. That’s how it happened really.” – Charlie explains to The Sofar Sounds Radio Show (x)

WHY should I listen to him?
For his honest songwriting and percussive guitar style that make you forget it is just one man and his simple instrument playing (…he also loves animals and is a lovely uncle, which is always good)

WHEN can I see him live?
Charlie is touring Germany early March 2015 and at the end of the month will be in Cornwall to support Stornoway. He’s also playing End Of The Road Festival in September. All dates here.

HOW can I get to know him better?
Listen & Watch: Spotify // Soundcloud // Youtube // Bandcamp
Like & Follow: Facebook // Twitter // Instagram

UPDATE: Charlie Cunningham’s debut album Lines (January 2017)

Here is Charlie Cunningham in Session for Amazing Radio at The Great Escape 2014 with Breather

UPDATE: Charlie Cunningham’s debut album Lines (January 2017)