“I cried, wiped my eyes, and then smiled. Cause they didn’t know I was living a lie.”
Charli Adams is a dream, right? She’s recently shared Cheer Captain and announced news of her debut album Bullseye, due on July 16th via Color Study and featuring recent singles Didn’t Make It and Maybe Could Have Loved. I’m really excited to hear the record – there’s a huge appetite for alt-rock at the moment through the likes of Charli’s contemporaries Phoebe Bridgers, Soccer Mommy, Girl In Red, Billie Marten etc. Always relatable on the surface, the new track is pretty auto-biographical and sees Charli waving goodbye to her youth in Alabama, growing up in a deeply conservative and Christian environment.
On the track, Charli shares: “Cheer Captain is a resentful and regretful song about struggling with a saviour complex as a serial people pleaser. I desperately wanted to be everything for everyone so I became a customizable human being that often went against everything I actually am. It’s always felt like the thesis of this project as I touch on my relationship with religion, my parents, and men.
I grew up in Alabama and I was captain of the cheerleading team in my freshman year of high school and a worship leader at a church. I think it’s safe to say I was struggling with my identity, in fact I really hated it all so a year later, I started school online and moved to Nashville for music.”