00:00We probably threw everything in the kitchen sink into the production and started taking
00:05things out.
00:06Because the intro used to be...
00:11One, two, three, four.
00:15It's like...
00:19It's like too long.
00:21No one has the attention span in these TikTok-ian gen alpha days.
00:30Beat Yourself Up is a song that I wrote as a message to myself and a message for a friend
00:43that needed to hear it.
00:44It started in my brain.
00:46I knew the tempo was going to be around here.
00:49And I thought that the key of D major was probably a bit too low, so I transposed it in my head
00:53to F sharp major, which is kind of like a Whitney Houston, like really bright key.
00:58Took the fake strings off.
01:00Maybe the melody is, doesn't do nothing but, instead of doesn't do nothing but, I'm like
01:05oh.
01:06And then it was just a matter of extracting what was in my head and putting it into Pro Tools.
01:09Since you were a boy, you took the weight of the world.
01:17And held onto it till you fell to the ground, like you had no choice.
01:22You did it for your little girl.
01:26So she would never feel the way you do now.
01:29When I say, since you were a boy, you took the weight of the world, I might be speaking
01:34to a mirror and looking right back at me, but I'm also talking to my friend who really at
01:39the time needed to hear this.
01:41What I was trying to accomplish with that verse or the picture that I was trying to paint is
01:46to make it universal enough where anybody like yourself could relate to the sentiment of
01:52someone, a parent, an aunt, uncle, brother, sister, who would literally do anything for
01:59you just to make sure that you feel safe and happy.
02:03What keeps me grounded knowing that I'm gonna be okay, no matter how things seem to pile
02:18up and it seems like Mercury is in retrograde forever, I keep my family close.
02:23I'm fortunate enough to have a really wonderful family who's always got me.
02:28I kind of just take a trip back to 2014, 2015 and remember what it was like to go to
02:33Los Angeles for the first time and feel what it was like to feel like I'd made it and why
02:38I do what I do.
02:39I do what I do for people.
02:40I love people's reactions, their visceral reactions to music.
02:44You can move a crowd or a small room with a chord progression.
02:49I never want to forget or become jaded when it comes to music.
03:03Please don't beat yourself up.
03:05I know you made some mistakes, but you know it means something when you live one more day.
03:12I'm naturally hard on myself.
03:13I really believe we all are naturally hard on ourselves.
03:16I feel like we were less hard on ourselves maybe 20 years ago when we didn't know constantly
03:21about people's whereabouts and everything that was going on in the world all at once.
03:27I think we compare each other's success to our success, well he's done that and I haven't
03:32done that yet.
03:33And then a month later you get to do what he or she is doing and then you're like, well
03:37now I want what this person has.
03:38It's kind of a never ending cycle.
03:39You just, again, like I said before, have to remember why you're doing things.
03:43You're doing things.
03:44In this case, I'm doing things because I love music.
03:47When you're 17 and you're feeling so bold, then realize you gotta do what you're told.
03:5817 year old Charlie was definitely not bold.
04:01I always wanted to be a bit more bold, but I'm always a natural introvert.
04:0617 year old Charlie wanted to be more bold, but 17 year old Charlie was just getting the
04:10courage to sing in front of people for the first time.
04:13I think that was right around the time where I started to do that.
04:16Now you're 23 and you're only worth what you sold, but my mother said some things
04:23are worth more than gold.
04:25I got a ton of great advice from my mom growing up.
04:28I joke around and say that my mom was my first A&R and still today.
04:33Like a song will be doing really well and she's like, I don't like this part here, but I like
04:37this part.
04:38You should have put this part first.
04:39I'm like, oh, I can't really change it now.
04:41It's out.
04:42Going to this bridge, I actually had the whole orchestra, all the brass section there the
04:57same day and had no lyrics to the bridge.
05:00If you listen to it, it sounds like the most bare part of the song.
05:03It used to be jam packed with instruments.
05:05If I stand by my rule of every four or eight bars, something not dramatic, but just a small
05:11change has to happen.
05:13For my music, and this song in particular, I want it to be here, here, rise it up, go down,
05:19and I consider the bridge to be down here.
05:21I have almost barbershop quartet vibes.
05:23It's me doing a bunch of oohs, stacking them, and figuring out the lyrics after the fact.
05:41It's kind of like when a doctor gives you medicine and it's like, all right, do you feel any better?
05:46It's like the song up until that point is just like, all wrapped up into like a giant, lack
05:52of a better term, pill, and like, do you feel any better?
05:55If not, listen to it a couple more times kind of thing.
05:59I feel like there's so much darkness in the world right now.
06:02I mean, it's fairly obvious, and anybody who listens to this can jump into the portal of
06:07a three minute break, like a breather from the outside world.
06:11I do feel like music and art in general is supposed to be an escape.
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