From Bedroom Walls to Boundless Worlds: Inside the Mind of carpet bed

carpet bed.

carpet bed is the project of Melbourne-based artist Charlie, an artist that blurs the line between personal storytelling and theatrical performance. With roots in slowcore and ambient sounds, carpet bed’s music explores themes of grief, vulnerability, and growth. Her songs act as a personal outlet first and foremost, yet still continue to resonate deeply with listeners, eliciting powerful emotions. While her music is born in the bedroom, Charlie envisions carpet bed in a world of its own, built up through sounds, visuals, and guided by a promise to herself to never make music for someone else.

carpet bed’s new EP ‘last night i watched myself sleep’ releases next Friday 19 September on all platforms. It’s an emotional roller coaster and a project that would fit perfectly into your morning next Friday.

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Kade: So, first of all, who is carpet bed?

carpet bed: Okay, so I knew this question was coming and I tried thinking about it because I genuinely think sometimes in the creative process of being an artist and putting music out under an alias, it's kind of difficult to differentiate whether carpet bed is me, Charlie, or whether carpet bed is someone else entirely like a character.

I think it's somewhere in the middle, I think for carpet bed, the themes and the lyricism and everything is all me. Music is a very, very big outlet in my life. So the things that I portray in my music are my experiences, my emotions, all of that. So I like to think that carpet bed is me and an embodiment of my experiences, but I also do love the theatrical side of things, like putting on a show and being a character. I would love to convey that as I progress with carpet bed.

Kade: Expanding on that, do you view carpet bed as an extension of yourself or its own character, something separate from you?

carpet bed: I think it’s absolutely an extension of myself. I'm not writing fictional concept albums or things like that. It's all my story, give or take. It's definitely me, it's definitely Charlie, and it's my story. Everything I put out there is what I want to be known for; it's not a character, these are the songs that I write from my experiences. I will always want it to be that. I think I always want carpet bed to be an extension of Charlie.

 But, like I said before, I love the theatrics and maybe that's just the theatre kid in me, really kind of hamming it up, if you will. Making it theatrical, making it a performance. When I'm writing about something, maybe it'll be something that I've experienced, it's then like, “okay, now how do I make this more of a performance?”

Kade: Moving into those performances and your music itself, what does your songwriting process normally look like? Is there anything in particular that you start with when it comes to songwriting?

carpet bed: I think it's changed a lot, because even in the past year, production wise I did not know how to produce a song. I used to release on an old Spotify profile, that was called Chrl3s, and I look back now and I'm like damn, that sounds like ass. Back then I would write all my

songs on an acoustic guitar and then I would record it into my interface. But since I've started learning how to properly produce my music and I've started using electric guitars as well, which is another recent thing for me, it's weirdly changed that songwriting process. Now I'll record in guitars and some synths, drums, make it pretty. Then I'll loop it out and I'll just sing over it until I find something that I like. Or if I'm kind of having a bit of writer’s block, I'll go through my old notes and find the beginning of a song that I never finished that I want to try to write again.

So, it really depends. Sometimes I'll still just sit on my bed, and I'll play a song. Just kind of freestyle songwrite. Then if I like it enough, I might produce it. But what I produce now is never really straight off the guitar. It's definitely more polished and stylised than it used to be.

Kade: Going from there, when you're writing your songs, do you write them more as a personal outlet or with the listeners in mind?

carpet bed: Definitely a personal outlet. Music has always been something where I thought, I'm gonna do it, no matter what, no Plan B, however long it takes. I'm gonna do it. And I made a promise to myself a while ago where I was like, I'm never going to make music for somebody else. It's always going to be what I want. I'm never going to not put something out because I don't think that it’ll be received well. That's why I have Chrl3s, Rain Over Ether, and carpet bed, because I want to put out different styles of music without all the different sounds I try getting too muddled.

I'm a very emotional person. Like I'm a very emotional person. I'm always thinking about something, I always have something going on in the back of my mind that I will want to write about. And I honestly think if I didn't have music, I would go crazy because that's how I deal with everything. Like, I will just write out all my thoughts. And if it sounds shit, it sounds shit. And then later on, I'll go over it and I'll make it a song, but it'll always be something that I want to make and that I want to write in the style that I want to write it in. It’ll always be some kind of emotional outlet.

One of my favourite things to do is go through my lyrics with someone and be like “this is what means this, this is what that means, this is what happened then”. My songs are very personal to me in that regard.

Kade: Going from the lyrics to talking more about the sounds of your music, it's got a very ethereal, almost atmospheric kind of quality. Are there any artists in particular that you can point to as the influencers for the sonic direction that your songs take?

carpet bed: I really, I really like this question because I've been asked it a lot, and I never really know how to answer. I feel like the music that I make now is so different to the music that I made six months ago, and that was so different to the music that I made six months before that, and I feel like it's all a collection of artists that I love, but also the result of trial-and-error through my own music journey. But some big inspirations would be Searows and Ethel Cain, big one there.

Kade: As the name suggests.

carpet bed: As the name suggests, literally a homage to Ethel Cain. So, those kind of, I wouldn't say slowcore artists, but those alternative, sad girl songwriters. Also just influence from the slowcore genre, the alternative genre. I take weirdly a bit of inspiration from techno, too. Like with synths and stuff, a lot of the synths that I use in my songs are from my own experience with making techno music and so it's kind of a massive collage of all these things that I've done and that I've heard, so I can't really narrow it down to 1 inspiration. It's more like a collage of my experiences and growth through music.

Kade: As you mentioned before, your music six months ago looked very different to how it is now and the six months before that, it was even more different. Six months from now, are there any types of sounds that you want to try out?

carpet bed: I want to try every sound ever. I want to be very diverse, which Spotify and Apple Music algorithms hate, which is why I think I keep making new profiles. Because if people wanna listen to Rain Over Ether music, they'll go to Rain Over Ether. If people want a slower, more ambient sound, they'll go to carpet bed. But I've got a whole techno album in my pocket that I might drop sometime, I don't know. Then I have a bunch of shoegaze and alternative rock songs that I've made, which I might drop, I might not. I might keep working on them.

But I think in six months, I want to make all kinds of music, but I also want to know that I made what I want to make. I was actually having this conversation earlier where it's like, I don't wanna feel confined to what will be received well. I don't want to feel confined to what will sound good under what artist name. I want to make what comes to my mind and if I release it, great. If I don't, great. But in six months I just want to know and be confident in the fact that I let the music guide me, if that makes sense.

Kade: Speaking of where we're at six months from now, do you see any particular genres that are really emerging as ones that you think will influence you the most over that time?

carpet bed: I'm not sure, honestly, that's a good question. I think shoegaze definitely, as an emerging genre. On the songs I'm working with now I'm tying in kind of heavier guitars and stuff like that, and pulling some inspiration. I think that's definitely a big one that's kind of been popping off in the last year or so. Yeah, but that's a good question. I’m actually not really sure past that, it would be good to think more on.

Kade: Something that you mentioned before was how much you enjoy the theatrics side of things. I wanted to ask if you have a vision for how the visual aspect is going to tie into your music?

carpet bed: Oh, for sure, I think that definitely ties into the theatrics of having a persona that you release under. Even today I was rinsing Pinterest, just absolutely going through it. I was making a bunch of different boards for different photo shoots and thinking of music videos to really build the world, because I love making music. But again, the theatre kid in me makes me want to make this a whole character that people can relate to. 

Like again, God forbid I mention Ethel Cain again, but you look at an old church or like a run-down Western town and you're like, “Oh my God, that's so Ethel Cain”. I want to build that world for carpet bed and I think that's one of the most exciting things to me, because I make this music from my bedroom, butI want it to be so much bigger than that. 

I want this world to be carpet bed with the blues and the greens and expanding on who the character “carpet bed” is. I don't know. It's just fun. I want to build that world and I want to have carpet bed, even though it's me, it's Charlie, be a character. 

Kade: Circling back to your songwriting, a lot of the lyrics wrestle with themes like vulnerability and grief. I wanted to ask you if it's sometimes difficult to write songs about those themes and how you confront those emotions?

carpet bed: Like I said earlier, with music being a massive emotional outlet for me, I think I'd be worse off if I didn't have music. Obviously those emotions and writing about those experiences is confronting. But I think it would be more overwhelming if I didn't have a place to put them, like turn that mental noise into something beautiful. 

The first song I ever put out under Rain Over Ether, ‘Come Home’, was about my cousin who passed away and that was obviously a horrible, horrible thing. And, you know, grief is really hard. But it was beautiful to be able to take that experience and that grief and those emotions and put it into something that I was proud of, that was beautiful. Then that song had other people messaging me, being like this is a beautiful song and I can really relate and it kind of turned that process into a beautiful experience i could share with other people.

Kade: Have those messages from others helped motivate you, or have they felt therapeutic in a way?

carpet bed: Oh, big time. It's actually crazy because I'm a very small artist, I’m just a girl from Melbourne. I remember I had this crazy experience where someone posted a TikTok and it was a photo of their diary and they'd written a whole letter to me about how my music connects with them, and how it's a real help for them in those harder moments. I saw that and I cried, and I was like, damn, that's so crazy. Just that one person, you know. If my music can make someone feel the way that other people's music makes me feel, that's beautiful. And I love that and that will always be a massive motivation for making and putting out music. 

Kade: Now onto a name that you've mentioned multiple times throughout, Rain Over Ether. How does that project differ from carpet bed and what does that project mean to you?

carpet bed: Rain Over Ether was the project I made after Chrl3s, which was the first Spotify profile that I put all of my music on from when I was 16. I think I released my first song on there. And that was just using Garage Band and an Apple headphone mic. That was very, very minimal. Rain Over Ether was when I first really started to learn how I can produce music. Using an electric guitar that I just learned to play. I'm very grateful for the people in my life who taught me that because I feel like just in the last year from me putting out Rain Over Ether definitely changed the trajectory of my music. 

It's hard to say because it really kind of just went in a bunch of different directions and I think that's why I ended up parting with it. Because I released ‘Come Home’, ‘tell me you want me to stay’, and ‘kiss me before you leave’ and the latter 2 songs, I love those songs. I still love those songs. And then it kind of took a different direction with some alternative sounds, some harder sounds. And I think that project to me above anything else was just the beginning.

That project for me was what started this massive drive for music and for it to be my career. I've always loved music, but something in me changed when I really learned how to make the music I wanted to make. It started that drive of “I'm gonna do anything to make this work”. Whether or not I release on Rain Over Ether again, I kind of look back on that project like damn, that was the start of it for me. So I think emotionally I have that connection to it where it's like, okay, that's where it started. And that's really cool.

Kade: Is there a specific moment when you were writing a song, or right after a specific track came out that really felt like it was the moment when the switch flipped?

carpet bed: I'm trying to remember if it was ‘tell me you want me to stay’ or ‘kiss me before you leave’. I think it was ‘tell me you want me to stay’, because I put that out as a single before the EP and I loved that song. It was the first time I'd made a song myself. Like, I made that song, all by myself and that was what I wanted to make, in this sound. Then I put it out and it was received really well, by the minimal amount of people that heard it, which still was crazy to me, and I loved it. And then I went out to put out that EP ‘from me, with Love’ and I was really proud of that. 

That EP was the first time that I ever saw monthly listeners go over 1000, and I was like, that's crazy. I'd never seen that number in my life. I think at some point it got up to 5000 and I was like “damn, that's so fire”. I think it was there where I was really thinking, okay, this is a town hall of people who regularly fuck with my music. I think it was just really getting into that new mindset with Rain Over Ether and really quickly learning all these production skills, that even now I look back on and think “oh my God, I could do that so much better now”. Seeing the progress in me and how well it was being received by others and that external validation was a really cool moment, especially when it hit 5000. It's nowhere near that now. But I was like, damn, okay, this is cool. I want to do this and I want to keep doing this and I want to keep meeting the next milestone.

Kade: Another thing that I wanted to ask you about was the new song that came out Friday, with porch kiss. I wanted to ask how that song came about?

carpet bed: First of all, love the song, it's such a great song and I love porch kiss. I found porch kiss like 6 months ago, maybe a little bit more than that. His song ‘burn like a cigarette’ is such a beautiful song. And I immediately showed my partner, and I was like “this dude is so sick”. But then I got really jealous because porch kiss was already following him, [laughs].

So, they were meant to make a song together, and porch kiss sent the track to him saying “here you go, do what you want with it”. But he ended up passing it to me for ideas, as it wasn’t his usual style. So, I sat at my computer, and I was like, oh my God, I've got to do something sick. I've gotta make this really cool. 

So then I made about four different songs with it. I just kept making a new file. I chose the one that's out now because I really liked the flow, I liked the lyrics. Then I sent it back to my partner and he did some editing on it and we sent it back to porch kiss. He loved it. Rest was history. So, I basically just stole the spotlight, which I mean, I'll take it. But yeah, I love the song and I'm really grateful that porch kiss worked with me on it. 

Kade: While on the topic of collaborations, are there any other artists that you would like to collaborate with in the future?

carpet bed: Yeah, absolutely. I've been speaking to another small artist from the UK; her name is Casual Blood Service. She's very cool. Her music is a bit similar, but I think she takes more of an acoustic route with her songs. But I would love to work with her. I've got a few people that I'm talking to that are also in the slowcore community. When I first started listening to slowcore, obviously there was vhs ghost, love their music, would love to work with them. i talk about you all the time, those slowcore cats, who I heard for the first time when I tapped into the genre.

Kade: What about some artists that you think you might like to collaborate with for some of the other genres that you might be making? Whether that's techno, shoegaze, or anything in between?

carpet bed: I feel like collaborations to me have always seemed, not out of reach, but I guess yeah, like out of reach. I think because music is such a personal thing to me, I used to really struggle with the idea of writing with somebody and making something with someone else. 

Because if I make a song, I want it to be my song and I want it to sound the way that I want it to sound. But yeah recently especially working with porch kiss, I was like okay no, this is sick. I really, really like this. I don't know if I've thought much about shoegaze, but surprise surprise, the top tier of all collaborations would be Ethel Cain. That would be crazy. Or Searows. Those are the big 2 for me.

Kade: Speaking of Ethel Cain, she's coming to Australia next year for some live shows. Now that she's returning for shows, do you have any plans for any of your own live performances?

carpet bed: I would love to perform live. I was on the phone to my manager the other day and I was saying that, because I used to play in a band, I miss playing live so much. And the idea of playing live when it's solely my music, that’s so sick. I miss it and I would absolutely love to. I think we're hopefully looking for early next year to maybe do a few small shows. 

That's what I want anyway. That would be cool, even if it's just 50 cats in a room that would be sick. I miss having that connection to an audience. And if the people that are coming are coming because they know my songs, too. Having people singing your songs to you is so cool. Bottom line, I would love to.

Kade: Do you think playing live would change the way that you perform some of your songs, or do you think they would stay true to their studio sound?

carpet bed: It would definitely have to change somewhat. I would love to have live drums, even though I don't have a lot of songs with drums. Then also changes mainly with guitar. I struggle to play a lot of my own songs, which is funny. My guitars in some of my songs take me about 10 takes, 20 takes and they're all in a bunch of different tunings, which would make it difficult to play live. Because I'll write a song and then forget how to play it. 

So, I think it would have to change somewhat, even if it's just to not make it boring, because that's my biggest fear in my head. It's slowcore. It's hard to play live because it is slow and I wouldn’t want to bore people. I think for that reason alone, it would change a little bit, maybe add some builds, add some drums here, add some extra guitar there. But I would definitely keep the original testament to the sound.

Kade: On the topic of live shows, are there any artists that you've been able to see live that influence the type of show that you would like to have?

carpet bed: I haven't seen many artists live, which is crazy. I think in the last year I've seen more artists live than I had in any of the years previous. Up until the last two years, I'd only seen Sam Smith in 2018 and Men I Trust, which was sick, I do love Men I Trust. Honestly their performance would be an influence because they do have slower music, definitely more vibey, more ambient. I think I would love to take inspiration from some of what they did. They connected with the audience in such a beautiful way, and I wasn't really expecting to be so present for their show, even though I loved their music. 

I kind of had that mindset of like oh, it's slow music. It's gonna be a little bit boring, but they proved me wrong, and it was a great show. So, I think I would love to find a way to do what they did and really make it inviting and captivating visually with lights and whatnot.

Kade: You mentioned before how you don't really do concept albums or anything like that. Do you think that's something that you would like to do in the future as a larger project to take on?

carpet bed: I actually tried to because I love story writing. I used to write a lot when I was younger. I would write books and that's what I would do with all my spare time. I love lyricism and poetry and all of that. And again, the theatre kid in me loves to put on a show, so I tried to write a concept album. I had this whole storyline in my head, and I had what each song would be about. But I think that's when I really felt restricted.

Going back to what I said earlier, I write the music that I want to write, when it comes to me. A lot of my music is about things that I've been through and from experience. I think when it came down to the concept album, I couldn't write anything that sounded genuine. It didn't sound like something that I wanted to write, or it just sounded boring and uninspired. I think a lot of the time when I write, just to write a song, it sounds really disingenuous, and I hate that. If I ever write a song like that, it could sound beautiful, but I'll scrap it, because it doesn't sound like a song that naturally wanted to be written.

Kade: Do you think there are any concept albums or albums with storylines that you might take inspiration from if you ever do revisit the idea?

carpet bed: I think taking inspiration from a sound, instrumentals, or the way you write your songs is very different to taking inspiration from a concept. In my mind, at least. I think the way that I would look at it is like, this is a beautiful album and so many people connect with it, and they love the storyline. That’s it. It's been made, it's done, and if I even tried to touch it, I feel like it wouldn't be by me. I'm such a perfectionist when it comes to my music.

Even if it sounded great, if I was proud of the album, I wouldn't be able to put it anywhere because it didn't come solely from Charlie, from me. But props to all the artists out there making concept albums and making them well, because that shit’s hard. If it's done right it's beautiful. I would love to try one day and maybe I'll give it another crack one day. But I think the way I write clashes with the idea of writing a concept album.

Kade: You’ve mentioned multiple times now how the fan interactions have really meant a lot to you. Is there anything that you hope that fans of your music can take away from the songs that you write?

carpet bed: I think a lot of the fan interactions that I've had were online, I’ve had people come up to me in person, which is so cool, but I think people obviously are more comfortable sharing their story online rather than a 10 second hello on the street. The gist of what I’ve gotten that people take away from my music is a feeling of company in times that can feel so lonely. I write these songs about times that I have felt lonely and times that I have felt really miserable. So to know that those songs that I wrote, from a dark place, are helping somebody else in a dark place is beautiful. I'm so grateful for all of it, and I'm even more grateful for the people that say they're grateful for me.

Kade: Is there a message that you could give to the people who may be listening to your music and going through similar things that you had once gone through?

carpet bed: Just talk. I think there's so much in human connection that we take for granted, especially in a day and age of social media, where everything is so online. I think human connection is one of the most beautiful things there is. There is so much love and company there, if you look for it, and if you let it in. It’s so easy to get so caught up in that spiral of “I feel like this and I'm always going to feel like this.” Or “this keeps happening” or “this feeling won't go away”. But it's as simple as going for a walk and I hate saying that. I hate saying that because when people said that to me I was like, man, you don't know, you don't get it. I don't want to go for a walk, I feel so sad.

But finding the simplicity and comfort in just going for a walk, calling your friends, and, I mean, this is gonna sound terrible coming from me, but not listening to sad music all the time. If that makes you feel at home, have your 5 minutes. Have your 10 minutes of this is the emotion I'm feeling. I'm gonna feed it. But at the end of that, change it up. Just do the small steps that feel hard because it does really help. Just calling a friend, having a chat, and taking a second to revel in connection and the love that is always there.

Kade: One final thing I wanted to ask was if you could achieve any three over the next year, musically or personally, what would they be?

carpet bed: Three things, okay. 

First thing, I definitely want to play live. That's definitely gotta be on the list. Play live and have at least one person know my lyrics. That's the one. 

Second thing is just continuing to improve and continuing to set goals for myself. I did something the other week, where I said I'm going to make a demo a day. It doesn't have to be a complete song, but I'm going to make one demo a day and that felt really good. So yeah, definitely, just keep trying to improve. 

Then third, work with more artists. Collaborate with more artists because I found there was something so inspiring there. I didn't think I would like it. Like I said, I found that to be a really daunting idea, but it was really rewarding and I definitely want to do more of it.

Kade: Well, thank you so much for the answers and for your time

carpet bed: Thank you.

Pre-save carpet bed’s upcoming EP here and check out carpet bed below.