Charlotte Bumgarner Cuts Through the Noise

Written by David Joachims 
Photography by Alexxus Browning 

The modern music industry is constantly demanding more from its artists—more output, more marketability, more buzz—and more from its fans: more engagement, more streaming, more attention. But when everyone is screaming, sometimes a soft voice can cut through the noise. Charlotte Bumgarner is a singer-songwriter from Tulsa, Oklahoma, aiming to do just that. Bumgarner’s voice is delicate, soothing, often presented over equally gentle instrumentals, and the quiet vulnerability of her music produces palpable contrast amidst the boisterous landscape. That contrast is most apparent in her latest release titled Promise. 

Imagine standing alone in an airport, aimless, as everyone else bustles toward their terminal, destinies intertwining and then separating from each other just as quickly. Promise similarly strikes an intimacy amidst chaos—one tinged by the bittersweet, perpetual passage of time. Released July 26, 2024, the five-song EP is packed with personal history, having been conceived and nurtured over the past four years through formative ages in Bumgarner’s life. On August 28, we met to discuss that history, as well as some details behind the creation. 

“I feel a lot of relief,” Bumgarner said of her emotional state one month after the release of the EP, her first long-form undertaking as a musician. Despite requiring only about a week to record the songs in the studio, the actualization of Promise was a years-long process that pushed Bumgarner into unfamiliar territory, requiring growth both personal and artistic, emotional and technical evolution. “I think everything that led up to [it] needed to take that long because it was my first time doing this,” she said. 

Bumgarner labels herself a perfectionist; it has been a recurring obstacle in her creative process since she first began writing songs at the age of fourteen. “I was limiting myself,” she acknowledged. “I wanted my songs to be good right away. I didn’t have the patience to let them be bad, which is what you have to do.” Over the years she developed that patience through the practice of capturing voice memos or acoustic demos and then revisiting them down the road, realizing that “sometimes you don’t recognize how special something is until later.” 

Still, she recalled wrestling with her perfectionism over her first official releases near the end of 2020: “That was a big step… I had been sitting on those songs for years too.” Those singles—first “Honey Touch,” followed soon after by “Haunted House” and “Red with Love”—were produced with help from her boyfriend and fellow artist Drew Richardson (of the band Downward), a process Bumgarner remained relatively detached from. “I tracked guitar and vocals; we talked about vibes and what I was imagining, and he just did it. Honestly, there were

rarely any notes,” she remarked. “I think that’s just something that comes with knowing someone really well.” 

The process for Promise also began around the same time (2020), when Bumgarner was conceptualizing the songs that would eventually form the backbone of the EP; though, some ideas solidified more quickly than others. “I wrote ‘Never Say’ in like twenty minutes, which is crazy because I’ve never done that before,” she laughed. “‘Strong,’ the second track on the project, was written just a week after ‘Honey Touch,’ while she was still living with her parents.” In 2021, Bumgarner moved into a new place with her friend Rachel, which was where she wrote the third track, “Sleepwalking,” as well as Promise, the stripped-down fifth track. 

Based on the tender timbre of her music, it might not be surprising to learn that she would often write from the sanctum of her bed. “I love to write in my bed… it needs to feel casual,” Bumgarner mused. “I’ll trick myself into feeling comfortable enough to write because if I treat it more seriously, I’ll feel too much pressure, and it’ll be bad. That’s something I’ve learned about myself.” 

Her next (and current) living space, which she shared with her boyfriend Richardson, was where the finishing touches of Promise were crafted, including bringing in the musicians that would form her band and contribute their own parts to the project. Those musicians were Ramsey Thornton (drums), Matt Magerkurth (bass and cello), and Olivia McGraw (violin and background vocals)—each well-established within the Tulsa music scene themselves. Bumgarner was adamant about finding musicians that could both serve and elevate the simple stylings of her songs. “[They’re] all such intuitive, smart players that I did not have to write any of their parts; they all wrote their parts,” she extolled. “They played around me, which was what I needed.” 

Bumgarner initially felt intimidated attempting to expand her sound and bring new instruments into the mix, having performed solo for most of her career. “I think a song is only good if it can be played solo,” she stated. “I don’t want a song to feel like I can’t do it by myself because I write it by myself.” Having been somewhat hands-off for her first singles, Bumgarner said the next couple of years were the opposite. “I was like, I need to be in full control... I tried to teach myself Logic in like, two days,” she quipped, “and obviously that didn’t work.” 

Holding on to control is often associated with being strong, but perhaps it takes a different sort of strength to relinquish that control. Notwithstanding her hesitations, collaboration would become a key component of Promise, as Bumgarner allowed herself to trust other people with her work, which helped her lower her guard. In addition to the band, Bumgarner also looked to collaborate with a new producer—electing not to work with Richardson again, despite their close connection and living together at the time. “I want to feel like I can do this without him, even though he did still play a little on it,” she commented. 

After a long time searching for the right producer, and a few failed attempts, Bumgarner connected with Kendal Osborne of The Closet Studios in Tulsa, Oklahoma, through a friend who had previously worked with him. Although she was raring to record these songs, she was also a bit daunted by the task, having never recorded in a studio before. “I kind of didn’t think that I could until it happened,” she expressed. “I needed to stop worrying about the process and just enter the process.” 

The shift from her bedroom to a studio environment was “tricky in some ways, but mostly so much easier,” according to Bumgarner. “It’s really frustrating to make yourself do it on your own.” Just as there can be strength in letting go of control, there is also strength in admitting a need for help, even if she was originally reluctant to accept it. She chuckled, remembering feeling overwhelmed whenever Osborne would suggest adding additional layers: “I’m a very simplistic musician, and that’s something I love about my music. I want it to be able to stand on its own.” 

Osborne’s seasoned, song-serving approach to production—and his cozy studio setup—turned out to be a great fit for Bumgarner’s vision. “He’s done this for so long that he just has an ear for catching little layers and parts that I wouldn’t even think about,” she said about Osborne. “I think I was stubborn in a lot of ways… I’m just very protective of my work. Being a young woman, there’s a lot of dudes who want to sink their teeth into the music and have some attachment to it, but Kendal is not that way at all… he trusted me, which is the most important thing.” 

It was that trust and strength found in collaboration that empowered Bumgarner to complete these songs after having performed, reworked, and held onto them for so long. She specifically referenced the fourth track on the EP, “Bleeding Heart,” which she had trouble nailing down on her own: “I couldn’t figure it out, and then everything that made me love it was things that Kendal brought. You just have to collaborate sometimes and swallow your pride… I don’t have to do everything by myself.” 

An artist’s process, with all its idiosyncrasies, greatly influences the relationship between them and their creation; the realities of which few, if any, would ever be able to deduce from a purely analytical perspective—the time invested, the emotions entangled, the effort expended, the leaps of faith, and the stumbles along the way. Although the years of work had somewhat desensitized Bumgarner to her own songs, being able to finally share them has been reaffirming. “[The songs] don’t have the same impression on me as they do for someone who’s just now hearing it, which I think is really special,” she observed. “It has been really fun to fall in love with these songs in a new way, just by hearing my friends hear it for the first time.” 

Bumgarner, reflecting on those years, stated: “I feel all my different ideas from each space… and I hear the growth to get to where I am now.” That process of growth, learning to trust herself, and gaining confidence through experience (like strengthening a muscle), was the cornerstone in the creation of Promise. Bumgarner credited experiences such as playing live shows, meeting new people, and gaining more knowledge about production and songcraft as a catalyst for her evolution. 

“Thinking back to my mindset when I wrote ‘Honey Touch’ is crazy. I see music so differently now. I’m a lot more careful about production, and a lot more thoughtful about the making of the song. In some ways that’s really good, in some ways that’s kind of bad. There’s no right way to do it; it’s just about learning over time what works for me.” 

As Charlotte Bumgarner continues to develop as both artist and human, a full album may be on the horizon. For now, she is sustained by her progress, at last having said—as the final lyric of the titular and closing song on Promise reads—“the things I’ve been meaning to say.”