As she took a sip of her coffee, Charlotte Sometimes said: “There’s nothing cool about me,” and then laughed. This statement is as deceiving as the rough hidden fingertips under her red nail polish; the 21-year-old singer/songwriter has certainly been living what most people would call a pretty “cool” life.
“I’m definitely not a starving artist because I get paid and I live alone in Manhattan,” she said with a smile. Charlotte signed with major record label Geffen Interscope last fall, released her debut album “Waves and the Both of Us” and is a “You Oughtta Know” artist on the music television channel, VH1. When asked to describe her music in a few words she replied: “Bipolar disorder at its best.” Before she had such a cool life though, she was just Jessie Charlotte Poland of Wall Township, New Jersey.
Tracy and Hartson Poland of Wall, NJ adopted Jessie soon after her birth on January 15, 1988. The only daughter of her parents, who already had two biological sons named James and Josh, Jessie grew up in a household that encouraged her to explore many creative outlets, including dance and poetry. But it was her father who introduced the concept of writing songs.
“I started singing my poetry and my dad said ‘no one wants to hear you sing poems and you might want to do something about that.’ So I started playing guitar,” she said.
Music was also a source of relief for the struggles she faced growing up, including her fight with anorexia as a teenager. Ironically, it was one of her other artistic hobbies that spurred on the eating disorder.
“I started music when I was 14, when I was crazy,” she said. “I picked up a guitar and quit dance and decided dancing wasn’t going to quite work out for me because I became anorexic, like most dancers. Sorry to generalize but most of us have eating disorders, or some sort of psychological issue. Beautiful form, but anyone who looks at themselves in the mirror for over twelve hours a day will likely go insane.”
As she used her guitar to aid in her recovery, Jessie soon realized that her music could serve as more than just a source of therapy. It became her goal to make a career out of it at the age of 15.
“Failure was not an option for me so I never allowed myself to doubt myself. I kind of just would book my own shows and you know, play. I would find anyone who would hear me and I would play for them. And you know I just luckily got it into the hands of the right people and they liked what they heard, even if I was awkward and gawky at the time.”
Ups and downs riddled Jessie’s road to success in high school: break-ups, a failed band project called J.Poland and the Pilots, business disappointments and more health issues challenged her stability. At 16, she was diagnosed with a potentially dream-breaking disease.
“I had condylar resorption, which causes your jaw to basically disintegrate. Then your whole face kind of starts moving backwards and you looked deformed.” She took a bite of her toast and said: “It was hard for me to go through but it helped me write a lot of music and really work that much harder.”
It’s this exact attitude of moving on and growing from tough life experiences that makes Charlotte such an interesting, successful person. Her slim frame gets up to leave and she grabs her bag that’s wider than she is before she leans in for a hug.
I asked her quickly about what’s next on her plate and she answered: “I’m currently working on all the new tracks for the next record and trying to get into songwriting for other people. And just keeping a good head on my shoulders and networking as much as possible; keeping my motivation and work ethic up and getting my ass moving in all ways. You know, just bumping and grinding.” Bumping and grinding seems to be exactly the right words to end the conversation on, and we head in opposite directions. But although we went our separate ways, I know that it won’t be the last I’ll be seeing (or hearing) of Charlotte Sometimes.
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