Charlie Belle | "I Don't Want To Be Alone" EP | Fanatic Records | Sept. 18, 2015

Bio:

Charlie Belle is an Austin-based teen sister-brother pop band comprised of songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist, Jendayi Bonds and drummer and vocalist, Gyasi Bonds.

The Bonds siblings first made a splash in early 2015 with the breezy debut EP, “Get To Know,” a succinct and memorable handful of songs that reflected Jendayi’s mature-beyond-her-years songwriting. Recalling the British “alterna-pop” sounds of the 90’s, “Get To Know,” had major press outlets proclaiming that Charlie Belle was “armed with the most infectious kind of power-pop” (Wired), dubbing the group “the coolest and youngest band you need to know,” (Nylon), and naming Charlie Belle as one of the “musicians you’ll tell your friends about in 2015” (NPR).

The second Charlie Belle EP, “I Don’t Want To Be Alone,”was released in late 2015, and showcased a maturing take on the Brit-flavored pop sound that Jendayi is influenced by, but with more of an R&B overtone.

“It’s pretty R&B inspired,” Jendayi says of the EP. “I’ve really been feeling the groove and trying to figure out a way to put that into Charlie Belle without taking away from who we are.” The groove Jendayi is feeling hits home on the track “You Don’t Know Me,” and is even more amped up on the Dan Milrood remix of the song, on which Jendayi’s “velvety vocals sound quite comfy in the headphones,” according Billboard. Afropunk acknowledged being “high key obsessed” with the song, going on to call the track “lyrically and structurally brilliant.” Charlie Belle was also recently featured on NPR’s “Weekend Edition” program in late 2015 and on the cover of the Austin Chronicle just prior to South By Southwest 2016.