Charley Stone: I’ve Gotta Know
(Self Released)
DL/Streaming
Out Now
Charley Stone returns with the first of three new singles, I’ve Gotta Know, recorded with the Actual Band…
There are few people where it’s obligatory to introduce them as ‘The Legendary’… but Charley Stone is one of them. If you’ve not heard the name, shame on you, but you will have heard her music or seen her on stage. Ms Stone has performed and recorded with dozens of bands over the years including Sleeper, Desperate Journalist, Art Brut, Salad, Gay Dad, The Fallen Women, and Ye Nuns… as well as recently supported the likes of Anna Erhard, Shilpa Ray, The Messthetics, House of All, The Miki Berenyi Trio and Lande Hekt to name a few.
It was during the pandemic she started writing the odd tune and released them via Bandcamp, before launching a ‘proper’ solo career in 2021, the self-released debut album, Here Comes The Actual Band arriving in 2024.
I’ve Gotta Know, is the first of three new tracks recorded as live takes, with the Actual Band (consisting of Charley, Mar K aka Kris Smith on bass and Fightmilk’s Lily Rae on drums). Recorded as a live take, with vocals recorded together in the same room along with guitar, bass and drums, and with just acoustic guitar and a little jazz organ overdubbed afterwards at OneCat Recording Studios in South London.
Clocking in at just under 2 and a half minutes, with a jangly, punky sound in the vein of The Go Betweens, it’s a ‘perfectly crafted indie pop song’ (Charley told me to say that) which takes you on a journey through the emotional states of a hopeless romantic caught up in a situationship… I’ve Gotta Know has an upbeat simplicity to the melody which belies an anxious yearning, brilliantly revealed and explored in an improvised spoken word middle section, before exploding into a forthright triple chorus and a wistful, crestfallen coda.
Talking of the track Charley says, ‘At first it was a very short and simple song about trying to keep your cool when someone you’re really into starts to show interest,” says Charley, “but then the middle section started evolving into an increasingly intense riff on how this might pan out for a person with an anxious attachment style,’ that said, she goes onto say, ‘Every time I sing this song the middle section has different words and is a different length, so there was no option but to record everything live. We put down 3 or 4 different versions, and this was the one I decided to use for the single. But I plan to record a longer, more intense one for the next album!’
Each of Charley’s single is completed with artwork drawn by hand, something she says is, ‘a key manifesto point for me when making things is that I want it all to be very obviously human-made, with all of the messiness inherent in spontaneous DIY creativity’
There will be a headline gig lined up before the end of the year and a further couple of singles before a second studio album is released in 2026.
Charley will also be playing as part of The Fallen Women at the Lexington on 28th December. Tickets available here
For more Charley Stone click here

Photo supplied by Charley Stone
All words by Iain Key. See his author profile here or find him via his LinkTree
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