Charlie Houston

About this event

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Charlie HoustonSince the release of her 2020 EP I Hate Spring, which caught the attention of tastemakers such as Apple Music's Zane Lowe, Toronto-based artist Charlie Houston has been steadily pushing the boundaries of pop music, infusing it with her natural edge, grit, and honest songwriting. With tours supporting Charlotte Cardin across Canada and Hailey Blais, and The Beaches across North America, Houston's journey and growth as songwriter led to the release of her highly anticipated debut album, Big After I Die. Where her previous works had been a reflection of her college years, Big After I Die is an album rife with nostalgia: the ghosts of people and places far gone but still fresh with emotional impact.   The Empty Page The Empty Page do not write love songs. Instead, you'll find subjects like bed rot, victim blaming, and the end of the (f-ing) world as Kel's anxious vocals meet Giz's wall of shimmering, shoegaze-inspired guitars. Driving basslines and urgent, energetic drums evoke the power-trio's northern industrial roots. After grabbing his attention with early demos recorded in a damp warehouse in Ancoats, the Manchester band's debut LP Unfolding was recorded with Gggarth Richardson (L7/Biffy Clyro/Melvins) in Vancouver Canada. A trio of 7-inch singles followed on bedroom label Punk Fox winning 6 Music airplay from Steve Lamacq, Gideon Coe and Tom Robinson who called them "immensely powerful". Second album Imploding produced by Morton Kong (Orielles/Everything Everything/Pyncher) in Stockport was released in May 2024 to praise from Louder Than War, Joyzine and Fresh on the Net, and enthusiastic airplay from BBC Introducing and BBC R1. The album depicts an emotional breakdown in anxious, apocalyptic times. In 2025, the band returned with the first of a run of singles When We Gonna Run? produced by Matt Peel (Eagulls, Dream Wife, Bodega) at Nave Studios, a former church in Leeds. It was compared to bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth and Killing Joke by tastemaker blogs like Louder Than War, Indie For Bunnies, and Analogue Trash. The second of these singles, Death On Our Side - a song about death as your only retirement plan - came out in January 2026.