CDW, the debut EP by 25-year-old singer and songwriter Charlotte Day Wilson, was just named to the long list of nominated albums for this year’s Polaris Music Prize.Devon Little
"I feel like she's rejected the machine. She could have been swallowed up."
The R&B upstart Charlotte Day Wilson is talking about Leslie Feist, as a role model and template-setter. "She's maintained control of every aspect of her career, for so long," says Wilson, chatting recently on the patio of a Bloor West coffee shop. "That's the goal. She's definitely a force, and her kind of career arc is what I want."
Well, wouldn't we all. But, unlike most of us, Wilson, a singer with a silk-and-gold throat and an ultra-chill manner, has the pieces in place to make it happen. Without a record label deal and without a break-out Mushaboom or 1234 hit quite yet, the Toronto-based artist is making steady, significant progress. "Cause people come and go, but you should know," she sings on the sultry, gospel-washed single Work, from 2016. "That I, that I, am taking it slow."
Work, placed in an iPhone commercial and Netflix's Grace and Frankie, is included on Wilson's debut EP CDW, just named to the long list of nominated albums for this year's Polaris Music Prize. A pair of buzzed-about headlining gigs this spring at Toronto's Mod Club under her belt, Wilson will appear at a Canada Day concert in Nathan Phillips Square before heading to Festival International de Jazz de Montreal (June 28 to July 8).
Wilson's story is a unique one in the music business: She started in the mailroom. It happened that the mailroom was the one in the office of Arts & Crafts, the premiere independent record label in the country. There, while filling band merchandise orders from the label's online store, she struck up a rapport with artist manager Aaron Miller. Miller later caught Wilson at a local showcase gig and, struck by her rich, smooth vocal lustre, offered to work with her.
If it sounds like the music-biz version of An Officer and a Gentleman, with Miller as Richard Gere carrying Wilson as Debra Winger out of the office, the reality is a little less dramatic. "I want to minimize any credit coming my way," says Miller, who himself began at the label as a publicist. "No one discovered Charlotte. She was always destined for great things. I was just part of the process."
Wilson, 25, isn't signed to Arts & Crafts, but Miller's connections have served her well. In 2015, he got her a spot with her band, the Wayo, at the label's Field Trip festival. A year later, with the group disbanded, she played the festival again, solo. This year, on July 4, she'll play Montreal Jazz, opening for, you guessed it, Feist, a superstar with a long-time relationship with Arts & Crafts.
Why isn't Wilson signed to the label herself? The simple answer is that she doesn't need to be. "We're looking around for a deal, but if we don't find the right fit, the glass slipper, we can do it ourselves," Miller says.
As a free agent, Wilson has a manager in Miller who has assembled a group of publicists, booking agents and others key people for the Wilson project.
"The team is important, and it took me a little time to realize that," says Wilson, sipping a coffee and squinting her eyes in the sunlight. "I didn't have it a few years ago, and nothing is possible without it."
We could probably include Alexander Sowinski on Wilson's team. An old high-school acquaintance of the singer, he's the drummer for BadBadNotGood, a well-hyped jazzy hip-hop group whose latest album includes a vocal appearance from Wilson.
The collaboration with BadBadNotGood gave exposure to Wilson, whose talent has been praised by most of the key tastemakers, including Zane Lowe, Pitchfork and NPR. Something unusual with Wilson's rise – and not dissimilar to Feist's ascent – is that her profile early on is as high overseas (particularly in Britain) as it is in Canada.
As for the future, Wilson, a songwriter and saxophone-playing multi-instrumentalist who hopes to produce songs in addition to writing them, looks to branch out in style, perhaps moving from her EP's intimate, thick-grooved and unhurried neo-soul. "I'm not signed," she says. "I have quite a lot of freedom to take my time and think about what kind of music I want to record."
No rush then. "It's gonna take a little time," Wilson croons languorously on Work, "but with you by my side I won't let go, 'til I got what's mine."
Charlotte Day Wilson plays Nathan Phillips Square, July 1; Hillside Festival, Guelph, Ont., July 15