The growth from Carlie Hanson’s 2019 debut EP, Junk, to the just-released DestroyDestroyDestroyDestroy is staggering. In just over a year, the 20-year-old has overhauled her sound (gritty pop/rock is her true calling) and come into her own as a songwriter. Her sophomore set is brutally honest, overwhelming dark and very, very relatable. Whether Carlie is singing about self-destructive tendencies (“Fires”), low self-esteem (“Good Enough”) or addiction (“Stealing All My Friends”), there’s an authenticity to the experience that is as rare as it is gripping.
“This project is full of everything I was feeling last year at 19 years old,” the breakout star explains in the press release. “It was a very weird time period in my life – I was finally getting used to being on my own in LA, I had told the world about my sexuality, I felt like I finally really knew what I wanted to say as an artist but at the same time I felt completely lost. I had started taking medication for the first time because I was experiencing really bad anxiety.”
“Everyday felt like, even though I had all these great things going for me, I was still constantly in my head and always searching for something more,” she continues. “I was unhappy in my relationship at the time and really I just wanted to run. I wanted to destroy everything and that’s where these songs were born. Sometimes you have to destroy yourself to become a better version of yourself.” You can stream Carlie’s excellent DestroyDestroyDestroyDestroy EP in full below.