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  • Charlie Youngson

    Charlie Youngson

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Charlie Youngson

Advanced Diploma of Music, 2024

When WAAPA music graduate, Charlie Youngson, first picked up a jembe drum at the tender age of seven, he couldn't have imagined the exciting path this little instrument would lead him on, from the prestigious Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and then onto stages all across Australia – including opening our very own ECU alumni celebration, Aluminate.

Now based in Fremantle, Charlie is building his flourishing career as a multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, cherishing the lessons, friends and network he first established at WAAPA.

"My fondest memory was probably the performances," he adds, "the last performance was super special because we'd been a cohort for a year and had become incredibly close friends. There's nothing better than getting to play music with your friends.”

Growing up in Bridgetown in the South West, Charlie's friends weren't particularly "musically inclined", sharing in his passion for music, and so his acceptance into the prestigious WAAPA was a dream come true.

"I was beyond excited to be accepted. Coming from a very small town, the idea that I was going to get to go to uni and spend all day playing guitar, writing music and meeting all these other people …with a similar passion for music is so exciting."

This passion for music started young with drum lessons, followed by guitar lessons, and now Charlie is a multi-instrumentalist, modestly stating he "dabbles in a few" instruments - picking up new instruments and playing them with a master's ease. His first little guitar (nicknamed Winnie) remains his first true love.

"I got given my beautiful little guitar [Winnie], which is still [what I] play today… I think it just slowly snowballed. The more I play, the more fun it gets… I just want to do this forever."

For Charlie, songwriting is more about sparks of inspiration from a million different, unexpected sources:

"Sometimes it'll be a lyric that pops into my head, or I’ll read something somewhere, or sometimes it'll be a guitar [tune] that I write… I'm not a very fast songwriter. I like to stew on things for a very long time.”

And now, life after WAAPA is moving fast. As soon as Charlie graduated, he was invited to front a band on an East Coast Tour and open for some amazing artists, like Ash Grunwald and Felipe Baldomir.

Above all, though, Charlie really values the community ECU introduced him to:

"We all stay so tight-knit because we're going to the same gigs… playing in bands together … and seeing each other around the Perth music scene. It's an unreal community to have. WAAPA gave me an amazing network and bunch of friends around the music scene".

Charlie adds that the Aluminate event is a reminder of the value of staying connected to your peers:

"I had a really lovely time [at ECU], it's a group that I still want to be a part of. So, it's important to me to keep up those connections and stay within that community."

And now, as Charlie prepares to take to the stage once more at Aluminate, he's excited and only a little nervous!

"It’ll be amazing to stand in front of a whole bunch of people who have done amazing things and get to play a piece of music for them that I've written and I'm passionate about. [He'll be performing Petrichor, an acoustic guitar instrumental inspired by the smell of the earth after the rain, which can be found on Apple Music or Spotify.]

I feel incredibly lucky to be given that opportunity."

Experience Charlie’s talent first-hand at Aluminate, book your ticket here.

Image courtesy of Charlie Youngson by Foreva Media.

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