Charlotte Sands has unveiled her new album Satellite, a bold, emotionally-charged 10-track release that captures her at her most expansive and self-assured. Known for her genre-blurring sound, fearless vulnerability, and electric live presence, Sands pushes her vision further than ever.
“Satellite was born from a search for meaning, identity and self-worth,” Sands explains. “It’s about drifting, discovering, questioning your purpose, and learning to trust the quiet pull that brings you back to yourself.”
Since making her debut in 2018, Sands has charted in the U.S. Top 40 for more than 15 weeks, won ‘Best Breakthrough Album’ at the Heavy Music Awards, and has amassed over 300 million global streams, all as a fully independent artist.
Drawing from early-2000s Y2K influences, Sands embraces the freedom of a music scene where genres are increasingly obsolete, and notes the advice from her sister that guides her creative journey: “You’re allowed to change whenever you want.”
Satellite: Track-by-Track
Starting off strong, with the title track, “Satellite” immediately loops the listener in; like the start of one of Sands concerts. With synths droning back and forth between the stereos, eventually breaking out into a huge vocal belt; Sands is showing off her range right off the bat.
“One eye open,” which was released in early December of 2025, feels gentle and feminine in its verse arrangements, lulling you into the emotional space. It’s a powerful song that’s full of pleading, passion and intensity.
“Hush” was released in June 2025, just ahead of Sands’ stint on the Idobi Radio Summer School Tour. This offered fans an early taste of the sonic direction she was moving toward. The song stands out for its dynamic contrast, skewing toward electro-pop, with a chorus that erupts with a full rock energy.
“Half alive” is a rock-infused track with dreamy melodies, leaning heavily into 90’s and early 2000’s alt-rock energy. The pre-chorus lyric, “it must be nice to have a brain that doesn’t ruin everything”, will stand out to listeners, resonating with anyone that battles their own inner demons.
The middle of the album shifts with “Afterlife”, which was released on September 26, 2025. This track stands out with its beautifully arranged instrumentation and exploration of eternal love. Listeners are likely to feel a deep emotional pull, grappling to the sense of hope in Sands’ voice.
Released in early February, “Back to you” is an introspective song, anchored by warm guitars, exploring the feelings of running in circles. As it progressed, the song swells with an authentic emotion, letting Sands’ vocals soar, giving the track a cathartic energy.
“Neckdeep,” which was released on August 1, 2025, explores false commitment. This track blends alt-rock and electronic elements seamlessly, showcasing Sands’ ability to fluidly move across genres. It’s sonically engaging for its distinctive sound, luring listeners in.
“Water me down” is a ballad that leans on delicate instrumentation with subtle percussion, emphasizing Sands’ vocal tenderness. Focusing on the frustrations of being “watered down in a relationship,” reflecting on how the very qualities once admired can become points of insecurity.
“None of My Business” dropped on March 6, alongside the release of Satellite, arguably being the album’s most bold and attention-grabbing track. The chorus declares, “your identity relies on me and my existence,” as the song bursts with punk rock energy. Loud, driving drums, catchy alt-pop hooks, and a fired-up attitude, the song playful and impossible not to love.
“Sunday” closes the album with a folky, dreamy and whimsical vibe. Distinct echoes in the instrumentation create a romantic atmosphere, and the track’s emotion comes through clearly in the execution. This leaves a heartfelt close to Satellite.
Crave was given the opportunity to interview Charlotte Sands on her love of pottery, wanting more women in the alternative music scene, and of course, her upcoming album, Satellite.
★ INTERVIEW ★
CRAVE: A lot of women came up in earlier eras of the scene, discussing how isolating it was. In particular, Hayley Williams talked about Warped Tour and how there were no women to be friends with or look up to, except for the ones that were in the production offices. So in this era, there is more visible support between women in the scene, like you and like Taylor Acorn. What do you think about having that kind of community, how has that impacted your career as an artist?
CHARLOTTE: Absolutely. Honestly, I feel like I was very self-isolated growing up in this scene. I honestly wasn’t a huge part of the Warped Tour original rock scene. I didn’t find that music until a little bit later in my life, and later in high school, even. I feel really lucky for the fact that I’ve been able to work alongside so many incredible women.
Obviously, I don’t think there’s enough women in the industry yet. I don’t know if I’ll ever think there’s enough women in the industry, until it’s all female. But I am very grateful for the fact that I am continuing to see so many more women on the musical side, the production side, as well as tour management, lighting, production, stage production, bands! I feel like I have been seeing a lot more representation in the last few tours that I’ve done, which has been really, really wonderful, and grateful people are continuing to advocate for that. I also just feel really lucky that I get to collaborate with so many incredible people and witness so many incredible artists that are thriving in this genre.
Taylor Acorn is a great example because she is just somebody who is an absolute superstar, and also one of the kindest, most hilarious, down-to-Earth people you will ever meet.
CRAVE: Oh, my gosh. Yes, I love it. I saw Taylor at the Echoplex and you came up on stage and I knew it too. I was like, somebody’s here. There’s gotta be a guest. And then you came up and I’m like, “I called it.”
CHARLOTTE: Yes, I was like, “Hey girl! Hey, bestie, I heard you’re in town. You want to hang out on stage?” She is remarkable and just couldn’t be a nicer person. Anytime I’m in Nashville now, we go ride horses together and just be little rodeo girls. Honestly, touring with her on the Summer School Tour, it was a co-headline with Rain City Drive, and that was the first time we shared a bus together and being able to tour with another woman who was also at the same exact time going through the same experiences, was really, really interesting.
It was some of the best times of my entire life, I felt so understood, I felt so excited and also validated in the experiences because usually it can be very isolated on tour, and even at venues and everybody around you, it can be an interesting experience depending on who you surround yourself with. Just having somebody like her, and being able to just really enjoy it together was life-changing. We never stopped talking about starting a band after that.
CRAVE: I was just on the Emo’s Not Dead cruise and Daisy Grenade were the only women playing on the cruise. They had these flags that said “women” that they were handing out to everybody.
CHARLOTTE: I love that. It’s so interesting. I try so hard. I feel like I am a naturally optimistic person. So whenever I speak about women and music, I naturally come from a place of excitement and being like, “Yes, it’s so fun to get to see other women in this field!” Then I also do get reminded of every time I see a poster for a festival, the fact that like 3% of these festivals are female-fronted bands, it’s really interesting. I would love for there to be a lot more, and I’m also just excited for the fact that people are having this conversation.
CRAVE: So you’ve said that your upcoming record, Satellite, pulls inspiration from early 2000s aesthetics. I’m curious, when you think about that era, what artists, bands, or pop culture moments immediately come to mind for you? What shaped the world of this album in particular?
CHARLOTTE: Yeah, I mean, I think I’ve always been so split down the middle of the early 2000s, like, the Hillary Duffs, the Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne, Ashlee Simpson, P!nk..there’s just so many. The first CDs I ever had, Michelle Branch, Alanis Morissette, all these incredible women, who had these songs that felt so pop-leaning at the time, and I think people really saw that music and now, listening back, they’re actually pretty heavy rock songs.
P!nk was making rock music, and Kelly Clarkson has one of the best rock vocals so, I think it’s been a really interesting thing when I was growing up really loving pop music, and now realizing how similar the music I make, that I have always thought was really rock, is actually in comparison to those things. As well as even now having influences from bands, like Bring me the Horizon that I love, that are these huge rock productions, but also takes so much influence from electronic rock, and things that then segue into albums like brat. These things have these electronic elements that are just making shows massive, and make the live show feel so huge and so exciting. That’s always been really exciting to me, is finding the pipeline between rock music and also the music that gets people feeling like they can dance, and just enjoy themselves, and have kind of a release from their life.
I think the album is very much all of those things. It’s the influences from the 2000s, or ’90s acoustic rock, and the music that I grew up on. It’s also the mesh of the pop rock/electronic rock culture that is now going on, which I also think is so sick. Trying to blend all my different inspirations together and find the things that make me feel excited to play them live and kind of curate my dream, live show. And write the songs for that.
CRAVE: I’m really glad you brought that up because Neckdeep comes to mind immediately. You start with the little chorus teaser, and then you go straight into like that electronic, I cannot even describe unless people have heard the song. You put it out already, but people who have heard the song, how it shifts. I also feel that way about the opening track, “Satellite.” It’s very futuristic, electronic, and then it blends so seamlessly with the other songs that are light and airy on the album.
CHARLOTTE: That’s been an intentional choice for me because even touring with bands like 5 Seconds of Summer, and being able to tour and they are, I would say, a rock band. I think they are like such a great example of a pop-rock band that can really do it all and also just have one of the most incredible fanbases to ever exist. I’ve tried really hard in my career to be able to shift back and forth, so I’m kind of able to tour in whatever capacity and with whatever style of music I want to.
My goal would be, how can I find more people to bring into this community that could potentially find their best friends, and potentially find people who they have something in common with. If I can reach more people, and more genres, and more audiences, then that is the goal. I think it’s so exciting to think about the future and being able to if I could tour with Bring me the Horizon, and then also go on tour with Post Malone or Halsey, or these like pretty predominantly huge pop artists, even the Halsey could sweep in the rock world, and she has made incredible rock albums. There’s just so much opportunity, and it just almost makes me feel more excited about the future of my career. There is just so much that I haven’t touched, and I haven’t yet accomplished, and so many people that I haven’t met yet that I could.
CRAVE: I say, girl, you’re just getting started.
CHARLOTTE: I really am so excited! I feel so excited about the fact that there’s so much unturned and so much so much opportunity to connect with people in so many different sonic realms, and that’s awesome to me.
CRAVE: I love that. With that, you talk about blending masculine and feminine energies on the record. Do you tap into those contrasts in your everyday life as well? When you’re performing, recording and creating visuals? And how does that play into your daily life?
CHARLOTTE: I think it goes back into trying to find what boxes I fit into. I think as an artist, there’s been a lot of times that I’ve just felt like I’ve had to pick these specific realms to live in, and that once I make that decision, I have to stay there. I’ve always felt very nervous about making decisions like that because I change so much. And I think some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten is so simple that my sister always says to me, “You’re allowed to change whenever you want.” You have to give yourself permission to change as often as you would like. You can change your mind whenever you want.
If you decide to do something today and tomorrow, it’s not right for you, it’s okay to decide that. Today, I like this genre. Tomorrow, I want to make something like this. Today, I like dressing this way and tomorrow, that’s actually not something I would wear. I have really different tastes so often. It’s why I’ve never really used a stylist. I feel like I’m too confusing sometimes. Some days my inspiration and my mood boards are this, and then I can change my mind about it so quickly. And I think there’s an excitement in being able to just show up and represent myself that day as that person that I am in that moment.
I think on this album, I wanted to express also the different ways that that changes emotionally, like the fact that I am a bubbly person, I am naturally optimistic. I wake up, and nine out of ten times, I’m like, today is gonna be the greatest day of my life. Then there’s days when I feel the complete opposite and I experience the highs and the lows and all of it. I think this album is very much all of those things.
It’s the constant changing, the constant evolution, the constant processing of all of those experiences, and all of those feelings. Allowing yourself to be everything all at once. Hopefully people are able to listen to it and feel validated in the sense that there is no right or wrong way to be human, and there’s no correct way to feel. It’s all just us trying to figure it out together at the same time. That’s my poetic answer.
CRAVE: I think that a lot of people are gonna listen to it and really hear themselves in a lot of like the lyrics. In the [song] “Half Alive,” you say, “it must be nice to have a brain that doesn’t ruin everything.”
CHARLOTTE: And that’s such a simple concept, but it’s also so real, at least for me. It’s one of those things where it’s genuinely just a thought I had and was like, wouldn’t it be nice to just be able to like not find the worst in this moment? Or not feel like every time something good happens, I have to find the negative. Why I don’t deserve this, or why this isn’t a win, or why all of these things and all these little pieces of your subconscious. All the negatives, but it’s also, I think, when you get older, and the older you get, the more you realize the control you have over certain things in your life. I think the conversations, letting those little things in your brain and in your body have a purpose, and have their own life. They can still live with you alongside you. You get to tell them when they can come out, and when they can’t. Learning how to just be like, now’s not the time for insecurity. You can come out later. And you can wait here, I’m going to enjoy the next 30 minutes. Having those relationships with your brain and this album just about learning those intricacies. And as if they’re friends or actual figures, and physical beings. I don’t know if any of that makes sense.
CRAVE: One thousand percent. So I want to talk to you about pottery. I know that you love pottery. I don’t know if you ever watched this British pottery competition, kind of like The British Bake Off, but it’s with potters, [it’s called] Great Pottery Throwdown.
CHARLOTTE: So you guys have no idea. The pottery group chat is about to get so excited. This is huge news.
CRAVE: But I just want to know what drew you in about pottery and why do you keep coming back to it?
CHARLOTTE: Yeah. I love this. I love this question. I love talking about pottery. I really do. It’s so funny. People are like “music” and I’m like, “awesome.” People are like “pottery”, and I’m like, “come on, how long do you have?”
I think last year was kind of the year of getting back into hobbies for me. I realized how much of my life I spend touring, and when I’m not touring, it’s spent prepping music for touring. Everything kind of revolved around this music all the time. I was always kind of embarrassed when people had asked me what my hobbies were, and I wouldn’t be able to say anything that didn’t have to do with my job. So I really, really tried to find things to do that made me just feel like a human being without having to create something to monetize in some sense. I had a friend who invited me to go to a pottery class when I first moved out to LA, and honestly, I love making things with my hands.
I think growing up, my dad is a carpenter, and so I was so used to just being able to build physical things. Being a part of making something, and also it being like a math problem. Your whole body and mind is a part of it. You’re doing it with your hands, but you also have to be thinking about it while you’re doing it. I can’t even really listen to music, or listen to things while I’m doing it because you have to pay such close attention. And I think having to commit your whole body to something is so different than the normal being on your phone, and all these things that are just taking up your brain space. It feels so different to me.
I think a huge part of it was that there’s no immediate reward because it is such a long process to get the final product. So, for pottery, you make the thing out of clay, which half the time is not good. A lot of times you fail and then you just have to either start over, take like 30 minutes to clean, which is a stressful process. Then, if you do make it through that, you have to go to the next phase, you have to fire it. Then if it makes it through that, you have to then glaze it and then re-fire it. It takes a few weeks to go through this whole process until you get a result, which sometimes doesn’t even look good because you never know. Things happen. You’re working with parts of the Earth, and all these random things. Having something in my life that there’s not this immediate gratification has been really important. Something where you have to put time and effort over and over and over again to get something out, has been a really rewarding, but also challenging thing to learn. And I think it’s been really good for me to remember that sometimes I don’t know, making something that is just out of love, and just out of the want to create something.
You’re not selling it. If anything, you’re giving it away, and you’re giving it to other people, I feel like there’s just a part of that that just feels really wonderful to me. And it’s a very peaceful process, and I want to find more things like that feel very grounding.
CRAVE: I had a feeling it was going to be making something that you love that’s not just touring and making music. Something that kind of comes from a different space. You’ve talked about creating VIP experiences for fans that feel memorable and personal. As you plan future tours, and as it continues to grow. How do you envision evolving these experiences while still keeping the same sense of connection with your fans?
CHARLOTTE: I love creating VIP experiences. There’s so many people that I get to see in those rooms that I’ve known for so many years, and getting to the fact that we’re all growing up together and being together as humans is so wild and so wonderful. I think forever I will try to make those experiences feel as close and as intimate as possible because it’s honestly my favorite part of those shows. Getting to talk to people about the music, and answer questions that I don’t feel like I would be able to have one-on-one conversations about really specific details.
On the last tour I made key chains! I handcrafted key chains for everybody, and I think in the future, that’s definitely more of what I want to be doing, and it is almost like more DIY, doing actual crafts together so that we can all sit in a room. I think it makes people feel more comfortable as well as being able to have an activity instead of just feeling like you are watching me. The show is already going to be a performance. I would rather us all feel like we’re just hanging out. My goal is that we all go to a pottery studio together, and do a beginner pottery class. The things that are actual experiences you would do with your friends, and so that people can just feel really comfortable. That’s what I want. I want everyone to just be able to make friends and make connections, and we all get to know each other better.
CRAVE: That’s such a great, like, example of fan engagement, to the extreme. Doing an activity together. And it’s so funny that you bring that up because when you talk about the key chains, my literal next question was asking what the ultimate Charlotte Sands merch item would be for fans.
CHARLOTTE: Some blue hair extensions. Everyone gets a little piece.
CRAVE: One last question, bands in the alternative music scene have appeared on soundtracks and TV shows for years. Think Death Cab for Cutie or Rooney making appearances on the O.C. If a TV show from any time period featured your music or wanted to have you perform on an episode, what show would make you completely freak out?
CHARLOTTE: I know it’s not a show, but I thought I was just like Twilight. Twilight, please. But oh, that’s such a great question. Heated Rivalry. I’m trying to think of a show from the past, like 90210. I loved that show. And then, what was the one with Sophia Bush?
CRAVE: One Tree Hill?
CHARLOTTE: Yeah. Oh, that’s one. I feel like one of those I would lose my mind. Also just because I’m obsessed with her. Or Vampire Diaries. You’re like, [this is] such a lame answer. I feel like I have such generic tastes when it comes to pop culture, and when it comes to watching things. I just want to rewatch all the same things I’ve been watching my whole life. I’m the least interesting.
CRAVE: They’re popular for a reason, you know, I feel like when James Wilson Taylor from Rock Sound [asks] people to pick the most popular song, he’s like, they’re popular songs for a reason. They’re popular TV shows for a reason.
CHARLOTTE: It’s so true. Yeah, but if we can get me on a Twilight soundtrack, I will not be upset. Yeah, that would be preferably the first movie. Just the first Twilight soundtrack.
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