Teather on Her New Electropop Single 'Sinking'

Charlotte Marston used the pandemic to start an electronic career and her new single is her best work yet.

When the pandemic set in, Charlotte Marston was finishing her final year at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Unsure of her next move, the lifelong Angeleno knew it had to be drastic.

Soon Marston found herself in Seattle, looking for an escape from her apartment and roommates (hey, we all need our space). After working on some lyrics for a local producer, she was glued to an old MacBook Air and making beats on GarageBand. Marston went down the rabbit hole and had her dad ship a MIDI keyboard from her childhood to craft melodies.

Now performing as Teather, last year saw the release of the Parallax Error EP, a four-song set that blends bedroom electropop with hushed club music. While TikTok has latched on to “Unsatisfied” from the short player, Teather’s latest single, “Sinking,” demonstrates both songwriting and sonic spring in her quickly evolving sound.

“This song was like the final boss of love songs for me – a culmination of many pieces made from my love for one person. It’s so much about how love can pull you out of dark places and metaphorically speaks about someone who is your rock when you’re sinking. There are also strong themes of devotion in the writing – I feel a bit monkish about love like I really think the best way to do it is with unwavering intensity and a conscious choice to open yourself entirely.”

- Teather on her new single, “Sinking.”

Compared to Parallax Error, “Sinking” kicks up the atmospherics by blending a dreamy cocktail of early morning rave beats and airy vocals with a solid New Order-esque synth bass line for good measure. When I spoke with Marston earlier this week, she noted her upbringing listening to Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Lady Gaga and that even though Teather is a one-woman project, she wants everything to sound like Mike Will Made It produced her songs. With “Sinking,” Marston’s skills as a producer have made a massive jump towards this goal.

So what’s next for Teather? For starters, she is using the internet to her advantage. In addition to her rising TikTok fame (“no songwriters are changing how they write music just because of TikTok,” Marston told me, and I agree. Pop music has always relied on the hook, and TikTok is just a new way of capitalizing on this), Marston has started working with the electronic scene in Seattle after finding the right allies on Discord. In addition to shows around the Pacific Northwest, she will soon be featuring with Check This Out! favorites patchnotes and Luxury Noise on a new project.

With plans for more singles and eventually a full-length debut, Teather is just getting started. Give “Sinking” a listen with its comforting beats that offer a needed escape.

“Sinking” is available now on all streaming platforms.

Hear Teather’s “Sinking” and so much more on the Good Ass Songs 2022 playlist! (For those that think music is dead, here are 225 songs that say otherwise… and it’s only June!)