I’ve been singing all of my life and involved in music for most of it. Started in church choir and school chorus, and then started playing flute in 4th grade and switched to trombone in 10th grade (I also played some bass guitar during late high school/early college). Though I was immersed in music constantly, I could never create anything of my own. I used to be very focused on my academics because I wanted to get into grad school and become a mental health therapist. So, it bothered me that I couldn’t create music on my own, but I coped by focusing on my academic goals. And I reached them! I graduated with honors from VCU with a bachelor's in Psychology and got into the University of Colorado Denver for grad school. Then, something truly miraculous happened during my second semester. On March 1, 2018, I remember walking into my apartment, and before I could even sit down, I felt this massive energy being released inside me. It started from my head and slowly went down until it reached my toes, and the feeling was so visceral. It felt like goosebumps x1000. And as the energy was traveling down my body, I intuitively knew that it was music finally being unlocked within me. When the energy was finished moving, I immediately sat down to write my first song. And that’s how I started making music.

Versatile, Soulful, Ethereal

Oh, I have a few. The top one would be with Gorillaz. I’d also really love to work with Willow Smith and Florence + the Machine, Pogo, and Sunny & Gabe!

So this story has multiple parts. First, Charli is the name I picked for myself like a decade before I started making music. In middle school, I started looking for a nickname because people were always butchering my real name (Selathia). I knew I wanted the name to be gender-neutral (should have been one of my first hints I was non-binary 😂). Around that time the video “Charlie the Unicorn” had all us kids in a chokehold. I lovvvved that video. It was hilarious to me. And then I met my first girl Charli at school. So that was all the confirmation I needed that it was a gender-neutral name, and I slowly started to use it. By the time I was in college, I mostly went by Charli. So when I started making music, I made my name Charli Haruhi. “Haruhi” referenced Haruhi Fugioka from the anime Ouran High School Host Club. It was a further nod to my non-binary identity, as Haruhi was one of the first characters I saw who viewed gender similarly to me. Then in 2020, amid my spiritual education journey, I came across a book called “The Law of One”. It is a collection of interviews taking place in the 60s and 70s between a spiritual research group and the entity known as the Egyptian god Ra. Without going into too much detail, the information in that book changed my life. So much so that I am currently writing my book about it. And while I was reading it, I felt this deep connection to Ra that I hadn’t experienced with any other channeled works I had come across. And I wanted to help Ra spread this Law of One or Law of Unity. It took me some time to feel worthy of the name, but finally, in 2022 I changed my name to Charli Ra.

My biggest musical influences are Gorillaz, Daft Punk, The Strokes (or any band Julian Casablancas is in) Florence + the Machine, Willow Smith, and Pogo. I would say I learned how to capture the ethereal frequencies in my voice from listening to Willow and Florence and studying them. I aspire to be able to create the type of magical realm they do when they perform. And with Julian, I took notes on the way he uses his voice so freely. I was inspired to increase my range and use my voice more creatively from seeing how many different ways Julian can use his voice. It’s mesmerized me since middle school. Not just his range, but how he decided to mix his voice. And then Gorillaz, Daft Punk, and Pogo are my biggest musical inspirations. With Gorillaz, they are soooo versatile and groovy. It never feels like they think about any rules and they just create whatever they want. That freedom and versatility have always resonated with me. And with Daft Punk and Pogo, they embody that dance/house sound that I have always been deeply in love with. I love to make a beat that bounces and they taught me how to do that.

For the first few months I was convincing myself it was just a hobby, because I did all this work to get into grad school. But after a while I couldn’t deny the passion I was feeling for making music. So after a few months, I decided to not go back to grad school and give this music thing everything I have.

I wish people understood how much their support means in a time when people are always trying to take advantage of us. The music landscape has changed so dramatically over the last decade, and up-and-coming artists are constantly being taken advantage of as we try to navigate this new music space. From straight-up scams offering fake services to hacking our accounts for our following to wanting us to pay them to play. There’s always someone in our DMs trying to play us. So every bit of genuine support is deeply appreciated! A like, a follow, a share, or especially showing up for shows, goes a long way for what we are trying to accomplish!

As much as I love to talk about fun stuff like aliens and astral travel, what I truly want to leave with my music is the message of unity and all that it entails. I want people to know that they all have the power of the creator within them. I want people to know that we humans are POWERFUL. And I want my music to remind people that they can use that personal power for both individual and collective healing.

I just released a music video for my latest single “Portal” this month so please go check it out! And I’m dropping my next single “Alchemy” next month (4/25) so keep an eye out for that! Also in 2023, I was part of a reality TV competition called “The Full Package”, a songwriting and performance competition that had us create new songs every two weeks according to challenges. It is set to come out on Tubi (and YouTube) sometime this spring. They haven’t given us an exact release date yet as they seem to be negotiating getting the show on one more streaming platform. But we should be hearing some more details soon! You can keep up with updates by following them on Instagram @thefullpackagecontestva.