“I’m never not earnest.” Charlotte Weinman is a lot of things — a playwright, a sister, a self-proclaimed former horse girl. She’s also the artist behind Horsepower, a New York-based project that combines the fervent energy of indie rock with the thespian flair of a born performer.

As evinced by Horsepower’s eponymous debut EP, the project is a study in earnestness through and through. Musically, it feels like a sonic coalescence of Weinman’s most formative experiences. Her powerful vocals bespeak her background in performance, oscillating between girlish charm and nearly operatic intensity. On the production side, the EP owes much of its lush, crisp sound to the deft work of Charlotte’s brother Noah Weinman (Gigi Perez, Skullcrusher, Odie Leigh), and many production details and lead guitar lines came from her other brother Ben. The collaborative genesis of the EP is a testament to the siblings’ California upbringing in a house full of artists — both of her brothers are working musicians, and Charlotte’s older sister Emma painted the EP’s cover artwork.

“We were put in soccer and a music class as kids, and none of us are athletic,” Charlotte laughs. “So one thing had to stick.”

Up until recently, Charlotte’s creative outlets mostly revolved around other people’s visions. She studied playwriting in college, crafting stories for other people to bring to life, and she sang in a revolving door of bands for friends and siblings alike. Shortly after moving to New York, she even started a monthly “works in progress” show where musicians could perform early drafts of the songs they were writing for an audience of their peers.

When Weinman decided to build a project she could hang her own flag on, Horsepower materialized swiftly and organically. Music offered the perfect opportunity to translate the things she loved about playwriting to a brand new medium — pair this with a flair for theatrics and an eclectic scattering of influences ranging from Hole and Sleater Kinney to Mitski and Lomelda, and Horsepower was born.

“I love a heavy guitar, loud, a kind of armed feeling, musically. That gets paired with very sensitive lyricism,” she says. “I think one thing we learned in playwriting and acting is that the most specific things are often the most universal, so I’ve taken that as a token for my songwriting.”

Indeed, Weinman’s lyrics tell multi-layered stories that are equal parts vulnerable and erudite. In “Coins,” she sets a Shakespeare quote directly against a morsel of modern slang, singing “I should’ve been more strange / I’m always so unchill.” Meanwhile, “Excalibur” references the mythical sword of King Arthur to describe the slow disintegration of a romantic relationship.

The culmination of years of practice, months of writing, and a lifetime of music, Horsepower’s EP marks the arrival of a bold new voice steeped in artistic autonomy. Earnest, electric, and ready to be heard.
“In my playwriting and producing other people’s work, you learn how to not make it about you as much as possible,” explains Weinman. “But now I feel like I can take all those crusts I’ve cut off that were about me in those projects, and I can put them into Horsepower. This one’s me.”