Charlie Simpson - Career

Career

The three Simpson brothers (Charlie, William and Edward) are all musicians. Charlie first shot to fame with pop act Busted as a result to responding to an advertisement placed by Matt Willis and James Bourne in NME magazine in 2001. Busted consisted of Charlie on lead guitar and occasionally drums, Willis on bass guitar and Bourne on rhythm guitar, with all three providing vocals. Over a period of two years, the trio had major success and sold over 3 million records, won two BRIT Awards, and also won Record of The Year in 2004.

However, Simpson was growing increasingly discontent with the pop star lifestyle and the music he was performing. As an avid fan of rock music, he felt unfulfilled by the commercial pop songs of Busted. He had met Alex Westaway in late 2003 and Fightstar were formed shortly afterwards. For over a year he would lead a secret "double life", as by night he would attend rehearsal sessions with his new band after completing obligated media work and concert performances with Busted. During 2004, he and Westaway wrote Fightstar's debut EP, They Liked You Better When You Were Dead, a post-hardcore record, that differed greatly to the music of Busted. The EP was recorded during November with Mark Williams in London. During this time, speculation began to grow about the frontman's future, and he finally announced he was leaving Busted to pursue his career full-time with Fightstar in January 2005. In a 2009 interview, Charlie explained "It was a fun thing to be doing, and I got on well with everyone I was doing it with, but on the other side, the music just wasn’t fulfilling me in any way. I have good memories of the time, because we were travelling the world and doing some amazing things, but then as far as self-fulfilment goes, Fightstar was all I wanted to do." Initially the band were faced with much scepticism during their emergence, due to Simpson's pop background. He was often referred to as the 'Kid from Busted'. Then they began to receive positive reactions to early live shows and upon release, their debut EP was a critical success.

Simpson then funded and put together a compilation album called The Suffolk Explosion, which was released through his own label Sandwich Leg Records. It showcased a number of unsigned bands from Charlie's home county of Suffolk, including Brigade and Prego, as well as a solo acoustic track written by him called "Carry Her". Fightstar went on to record their debut full-length studio album with rock producer Colin Richardson. Grand Unification was released on March 13, 2006, and further proved the initial cynics wrong by receiving widespread positive reviews. In particular, Paul Brannigan of Kerrang! magazine stated the album was "one of the best British rock albums of the past decade". Scottish music publication The Fly also lauded the album as "one of the 21st Century’s ultimate rock debuts". Shortly afterwards, the band went on to receive nominations at the Kerrang! Awards for "Best British Newcomer" and "Best British Band". After leaving Island Records due to a disagreement over the band's artistic direction, the band signed to an independent label called Institute Records which was a division of Gut Records to release their second album. One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours (2007), peaked at #27 on the UK Album Chart, before releasing a B-sides compilation album titled Alternate Endings (2008). The four-piece then funded and co-produced their third album, Be Human (2009), which became their highest charting album after peaking at #20 in the UK.

On 29 July 2009, he made a Myspace page for his acoustic solo work. There were three songs on the page, "Dead Man Walking", 'Empty Guns (Demo)', and 'Carry Her'. 'Carry Her' was previously available on The Suffolk Explosion. The four members of the band are currently involved in a low-budget production called In God We Trust, an upcoming horror film (previously known as Human Instrumentality Project). It is to be directed by Alex Gingell and Philip Koch alongside Fightstar's own Dan Haigh and Alex Westaway, who will also appear in the movie. Charlie has also done the score for an upcoming independent British film called Everyone Is Going To Die, which will be out in late 2012.