By Simona Mihalca 
Photo credits: Kristina Dineva
I’ve been a fan of Charlotte Wessels from the first time I saw her more than a decade ago. She’s a great singer, a true performer, but more than anything just a lovely person. She the guys in her band have always been the friendliest bunch, have made sure to come out and say hello to people after the show whenever possible, to hang out and talk. That’s how they made sure to build not just fans, but a community. And that community is exactly what grew tenfold when she started her Patreon.
In case haven’t heard of it before, Patreon is a platform where people can directly support artists: singers, writers, creators of all kinds. Some posts are free, but for as little as five euros a month you can join Charlotte’s “Superhumans” tier, with access to her posts, a new song every month, and her wonderfully fun hangouts.
Her idea and challenge to herself to release one song a month quickly built into a repertoire that became one album, then a second. Her most recent solo release, The Obsession, took things to another level as a fully formed and carefully crafted record. It was that album that brought the band together again: Timo, Otto, Joey, and newcomer Nina Van Beelen on keys. They eventually went on tour, including a stop in the Transylvanian forest for Rockstadt Extreme Fest 2025.
Of course, no live show is without its chaos. “We had a little technical issue right before the show, so I was stressed for a moment,” Charlotte told me. “But once the music started, it was fine. It never really goes perfectly the first time anyway. My laptop crashed, but luckily we had a backup laptop and a backup project, so everything worked out.”
When asked about her dream concept for a live performance, Charlotte hesitated to say it out loud, then shared an idea she had kept to herself: “I’d pretend everything I planned for the show had failed. I’d start by saying, ‘I was going to start the show like this, but this didn’t work, and that didn’t work,’ and as I’m describing it, it actually happens in the background. It would be a whole sad story about failure, while showing what it would have looked like if it had worked. Very camp. But you can only pull it off if you really hit it big with all the effects, which is why I didn’t do it.”
What we did get was a powerful show with The Obsession, both an album title and a band name. “When the band recorded the album, they gave such a spin to those songs. I always feel like I want to give them a lot of credit, and one way I do that is to refer to them by their own name.” Live, the music had an unexpected heaviness, which felt perfectly at home at Rockstadt Extreme Fest. “This is the way we usually play them live. I don’t think we really adjust the set to the kind of festival. There’s some pretty metal material in there, some big piano ballads, and then heavier songs like Toxic.”
Toxic was one of the most powerful moments of the evening, not only for its intensity and Charlotte’s growls, but for the way she has reshaped its meaning. “A few weeks ago we played at Tuska Festival. All of us are affected by the atrocities, the genocide going on at this moment in Gaza. Tuska is owned by a big investment company, which has investments I don’t align with at all, also in that area. I thought, ‘I can either make a statement through my absence or through my presence.’ Back there I gave a longer speech, and I also changed the lyrics to Toxic to reflect on the situation. I haven’t changed them back since, because it’s still happening. I like that the song has a kind of storytelling verse, so I can adapt it to whatever’s happening, and I think that makes it more powerful.”
Her creative process reflects the same balance between spontaneity and deliberate shaping. “There’s always a spontaneous, inspired part, where a line or a melody just comes to you, and I like to keep that unplanned. But when you put it on a record, especially with the band involved, a lot of things influence the sound. My songwriting changes if I know I’m going to record with the band, because I’ll try to write parts that work for them. For The Obsession, Timo did a lot of rearrangements and that has shaped the songs, too. Now I’m already thinking about the next studio recordings, and we’ll put more time into pre-production. Some parts are best kept spontaneous, but some you really need to plan.”
Writing, recording, promoting, that’s one full-time job right there. But she’s also doing her Patreon, which takes so much planning and time and preparation. I don’t want to be the person asking “but how do you do it all?”… but how does she do it all, though?
“It’s a lot. Definitely keeping up with the songs every month, the hangouts, the posts, the tour, and the production work is a lot of work. I’m very fortunate that my husband is basically doing two jobs as well. He has a regular job, but then after that he spends so much time and energy building the flight racks. He was on stage today, he’s our stage manager. He is helping out in so many ways. I try to balance it myself by having somewhat proper time management, but I’m also just fortunate to have a partner that supports me, not just mentally but physically, actually being here. I hope we can keep doing it, because now, even for the two of us — and of course we have the whole band and crew — from the organizing side it becomes a lot.”
Having a Patreon like hers seems to provide something that is rare in this industry, a bit of financial stability. I have to wonder how that influences the way she approaches albums and promotion having that in mind.
“Yes… but at the same time, when I was just doing Patreon, I was financially safer than now that I’m doing tours and albums again. As a lot of bands will tell you, bands that are not Metallica, touring is a big investment. You hope to break even, but you’re not sure. Same goes for making an album. Starting out, it’s just a lot of money that you put into it. Or you have your label put the money into it but then you have to pay them back, so it’s the same thing. So I wouldn’t say it’s more financially secure, but what I would definitely say is that it wouldn’t be possible without Patreon. I’m not resting easy, but the fact that I can do it at all is nice.”
She owes a lot to the fans and she gives to them tenfold. But walking the tightrope of what is for public consumption and what stays private has to be tricky. “I always thought that was going to be hard to navigate. When I release the song of the month on Patreon, I always say what the song is about. But last month I released a song where I just wasn’t ready to talk about it yet, and I actually said that. The responses were so respectful and understanding. Sometimes I’m on the fence: is this something I want to share or is this something I want to keep private? But the good thing about my Patreon community is that A) I feel comfortable enough there that I do share a lot, and B) I feel confident that if I choose not to share something, everyone will understand. So it’s kind of a figure-it-out-as-you-go process.”
I cannot thank Charlotte enough for taking the time to speak to me, not just now, but in the many times along the years. She is as generous as she is talented, and it’s a joy to hear her music and see her live. What a treat that was!