A conversation about place, pressure and release, as the Black Country band look beyond Bless You & Be Well.

Chartreuse are a four-piece from the Black Country in the West Midlands. Made up of Hattie Wilson, Mike Wagstaff, Rory Wagstaff and Perry Lovering, the band’s music sits between alternative folk and indie, shaped by closeness, shared history and an instinctive way of working that prioritises feeling over formality.

Their new single ‘Heaven Sent' arrives as a moment of release after the intensity of album cycles. Written late last year, following the release and touring of their second album Bless You & Be Well, the track was born from a desire to be more immediate and less burdened by long-term expectations. Hattie explains that the band wanted to enjoy writing again, to make something instinctive rather than carefully plotted.

“We wanted to push ourselves to write something more instant and just enjoy writing outside the shackles of an album! It's about my hometown, it's a small village where everyone knows each other. I loved growing up there but have always felt there’s a bit of a superiority complex and if someone does something good, they have to let you know about it. The idea of building a grand house and people flocking to it just because they want to say they were there, if that makes sense?” Hattie explains.

Those reflections are inseparable from where Hattie finds herself now. Over the past year she has undergone major surgery, with more still ahead, a process that has forced her to stay put both physically and emotionally. That sense of being stuck has bled into the song, along with anxieties around money, health and the broader fear of not becoming more than your surroundings. Rather than hiding those thoughts, ‘Heaven Sent’ lets them sit plainly in the open.

That openness has become a defining feature of Chartreuse’s recent work. Much of Bless You & Be Well was written and recorded at Flóki Studios, a remote studio on the northern tip of Iceland. “It was honestly incredible.” Hattie shares. “We were just focused on that one thing, there was a lot going on in our lives personally at the time, so I think we really needed to just be a band and have nothing else to focus on. It allowed us to be fully immersed in the emotion we wanted to convey in the music.”

With no distractions and nowhere to escape to, the focus narrowed to just being a band. At a time when each member was dealing with personal upheaval, the isolation allowed them to channel emotion directly into the music.

Working alongside producer Sam Petts-Davies marked a shift in how they approached recording. After self-producing their debut, inviting other voices into the process initially felt daunting. That hesitation quickly dissolved. Sam encouraged momentum, pushed them beyond comfort zones and helped prevent ideas from growing stale. If something worked in the moment, it stayed. If it didn’t, it was discarded without ceremony.

Certain moments from the Iceland sessions still stand out vividly. Hattie recalls the tape manipulation on tracks like ‘I’m Losing It and Fixin’, where parts were sped up for Mike to play to before being slowed back down, adding depth and weight. There were long searches for the right synth sounds, dense vocal stacks and the overwhelming presence of the landscape itself. Looking back, the band are acutely aware of how rare that experience was.

Personal struggle is not something Chartreuse write around, but something they write through. Grief, anxiety and uncertainty are woven directly into the fabric of the songs. For Perry, processing the loss of his father found its way into the music, not as despair but as a reminder that creating things you love can be a way forward. For Hattie, learning to open up about her health and recovery reshaped both her writing and her relationship with the band. What could have felt isolating instead became an exercise in trust and care.

That sense of connection is mirrored in how Chartreuse write together. Song ideas can come from anywhere. A fully formed demo, a loose fragment, or nothing at all. No one is precious about ownership. By the end of the process, every song carries traces of everyone involved. It is less about who started the idea and more about where it ends up.

As they prepare to take ‘Heaven Sent’ on the road for their EU headline tour, the band are still figuring out what their next chapter looks like. What feels certain is a desire to remove pressure, to enjoy different ways of working and to continue making music for themselves first. Live, that translates into shows built around connection rather than catharsis alone. Expect songs from Bless You & Be Well, earlier EPs and new material, all delivered with the same care and openness that defines their recordings.

Despite the emotional weight of their music, Chartreuse are not interested in leaving audiences drained. Hattie hopes people feel connected, maybe even move a little, and leave with a sense of shared experience rather than heaviness.

Outside the band, her reference points feel quietly telling. She recently saw Hamnet and describes being completely undone by it. The winter darkness, on the other hand, has been hard to shake, though she is relieved to feel it lifting. One album that still stays close is The Fool by Warpaint, discovered just after leaving school. Hearing it now still carries her back to a moment of transition, of change and becoming.

Ultimately, when someone hears Chartreuse for the first time, Hattie says “I'd hope we're making music that people can listen for many years! I hope people connect & relate to it. I also hope they can hear how much we care about the music and the fragments we leave within it.”

Listen to Charteuse’s latest single ‘Heaven Sent’ now and all streaming services.