Charlotte Cornfield Makes It Hurt So Good

On Hurts Like Hell, the songwriter embraces collaboration, family, and a different kind of creative rhythm.

By Hannah Harlacher

Photos by Colin Medley

Published on March 23, 2026

Charlotte Cornfield is an expert observer, writing songs from inside a feeling or moment as it unravels. Over the course of five records, her work has traced the quiet intensity of interior life with precision and care. Lately, her vantage point has widened. Becoming a parent and moving through new creative and social circles has led Cornfield into a more connected world, one that has reshaped both her daily rhythms and her creative process. That shift feels like a gentle opening outward, toward other people, other voices, and a different way of making songs.

On Hurts Like Hell, that shift comes into focus. Her latest record is shaped not just by personal growth, but by the pull of family, friendship, and shared creative space. “I’ve always been a songwriter in the indie-alternative-folk verse,” Cornfield tells RANGE. “But on this record, there’s a little bit more twang… there’s pedal steel, which I haven’t had on my records before. There’s a kind of lived-in feel.”

That lived-in quality comes from how the album was made. Cornfield and producer Phil Weinrobe gathered musicians in a room, recorded live, and let the process shape the record. “It felt very warm, you can hear everybody in the room,” she says. “It’s not a drastically different sound, but it’s a different sort of perspective.”

Cornfield has often worked in solitude, but this album thrives in shared performance. “Parenthood pulled me into a way more social life,” she says. “Having a kid and being around people made it feel very natural to surround myself with others in a room while making this record, to have other voices and instruments, and us playing together.”

Cornfield became a parent in 2023, and that shift rerouted priorities and reshaped her sense of self. “My home life, my family, and my daughter is the centerpiece around which everything is built,” she says. “It’s been grounding. It’s made me more intentional about my approach to everything.”

The players she invited also reflect that openness: El Kempner of Palehound, Bridget Kearney of Lake Street Dive, Núria Graham on piano, Daniel Pencer on saxophone, and others she admired long before they joined the project. “Everybody was such a great listener,” she says. “Anything that anyone brought to the table was taken into consideration in a really thoughtful way. There was a lot of trust.”

And then there was Feist. A dream collaborator, once too outrageous to imagine. Through a touring moms group chat across Canada, the U.S., and the U.K., the two connected for real. “I sent her a couple of songs, hoping she would gravitate towards this one,” Cornfield recalls of “Living With It,” the album’s second single. “She did, and she added her Feist magic to it, which is undeniable.”

The album title, Hurts Like Hell, comes from that same place, a nod to what’s real and what feels like survival. “There’s some tongue-in-cheek humor in it,” she says, smiling. “The last song is ‘Bloody and Alive,’ which is about childbirth. So Hurts Like Hell ties into that, it hurts when you’re in it, and then you move through it. There’s joy and love, and you appreciate it more after going through the painful parts.” That sentiment holds true for many songs, written from the other side of something.

“You can practice being in really emotional and intense places without it being my own story,” she says. “I’ve been in a stable relationship for eight years, and now I’m a parent, the high drama of my twenties is gone. There are other stories and other sources to pull from. It’s been really freeing.”

Songwriting itself has shifted for Cornfield. “In my earlier days, songwriting was a tool to process things that were challenging in my life,” she says. “Now it’s a creative outlet. There’s less self-editing, less self-consciousness. I’m more able to put ego aside and just let it flow. It’s a lot more joyful.”

She hopes the songs can exist as companions for listeners. “Something that’s helping them, or making them feel better, or soothing them, even just musically,” she says. “My intention is to connect in the ways that I connect with the music I love.”

Parenthood required recalibration. “It took me a little while to get back to the creative space, but when I did I felt inspired by all the moments I had been part of and witnessed with my daughter. It’s been a lot of lessons in time management… I’m getting used to the fact that I used to be really on top of things, and now I’m a little behind.” She laughs. “I’ve connected with so many new people, and it’s been really beautiful.”

Hurts Like Hell feels like an open door into Cornfield’s evolving inner world, into a larger room of collaborators and community, and into shared emotional terrain. Life changes, but it goes on, and her perspective is ever widening. Moments can feel unbearable when you’re in the thick of it. But once you’re on the other side, you can see them for what they are and even appreciate them.