MANY 14-year-olds take up the acoustic guitar. Not many decide to perform their compositions to strangers just month later. Charlotte Brimner did just that. Now, five years and thousands of air-miles later, to say her music has placed her on the cusp of stardom is no exaggeration.

“It was a really bizarre experience, I was putting myself in these situations where I felt completely out of my depth,” says Brimner, recalling how she first performed in her Dundee home town before going further afield to Perth, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

“A lot of open mics are in bars, over-18s, and it’s usually people who have been playing a while. I’d turn up with about two songs and wouldn’t be able to speak.

“For me it was probably the best thing that I could have done otherwise I don’t think I would have had the confidence to make and perform the music that I’m making now. I wanted to go out there and perform but it was a very difficult thing to do. It got easier though.”

That experience made her realise it was music she wanted to pursue, and that she needed to see life outside Dundee. Aged 16, she performed at open mics in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The following year, she ditched school and headed for music industry convention South by South West in Austin, Texas.

“That was the best thing I ever did; it gave me focus to know what direction I wanted to go in,” Brimner says, talking to The National before rehearsal at Paul’s Halls in Cumbernauld with James Smith (keyboards) and Jack Boyce (drums), who make up Be Charlotte.

“I wrote there too, and it made me also realise that that’s what I do: I try and reflect these different places in my writing.”

The trips nourished a growth spurt stylistically too. Though songs such as Sunshine Mornings were impeccably structured, Brimner’s earlier acoustic work was perhaps too close to the milksop earnestness and glottal-stop vocals inescapable circa 2012-14. Neither did they reflect her impressive vocal range, which takes in grimey spoken word, mid-range pop and more ethereal soaring. In search of a fuller sound, she began to write and perform alone with a loop pedal before recruiting others.

The result was a move towards a fresher, more electronic sound, something evinced in debut single Discover, and developed as she moved into writing and producing, most recently working with Marcus Mackay of Hits The Fan Records (Kathryn Joseph, Frightened Rabbit), who co-produced Machines That Breathe.

That shift is vindicated by her recent nomination as Best Electronic Artist in the Scottish Alternative Music Awards alongside Happy Meals, Sad City and Theo Kottis. The nomination is just one of a recent succession of accolades.

Machines That Breathe has just been playlisted on Berlin radio, and Be Charlotte have just been chosen by BBC Introducing to play Groningen’s Eurosonic Festival in January. They are also set for Brighton’s Great Escape in May. But first they head out to south east Asia for a month after playing Tenement Trail on 8 October, a one-day, one-ticket multi-venue festival in Glasgow also featuring National favourites such as The Van T’s, The Spook School, Breakfast Muff, The Vegan Leather, Teen Canteen, The Ninth Wave and A New International.

With all this going on, Brimner is in no rush to record an album, despite having plenty of material.

“We’ve got quite a batch of songs,” she says. “We’re wanting to get to a stage where we’ve got a lot to choose from for an album but that will probably not for a while.

Be Charlotte play The Art School, Glasgow on October 8, £20. Visit tenementtrail.com. Machines That Breathe is out on October 7.

Visit iambecharlotte.com.