In the spotlight with ℂ𝕙𝕖𝕟é𝕝 ℕ𝕠.𝟙!

22 December 2021 28

In today’s “In the Spotlight” I have the huge honor to give you ℂ𝕙𝕖𝕟é𝕝 ℕ𝕠.𝟙!

Welcome Chenél and thank you so much for joining us today

Who is Chenél?

My real name is Chenél and I only added the No.1 as tongue in cheek as people always say upon first meeting me, “Like the perfume?” I’m a mother of three energetic girls, married and working full time as an operations manager.

I always loved music since a child, but never really thought to pursue it until I entered a local songwriting competition. I couldn’t find a singer to perform the song I had written and decided to sing myself. Reaching 15th place, I thought, hey I can really do this! So in October 2019 my musical journey started with my first release called Just because of you, that I wrote for my husband.

Since then I’ve been consistently been writing and releasing songs

What was it that drew you to music instead of another artform?

Like I mentioned before my pursuit of music only started in 2019 and I never really thought of it as an artform I could be good at. I must admit that I’ve always loved creative writing and have about 70 poems and two romances all published in my native language Afrikaans.

What I enjoy about songwriting is that I have to tell a story in three minutes or less. So that has forced my writing style being more direct and expressive.

I’m a creative soul and can paint and draw as well. All the artwork for my songs has been designed by myself. My music videos are all DIY with the help of friends.

Of all the artforms, writing songs is by far my favourite!

Your song “Need More Time” is a fave of mine and it is filled with such energy. Where do you find your inspiration, and what are you working on now?

Inspiration is not something I wait for. I believe you have to actively work towards it. My goal is to write a song every week. So it gives me 7 days to stew on ideas, play with lyrics and melody combinations where after I add the chords to the song and the rewrite process starts. Sometimes I’m lucky and can write more in a week.

Once I jot down the date and time in my song journal, the song is considered completed, will be typed up, saved and printed. Then it goes in my file of songs to choose from once I’m ready to record something. My arsenal of songs is about 2 files thick and there’s loads to choose from.

So even when there is a possible dry spell for writing, I always have loads of completed songs to fall back on.

Currently I’m finalizing my upcoming EP, called Turquoise Tears, a 4 song collection of sad songs.

I’d like to bring emotional variety to the listeners experience and want to stay true to my style ranging from folk to rock.

This EP will be more acoustically driven and really took a lot out of me emotionally as I really had to dig deep. It really became difficult to narrow down which songs would make it on the EP as I had been writing sad songs for several months to choose from.

I’m really glad to have a break from the sad theme and venturing into other ideas for the next couple of releases.

Most of my writing is either imagined or real life and I let the listener decide which they think is true

What is the one thing you would like to tell your Fans?

That they have no idea how much I appreciate them! It’s such a thrill to know that people listen to my songs and when I get a message saying how a song has touched them I’m elated.

What is the one thing you would like to tell the Music industry?

That there is so much talent in the world that goes unnoticed. Success in the industry shouldn’t be about who has the biggest budget, beautiful body or best marketing strategy, but about the music itself. Every song tells a story, every song can touch a soul, every song has the ability to become part of a universal language and bring people together.

I admire and respect every radio station, blogger, playlist curator and listener that supports independent musicians. They are the heartbeat of new music discovery.

It was wonderful to have this chat with you, and I can’t wait to see what you have for us in the future.

Thank you so much for the opportunity that I could share a bit more about myself and my music.

And YOU can find ℂ𝕙𝕖𝕟é𝕝 ℕ𝕠.𝟙 here

https://twitter.com/Chenel_No1

https://chenelno1.com/

https://chenelno1socials.ck.page