About Chealen

Chealen has been writing music for as long as she can remember.

She began playing piano when she was only four years old and was surprised on her tenth birthday with an acoustic guitar smiling back at her as she came home from school. Long story short, from the very beginning, she was hooked on music. However, although her family and friends knew she played music, it took a long time for her to gather the courage to share that not just music, but also songwriting, was indeed her passion.

It all started back when the iPod nano was still the greatest thing to own. She would record her songs simply by singing lyrics and melodies into the video feature of her nano, scribbling down line after line of lyrics into old notebooks whose pages have been filled throughout the years. This little hobby remained a secret for years, Chealen yet too scared to share them with the world.

This began to change when she signed up for her school's talent show in eighth grade. She chose to perform a few verses and choruses from the song "The A Team" by Ed Sheeran. Shaking as she walked onto the stage, the following minute and a half performance was both the best and most-terrifying two minutes of her life. The reception she got from her classmates and teachers gave her the courage to sign up for music classes, choir, and Coffee House shows in high school, as well as cantor in her church's choir.

Finally in her sophomore year of high school she performed an original song, "Show Me Somehow", at a Coffee House show held at her high school. In that moment, the fear didn't seem so terrible. At the very least, the incessant shaking on stage was worth the reward of finally sharing with the world her true passion of songwriting.

Propelled to keep writing and sharing her music, she went on to record her first EP album, "Degrees to Remember", at a local recording studio in Colorado, self-publishing it to Spotify and Apple Music not with the intention of making it big, but simply to prove to herself that she could. When college decisions came around, however, her pull toward music became a confusing one. She applied and was accepted into Belmont University's Songwriting Program; however, after a long, hard internal debate, she decided to attend Northwestern University to study Neuroscience/Pre-med (which she later left behind for Civil Engineering), as well as Spanish and French. Making this decision, however, didn't dampen her desire to make something of her music; rather, it only seemed to amplify her yearning to share it with the world. She now realized what it felt like to not have as many opportunities to share her music, given her busy academic schedule.

Thus, she kept writing and writing, crafting new masterpieces on the guitar she brought with her to college. The summer between her freshman and sophomore years of college, she reached out to another local recording studio in Colorado and recorded many new songs.

With these recorded tracks, Chealen was able to start a campaign in 2023 in which she released a new single on the first day of each month. Her music began to be recognized by music blogs and fanatics worldwide, and many of her songs were even featured on a myriad of radio stations around the globe. During this time, she also got the opportunity to work with a producer at Northwestern University, who gave her greater insight into the recording process.

In the summer of 2023, Chealen got yet another opportunity to record some new tracks, this time working with a producer in North Carolina. With these tracks, she was able to round-out her year-long campaign and plans to publicize this heartfelt batch of songs in a new EP in the early months of 2024.

Now a senior at Northwestern University, Chealen has realized that her life would not be complete without music. So here she is, shooting her shot, hoping that you listen to and enjoy and share her songs, and, above all, that her music makes you feel something.