VCL Interview with Chantel Upshaw

Chantel Upshaw has the type of beauty that turns heads. Add to that her lush singing voice, and her self-penned songs, and you have what they call “the whole package.” I asked her what she would call her music, and after thinking about it, she said, “soulful…pop…” and then she landed on “Quirky Soul!”

Whatever you call it, they sure loved her at the Railway Club during her Vancouver City Limits showcase. (04/28/10) Backed by piano and drums, her vocals got the crowd’s attention. She sure had mine, especially on her song, “I Feel Like a Lady.”

While she doesn’t see herself as a Jazz Artist, per se, she is excited to be performing at the International Jazz Festival on June 25th. I suspect this exposure will launch many good things. From where I sit, it seems all she needs is to be heard, and the rest will fall into place.

When asked about her songwriting process, she says “It really varies. Most of the time, it’s just me sitting down and taking the time at the piano, my main instrument that I use to write. Sometimes it’s melodies first, sometimes it’s a chorus first, sometimes it’s a little riff that I’m playing. And usually last, it’s that I understand what I’m writing. Most of the time I don’t really know what I’m writing about until it progresses. Sometimes I look back a long time later and I realize, ‘Oh, maybe this is what I was saying, or this is what was happening at that time. So it’s strange, it’s not really conscious sometimes, the lyrical part of it.”

Walls Fall Down is her independently released debut EP, and she is currently writing and recording with sights on her next project, tentatively titled There’s a Trace.

Chantel Upshaw is going to be a star.  I wish I could say ‘you heard it here first,' but I can’t possibly be the first one to have said it.

See it for yourself…she has great music videos on myspace, and you can hear her music at Reverbnation, and you can see what she's up to by following her on Twitter. 

Submitted by Lucie Walker