Written By: Jayme Face

Chetti is a New York Singer who is making her mark! Get her latest single “Gave You All of Me” on iTunes now!

upfrontNY: Can you tell us about your latest single “Gave You All of Me” and what it was like releasing it at Webster Hall?

Chetti: This song, actually, I wrote it on the piano first and it was a very different thing for me. I kind of wrote about heartbreak for the first time, in my opinion, in a very raw way. It kind of just came out as I was feeling it.  Yeah, I started writing this on the piano and who I am as a person and as an artist I like bringing positivity to it. So, I teamed up with my friend Sean Smith, who produced the record, and he was able to bring such a lightheartedness to it. The single was about an experience that I had that was super sad and it was a realization, but I think musically, sonically you can hear the hopefulness as well. Releasing it at Webster, was amazing. I love performing there. I have a great relationship with the people there. It was an honor and a gift.

 

upfrontNY: Can you also tell us about your album “In the City” and your inspiration for it?

Chetti: So basically the EP I released, it was actually when I had just started out and we had recorded a full album. I had written a whole album and we had chosen the three that were going to go out first and it kind of worked perfectly because they were songs that were exactly where I was at, at that moment at my life. “In the city” was about just the pride that I had for New York City coming up in such a hard to make it place, but it made you tougher and stronger. I gained my strength from being from these parts, from my family, and from being true New Yorkers. “Made in Brooklyn” I think is one of my favorite songs still; it might be my favorite actually. I was born and raised in Brooklyn. I now live in Staten Island, but Brooklyn is home, I spend a majority of my time there and every single part of my childhood has been, I mean not every single part, but there is a large majority that is attached to the beautiful memories that I have in Brooklyn. I have my friends since I was three and there is a big group of us that stayed close, it’s like family. So, for me just being in a park with my mother or being in my basement on the corner of 75^th street, dancing with my mom to the bodyguard soundtrack, I have these very visceral memories. Some of the most beautiful memories are there, for me, that song was everything. It’s such a nostalgic piece, very close to my heart. Then “Electric” is kind of self-explanatory; I’m at a point in my life where a lot of people can turn around and say ‘who are you? How are you special? One in a million make it to where you need to be.’ and “Electric” is about finding that fire, that live wire in yourself to kind of set off that spark off and let people know who you are and be proud of it and be strong.

 

upfrontNY: New York City is close to your heart, you grew up here. What’s the best part about being an artist in the city?

Chetti: There’s so much to learn from. I think having went out to L.A. and spent a lot of time in L.A. you get a different vibe. There’s such a strong, very bold vibe about New York that I feel has become a part of who I am because I’ve lived here my whole life. New York brings a different type of air to a music experience, for me it’s that sense of strength, that definitiveness. You know who you are, you know where you’re coming from and you know what you have to say. At least that’s how I interpret it.

 

upfrontNY: What is your favorite spot in New York?

Chetti: It’s in Brooklyn. It’s Brooklyn Bridge Park and like the promenade, Brooklyn Heights Promenade. That is my happy place. If I am having a crappy day I will go up there and just walk around and cry it out. I’ll walk around and I’ll kind of sit at the promenade and I just look at all the beautiful, beautiful homes and I kind of just imagine my life there one day. I walk down to the water by the park. Everything is so gorgeous over there and the scenery and carousel. I walk the length of the promenade all the way down to Dumbo. It’s just, its home. I feel so at peace there. Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

 

upfrontNY: Being upfrontNY we love to hear that!

Chetti: Yes! Yes, girl! We love New York! Very proud!

 

upfrontNY: You also performed at pre-Grammy party what was that like?

Chetti: That was amazing! It was so cool getting to perform at the Elrey Theatre which is like historic. So cool coming from a girl who is from New York because I’ve done some amazing New York venues, but I had never really touched L.A. in that way. I’ve been out there writing, recording, collaborating, but it’s pretty amazing to me to get to do that. Plus, getting to perform for peers, colleagues and a lot of the Grammy nominees/ voters. I think it is important that I establish strong relationships with them from the jump and it was very special. I am very, very grateful to have had that opportunity and to have made the friendships and connections I have made.

 

upfrontNY: You have a theatre background. What made you make the change from theatre to a solo career?

Chetti: I went to Wagner College and I had the best four years of my life. I know people say that high school is the best four years, but for me, college was the best four years and I loved everything about it. I’ve known since I was three that being a fellow artist telling my story was something that I wanted to do. So, for me making that transition, it really wasn’t difficult. I want to say because it was so in my heart for so long it was easy. I’m lucky that I get to hold on to my theatre background and I’m definitely going to get back into it again. I love it.

 

upfrontNY: Could we see more theatre projects in the future?

Chetti: Oh definitely. I’m going to still try to get on that this year. I went to see Beautiful the Carol King Musical and it turns out the night that I go, the dance captain to my senior year show at Wagner College, Sarah Shepherd, played Carol King. It’s amazing. For the show we used Jerry Mitchell’s choreography, but she ended up taking charge of everything. It was just so amazing to get to see that. For me it was such a, not that my love of theatre was reawakened, but it was just an extra little button of ‘This is why I love it!’. I mean it was great and you could expect in the next year or two seeing me back doing some stuff.

 

upfrontNY: Does your theatre background ever influence your music now?

Chetti: I think it’s a little bit different. We have these amazing composers and writers that are making their way on Broadway and the style of Broadway is changing. There’s so much diversity, like when you see Hamilton Lin -Manuel Miranda, he’s got these artists, these characters rapping on the stage and there’s such a heavy hip hop element. I feel like my lyrics are definitely less bubblegum, more poetry. So, I guess you can say there is some theatre in there, but I guess it kind of coincides now. There’s such a variation of different types of music, different genres of music on Broadway, so things are changing. Art is art and sometimes it just comes out. So yeah, I guess so.

 

upfrontNY: What are your interests outside of music?

Chetti: I love designing clothing and painting. For the pre-Grammy party I actually designed my jacket. I hand-made it. I sewed like 150 pearls on the back with a design I had on my jacket for Columbus Day when I performed in the city on ABC. It has kind of become my trademark thing I want to say. It’s really the representation of this project I will be releasing soon. It’s an eye. I love doing design work and clothing kind of stuff.

 

upfrontNY: Do you see yourself having your own line someday?

Chetti:  Oh, Hell Yeah! That’s on the list. I definitely want to have my own line. I want to do shoes and I would love to do a mother- daughter, mother- children kind of thing. I would love to do a woman’s line but I would love to do a children’s line as well.

 

upfrontNY: What would you like to let our readers know?

Chetti:  I’m going to be releasing some new music. I could tell them about the journey of the project. It’s new music. I wrote all of it.

 

upfrontNY: What is it like in comparison to some of your older stuff, how has it evolved?

Chetti: This project is different. I dig into a place that I don’t think I’ve ever gone before, but my hope is that there’s a light heartedness to it. Yeah, this is definitely completely different from what I have done before. It reaches into a very deep, dark place and it’s honest. For me it’s been a journey of real rawness which is great. It’s nice to bear your soul in a different way. The important part for me was to team up with my producer Sean, who actually produced a majority of the record, we brought this positivity to it sonically. You’re going to hear some deep stuff and lyrics and melodies, but your also going to hear an uplifting sense still because I feel like my older stuff was super uplifting, super positive, feel good. And not that this stuff isn’t feel good, it’s just on a very real part of the spectrum which is cool and different.

 

upfrontNY: Do you have any tour dates or anything planned yet?

Chetti: I don’t have any tour dates yet, but I’m going to be playing around the city. I’m getting some stuff lined up, so once I have it all in writing you guys will know.

 

upfrontNY: What can people expect to experience at one of your shows?

Chetti:  I love to get engaged with people in the crowd, to me that is so important. I definitely start talking to people, they get my vision for every piece by the end of the song. So, it’s definitely a lot of fun and a lot of dancing and feel good kind of vibes. It’s very honest. You get to listen to where I was coming from when I wrote it. It’s definitely raw.