By Kirsten Hammermeister
Meet Chelsea Daghita. The 22 year old released her demo of ‘Claire’ on Spotify on April 15. I caught up with her on the weekend after her set at Pepe’s Sunday sesh to get to know who she is and what she’s up to.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your music.
My first gig was on a milk crate at a church camp when I was about seven. I had my first Bullet Strat that my sister gave me before she went back to the States but I didn’t take singing or writing too seriously. When I came to uni my first year, I started off in a double degree of psychological science and social science and I hated it. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. Then I remember going to a Lime Cordiale gig and I saw the opening band and then it was like this immediate high feeling and then I was like, “This is what I have to do.”
You were previously in a band but currently you’re focusing on a different sound for your solo work, how long have you been pursuing that now?
This year. I started finding my own sound because my old band was more like surf indie rock, which is great and it's a sick genre. But I was trying to fit into it when I just couldn't. I started seeing artists live like Joy Oladokun who supported Hozier and Clairo. I've been a Clairo fan since 2016/2017, she's one of my biggest inspirations and artists like Men I Trust and Ruby Fields as well. Ruby really taught me to embrace my accent.
Your demo ‘Claire’ came out on Tuesday, can you tell me a bit about that, what
it about?
I actually released ‘Claire’ on my 22 nd birthday. It was recorded all at home, on my SM58, my half-broken amp, and a willpower to get it done. I was just trying to write a bunch of songs and that was one of the ones that really turned out pretty cool. ‘Claire’, I don't know the name isn't specific to anything. It just really worked with the song. If you listen to the lyrics it’s about trying to change yourself to fit into a person's ideals. That’s kind of how I felt when I was in my old band. I was trying hard to fit in. Then, at the start of the year, when the band first broke up, I was fitting an ideal and I wanted to try new things. So, I did and I'm so glad because I'm definitely a lot more comfortable in myself. ‘Claire’ is basically a lighthearted way of saying, like, ‘dude, you do not have to fit into someone else's thing and if you do, they’re not the right person for you. Point blank – with anything, you don’t have to fit into a certain degree or certain company. I've grown a lot more mentally, physically, emotionally, and I want to show that.
What’s in the future for Chelsea Daghita?
My song ‘23’ is the next release, which is gonna be out in two months and I’ll be recording a few other songs with Blake Bashfield. I've got a gig at Dicey’s on the 10th of May with GRXCE, Maybe In May and Tallulah. I'm doing another at gig Van Q later in May. And look, if I can fill up my car, pay my rego comfortably—if music will pay for that, awesome. But I know that whenever I'm in a crowd, I'm screaming lyrics that really mean a lot to me. You look around in the crowd and everyone else is doing the same and it makes you feel so much less alone. That’s what music is about. It's about creating a sense of community and inclusivity and supporting one another. It’s a form of love, music's a form of love, and it should be shared. That’s what I want to do.
Chelsea’s Top Three Songs Right Now: