International recording artist Che’Nelle drops a new video for “Hollywood,” featuring Will Jay off her latest EP, ‘Calm Before the Storm.’ On the track, Jay and Che’Nelle harmonize about the misperception of Hollywood but also makes clear that there’s nothing like Hollywood.
Singersroom’s Rochelle Pollard spoke with Che’Nelle to learn more about the meaning behind her song and her personal experiences in Hollywood. Check out our conversation and her new video featured right here on Singersroom.
Rochelle: What inspired you to create your new released single “Hollywood,” featuring Will Jay?
Che’Nelle: I was listening to some of Jay’s work; you know artists like to be inspired by other artists, and our team just collaborated with each other. I thought it was nice for us to do one of my songs and it’s nice to have somebody duet with me on one of my songs. Out of all the songs on the EP, “Hollywood” made the most sense to do. That’s how it happened.
Rochelle: In your song “Hollywood,” your chorus quotes: “You never know, you might get more than what you’re looking for” (in Hollywood). Do you mind elaborating on those lyrics?
Che’Nelle: You know how sometimes you’re working on something and you feel like it’s a dead end? It’s really important to work a little harder at those times than what you told yourself or what you may have told your boss. Do a little more than you can because I always believe it becomes beneficial. Opportunities will come by. It’s kind of like clocking out exactly on time, but if you stay an extra hour, somebody may see you and offer you a raise. There are so many different reasons. Just work a little harder than what is expected of you.
Rochelle: What are some challenges you’ve personally faced chasing your dreams?
Che’Nelle: I think that even though I’m living out a lot of my dreams, they’re also a lot of my dreams I’m still chasing. For example, for the last ten years, I was blessed to have a beautiful career in Japan. When the song “I Fell In Love With a DJ” came out, it blew up in Japan and my career prolonged out there. I was living out my dream and came out with about five albums in Japan. I was able to sing in Japanese & I came out with two international albums. Also, since I grew a relationship with my rep, it was kind of a play around that maybe I can sing in Japanese [laughs], and that became an experiment! I actually pronounced the words well enough that people don’t even know I’m not Japanese which is crazy.
So that’s the part where I was blessed enough to live out my dreams.
The chasing my dreams part I would categorize in expanding myself now. I want to expand out of Japan and how do I do that? Who do I connect with? It’s not like I have a world deal, I have a deal with Japan, and they work very differently from the rest of the world. So I’m pretty much an independent artist everywhere else in the world. Just like how every other artist is working, hustling, making connections, and figuring out what’s a way? That’s what I’m doing. That’s me chasing my dreams girl! [laughs]
Rochelle: What should we be looking out for from Che’Nelle in 2018?
Che’Nelle: I released my EP last November, and that’s still being marketed right now which is kind of the appetizer to what’s coming next. I’m planning on releasing my full album later this year.
By Rochelle Pollard
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