On being the most successful artist in school and collaborating with your favorites, Chenayder is taking the reins and leading her own destiny.
The 17-year-old, Florida-based, multi-faceted artist is sweeping audiences and critics alike with her soft, yet wondrously colorful brand of indie music. Building an audience at an early start in the social media age not only gave Chenayer a platform to share her music with a wide assembly of listeners but also access to a pool of inspiration. Coupled with a very positive, reassuring online fanbase, Chenayder's art form evolved from making Earl Sweatshirt-type beats to writing music with Mavi and Smino.
Her sophomore project, Maybe in another life, builds on her strengths in songwriting and crafting multi-layered melodies to give listeners a perspective into the alternative reality Chenayder has imagined for herself. As her new world enters the public domain, EARMILK met with the young prodigy in the making to discuss the pressures and journey into writing her latest EP.
How does it feel getting all this buzz at such a young age?
Honestly, it feels pretty cool. Like, I didn't really expect this to be honest. I was writing from my room, not really expecting much cause I never thought anything like that would happen to me. I dunno, I feel regular – degular, so it feels cool.
How was your show in LA? Was that your first time performing there?
Yeah, it was my first time performing in L.A. It went pretty well.
This is your sophomore EP and you’ve already built a respectable reputation and catalog. What was your mindset going into this EP?
I just wanted to try a few different things. This EP is called Maybe in another life so majority of the songs represent the opposite of something I would do. For example, with ‘Colors,’ the song is about me not being able to hear- a lot of people think it’s about something else, but it’s a lot more direct. I think I’m losing my hearing, I genuinely do because of the fact that I blast up my headphones and [I think to myself] maybe in another life I wouldn’t have done that.
The other songs are like that. Like with my new single coming out, ‘Teen Heartbreak,’ it’s thinking of maybe in another life, I would have felt teen heartbreak by now. Stuff like that, ‘Teen Heartbreak’ is about me experiencing it, but this is how it would go.
I like that. For my own sake, I’d love to hear more of the Chenayder lore. Like how you started making music.
I first started writing poems, and later on I became interested in beat making so I tried to learn like early middle school, but then Covid happened around 7th grade and I decided, ‘ya know what? Let me sing on top of these beats, lets see how it sounds..ya know what, this doesn’t sound bad.’ So then, I decided to post my first song on SoundCloud and YouTube, called ‘Bethany,’ and ya know, people weren’t mean to me so I thought ‘let’s keep going,’ cause people were really nice in the comment sections.
Bethany rules, I’m glad you had that support early on. What program were you using for your beats?
Soundtrack! I don’t think a lot of people know what it is, but it’s practically kinda like Bandlab, but online.
What song was the most difficult to craft?
I would say the most difficult song.. ‘Levels.’ Yeah, I would say ‘Levels,’ that song took almost a year to finish and it was mostly like, ‘let me work on this for a few days and then come back to it,’ and come back to it and then come back another time. It was a lot of time put into that song, a lot of ideas being passed around.
Did you feel a difference or any form of pressure building a new project after the last one was well received?
Yeah, a little bit! I was hoping people would feel even better, or the same reception about this EP, cause the last one was received so well so I’m hoping people feel the same about this one.
Since we were talking about “Colors” earlier, how did the Mavi collaboration come to fruition?
So I was going to California [to write music] and I was like ‘hey guys, I’m going to California, who wants to work?’ and then Smino, he dm’d me and said ‘hey I got this studio if you want to come and record music’ and I was like sure. And when I got to the studio, the first person I saw was Mavi and Noah [her producer] introduced each other and we worked on some music. Towards the end, I showed him [Mavi] a bunch of songs, one of which was ‘Colors’ and he really liked it. So then, probably the day after, I asked if he would like to be featured.
You worked with Smino?
Yeah! Back in January.
That’s super cool. I know SZA follows you on Instagram too. How does it feel having all these musical heavy weights casually reach out to you to help produce?
It feels crazy, it really does. Sometimes my friends will be like, ‘wait.. so and so follows you?’ especially some of my classmates, they’ll wonder why certain people follow me and I’m like I don’t know man, I do not know.
Does going to school feel any sort of different, now that you have popular music out there? Do people or classmates treat you any different?
I’d say yes. A little bit. Usually I’m very quiet, I don’t speak to anyone unless it’s my friends, but usually only at lunch. So I feel a lot more noticed, like people know my name or recognize me. Like in class, before, my teacher would ask if anyone could give this to Chenayder, and people would go ‘Chenayder, who’s that?’ but now people go ‘oh yeah,’ because they connect my name to my face now. Or people will go up to me in the hallway and be like ‘oh we really like your music.’ Stuff like that.
I read in a previous interview that you were inspired to write a song based off an Earl Sweatshirt type beat on YouTube. What would you say are some Earl that have motivated your music?
I usually listen to the ‘type beats,’ The Alchemist, Earl Sweatshirt type beats, not really like the music per say. I just really like the production.
You actually have a show coming up with Ovrcast, looking at the people you collaborate with, Ovrcast, Mavi, and Smino in this case, how long have you been a fan of that realm of left end hip hop?
I would say the 7th grade. Since I was like 13. I found a group on TikTok that were a 50’s group, and I started exploring music that was similar to that [them], people who sampled them, Kanye West, Alchemist, Earl Sweatshirt, they usually sample and do flips, and tricks and I enjoyed it.
It was that range of genres that inspired you to produce music, correct?
Yeah!
Since you’re already made such big connections, who’s an artist you’d like to collaborate with a year from now?
I would love to collaborate with Tyler The Creator.
So far, levels is my fav off the project, and the little bell melody is so hypnotic and i can't put my finger on why it sounds so familiar. Is it a sample? How did you come up with that?
We were coming up with the song and I think it was Dan (Dan Edinberg), I think he was whistling along to the melody and I asked him to whistle on the song just like that and he replaced the whistle with bell noises instead.
You mentioned a Dan?
Yeah! Dan and Robin. They’re from the production crew, The Outfit. They produced ‘Levels’ and ‘Teen Heartbreak.’
How long have you been working with them for production?
I started working with them last June. They contacted me in the beginning of 2023 and we met in February. They wanted to collab with me and sooner than later, when I had time because I was in school and working on Blue Oblivion, I came to New York to work with them for about two days. The first day I worked on ‘Levels’ and the second, ‘Teen Heartbreak.’
Did your approach to crafting the music itself change, going into this project?
Yeah! With this project, I did get to collaborate with more people, and compared to Blue Oblivion, I worked on that alone in my room. I’d write all the music in my room then go to the studio to record, but with this one I worked a lot with a lot more people. I had beats sent to me, and I got to work with writers, stuff like that.
What would you say you’re most excited for people to listen to?
I'm most excited for people to listen to Levels the most. I’m excited for people to listen to the change in production and hear how different it is compared to the last one. I’m trying new things and leaning into more R&B, Pop, but still having some of my old elements.
Stream Maybe in another life out now and catch Chenayder at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn with Ovrcast and on the Shadowbox Tour with Mavi.
