Getting to Know…Chellcy Reitsma | Interview 🎤

On the 239^th interview on The Musical Hype, we chat it up with intriguing Malta-based band, Chellcy Reitsma.

“W

e are a bit eclectic because we write the music to fit the song without concern for genres.” Okay, we’ve heard many musicians assert their eclecticism, so please elaborate 🎙 Chellcy Reitsma! “Our fusion style is a bit poetic and retro, smooth and mellow but still fresh from alternative rock to blues-rock, from Americana to adult contemporary.” Awesome! Reitsma is both the frontwoman and the name of the band based in Malta. On the 239^th interview to grace The Musical Hype, Reitsma tickles our fancy with background, goals, influences, and of course, present and future musical endeavors.  So, rather than summing it up, why not let this brilliant Q&A speak for itself.  Ladies and gentlemen, The Musical Hype proudly presents 🎤 Getting to Know…Chellcy Reitsma: Interview No. 239!

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Starting things off, for those who may not be familiar with you, what makes Chellcy Reitsma distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

🎤 Chellcy Reitsma (CR): Our style is our uniqueness in my opinion. We are a bit eclectic because we write the music to fit the song without concern for genres. Our fusion style is a bit poetic and retro, smooth and mellow but still fresh from alternative rock to blues-rock, from Americana to adult contemporary. We even blend poetry and spoken word into our performances and songs sometimes, which is less common in my opinion, but definitely unique in Malta where we are based. For example, I did a 4-track concept EP, 💿 Black Water.  It’s a narrative of my life, my anger, loss, and my love from the 1990’s to 2010 ending with a poem that sums it all up.

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Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did your Chellcy Reitsma form and what were some of the goals or the visions you had early on?

🎤 CR: I started the band in February 2019. So, we are quite new. I placed a post on a local Facebook page for auditions for those interested in joining a new band interested in blues, alternative rock, and Americana. Our band name is my personal name because I started off as a solo artist with my first single release in 2016. We kept my name because it’s too expensive to start over with re-branding and I already had a decent-sized and committed fan base started.

Our bass player has been with me since the beginning, but all the other members changed a few times before we got this committed, solid group formed about 2 years ago. So, it was a rocky start but now the members all get along well, and we have great music writing chemistry together. 🎙 Alan Degabriele is the bass player and also plays for a popular local band called Skarlett with his beautiful sister Sandrina. 🎙 Simon Cutajar is our lead guitarist. Alan brought Simon on board. 🎙 Edward Mifsud is the rhythm guitarist and joined us in August 2019. 🎙 Adam Cutajar is the drummer, soon-to-be doctor, whom Simon brought on board. He has a thing for polyrhythms. Lol!

Our vision for the band was to develop our own unique fusion sound and style. To do something different in Malta and not be just another cover or wedding band. We want to create and perform original songs as much as possible. So far, we have been fairly successful at it.

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Let’s talk more about goals. Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

🎤 CR: Our goals haven’t changed much. We are still hell-bent on limiting covers and trying to create a lot of originals. One of our goals is to get into more festivals, especially abroad, to have a first tour (had a small first UK tour booked for July/Aug 2020 but it was canceled thanks to COVID), to book more performances for larger stages. We would love to have the opportunity to produce a full more artistic show with projections, elaborate lighting, etc on a medium to large stage. We also have some TV and radio appearances scheduled for March 2022 for both local and USA stations which is one of our goals and we are pretty excited about it.

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Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

🎤 CR: I love well-rounded artists that do more than just music and have very unique voices. My biggest influences are Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, and Patti Smith because they are also accomplished writers and have such a unique and authentic music style that incorporates their poetry as well. I also am currently obsessed with Asaf Avidan and LP for the same reasons. Lastly, Kovacs because she is also a visual artist, and her music and videos incorporate her visual art background. I really identify with these artists and respect them because I also am a poet and visual artist, so I admire other artists that utilize all their talents in their music and performances.

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Ah, the fun stuff. What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance? Feel free to be creative.

🎤 CR: Well, my band and I are new so we haven’t had anything too crazy happen yet. However, I have a plethora of crazy stories from when I was a touring pro dancer. I was a touring performer, choreographer, and dance teacher. I did many dance forms but got well known for my Spanish gypsy fusion, Samba belly dance fusion, and Egyptian belly dance and folk dance styles. I performed with quite a few well-known acts and Egyptian orchestras like Karim Nagy, the Gypsy Kings (once in Chicago), Georges Lammam, Naser Musa, Toše Proeski, and many more. Once I was hired by Camel Cigarettes to perform in their festival tent at a music festival. While there I was unexpectedly asked to dance on a larger stage with a band. It turned out to be Garth Brooks lol! So, there I was trying to improvise belly dance to country music in front of thousands of people at the side stage. Lol! Luckily it was for only one song. This was before smartphones, unfortunately, so I didn’t even get any photos! I didn’t even get to meet Garth Brooks, but it’s a funny memory anyways.

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Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

🎤 CR: We have this new song we haven’t recorded yet called 🎵 “Dark Times” it is a bluesy alternative rock song. We wrote it specifically for a themed story telling arts festival we participated in. It’s about our experience of the pandemic. It has a really catchy tune and feel-good vibe that people love dancing to, which is in total contradiction to the very melancholy, dark lyrics. Our whole band loves performing this song and it’s funny to watch the audience happily dancing and singing along with us to lyrics like “Dark times ahead. Everywhere the streets are dead” and “Suicidal thoughts creepin’ in like night crawl.” I think everyone just identifies with the contradictory vibe of the song and our shared pandemic and lockdown experience. The song is just as contradictory as lockdown feelings and media hype are… “Hey I know we’re all in lockdown and terrified about the pandemic. So many people are depressed, and the suicide rate is up, but try to stay happy and upbeat doing fun activities at home! Oh, and look at this band in crazy costumes going around the streets performing for people standing on their balconies! Are we having fun yet?” Lol!

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Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

🎤 CR: I lived in California, Chicago,IL, Florence, Italy, Stockholm, Sweden and Toronto, Canada before settling in Malta, EU. Also, I’m a visual artist and poet too! I graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as a double major in Art and Art History.  Check out some of my art and poetry on my poetry page:

https://instagram.com/ephemeralcompass?utm_medium=copy_link

These tidbits are significant because I feel that my extensive traveling, being an immigrant, my life experiences, and my artistic background all contribute to my songwriting and visualizing my music videos. A perfect example of this, is my 2020 project titled ‘Desolate Days’

 

It hit the Top 20 Music Video Charts in Malta. It combines both my music and visual art practices in my first stop motion animation lyric video drawn in charcoal and digital art. ‘Desolate Days’ was part of the InnovAiR: Artist at Home program for the Valletta Cultural Agency.

You can see my other music videos on YouTube here:

https://linktr.ee/ChellcyReitsma

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Closing things out, what is Chellcy Reitsma currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure.

🎤 CR: Coming up next on March 4th we’ll be releasing a new alternative rock single called 🎵 “Fleshbot Prison”. An angry rock song with an artistic theory about human existence. We are also working on a number of new songs in preparation for hopefully producing our first full  LP.  It will include some poetry as my Black Water EP did and some narrative spoken word.

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Thank you so much for sharing taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward.

🎤 CR: Thank you very much for this opportunity to share our music! We appreciate your work.

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🎤 Getting to Know…Chellcy Reitsma: Interview no. 239 [📷: Brent Faulkner, Chellcy Reitsma, The Musical Hype]

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