We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chelsea Simone a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Chelsea, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I’ve dealt with anxiety the mass majority of my life. Despite being the epitome of a Sagittarius, who are adventurous, risk taking, people I somehow missed those characteristics in their truest form. Being in front of people and showcasing my talents have always made me nervous. As you can imagine, having anxiety, along with social anxiety made singing and performing in front of people very hard. But despite that, there was still that little girl inside of me that wanted to pursue her singing dream. So, last year in March with a lot of help from my loved ones I finally took a risk and performed at my first open mic event at the Arcade of Thrones in Raleigh. I decided to bet on myself. With no knowledge of how the crowd would receive me or if I’d even still have the courage to go through with it once the mic was in my hand. I’m so happy I did it though because since that day everything has changed for me. I’ve been booked and busy literally since that day. I’ll be going on my first tour next month with ‘Queens of Carolina’ and it’s all because I took a risk on myself! Best decision I have ever made!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Well, my name is Chelsea Simone I am a singer songwriter based out of Raleigh North Carolina. I’ve been pursuing singing professionally for over a year now, along with performing all through the Carolinas. I began my musical career doing open mics at Arcade of Thrones in Raleigh every Thursday. It started out as a hobby, but quickly turned into something that I wanted to pursue full-time if possible. I had a lot of support from my mother and boyfriend, who knew that I had something that the world deserved to see and hear. Although the journey has been rewarding, fun and exciting, there have definitely been some hardships that I have dealt with while trying to pursue this dream. When you see entertainers, and other artist in the industry, who are of course, more famous more successful than you are you don’t really take into account what goes on behind the scenes and the trials that they face. Being an independent artist like myself, you would think in some ways it would be easy or not as difficult but in fact, it’s the complete opposite I’ve had to learn everything pretty much on my own and I have had to learn from the mistakes that I’ve made and are still going to make. You realize just how much support you really have when you have a new song coming out or a show you’re putting on and only 15 people show up. These are the times where you have to really discuss with yourself is this something that I am prepared to do over and over again? Throughout these fails and wins, I’ve learned that absolutely, this is something that I would love to do over and over again no matter how hard it may seem , because with all the lows that I have had, I have had extreme highs, honestly more highs then lows. When you’re in an industry where your feelings and thoughts are literally out for everyone to hear and you’re in your most vulnerable moments all the time, things like only 15 people being at your show can seem detrimental, when in reality that’s preparing you for when you have 15,000 people at your show. Some things that sets me apart from other artist in this industry is that I’m very outspoken and vocal about everything and that’s in my music and in my life. I like to pride myself on speaking, my truths, and I feel like that makes me more relatable to other women, black women, who also want to speak and live in their truth and I feel like when I get on Instagram, or my other social medias and deliver my messages of the days and my lessons of the days it automatically lets people know that, I feel just like how you do on this topic or we may disagree but I am leaving the floor open to have discussions. I pride myself on being more than just a singer. I’m also someone who can deliver a message and who can keep it authentic at all times no matter how the general public may view me. Along with that, I pride myself in delivering music that’s always going to make you feel, heal, have fun, and think. I never want to just give my supporters one type of me or one version of myself. I want to show every side of me because I think that’s important for others to see that I’m not perfect and music may not always be perfect but it’s genuine and it’s authentic. I am most proud of the fact that I took a chance on myself, and I am continuing to take chances on myself. In my past when things got hard, I would throw in the towel or quit or give up, but this has been the one facet of my life that I have remained consistent in no matter how tiring or mentally exhausting or spiritually draining this industry can be. This is the one thing that I’ve wanted to keep and hold onto, and I am most proud of that, because like I stated previously I tend to throw in the towel whenever things get hard or uncomfortable. I’m very proud that I’ve been able to remain consistent at this and that I’m also good at it, great if I may say so myself. The main things that I would want my supporters, fans, followers to know is that I’m always going to be authentically myself. I always want people to feel like they can relate to me. They know me they identify with me because I am a part of multiple communities of people; I’m a woman, I am black, and I am plus size. These are all groups of humans that deserve representation and I want people to know that. I’m talented and I’m gonna do my best to remain all of those things to the best of my capabilities . I’m not gonna be perfect and I am going to say things that people may not agree with. I’m going to be outspoken I’m going to voice my opinions, but I’m always going to be me.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I feel like there are multiple answers to this question, but I’m going to focus on the aspect that I feel is most important. As an independent artist coming from Raleigh North Carolina, I see or better yet feel that the support of the independent artist could be a lot better. There are tons of talented, genuinely talented people in North Carolina, but better yet in Raleigh, Durham that don’t get the support, or spotlight. I am a part of a collective called The Free Society and we are all talented people and I don’t say that because we’re friends or we’re family. I say that because it’s true. We’ve had shows here in the city, I’ve had shows here in the city and the support has not been reciprocated. When Raleigh has these big shows downtown, it’s rare that you see other black independent artist, being highlighted at the shows. Don’t get me wrong we’re not looking for any body to give us a hand out or to “put us on” we are genuinely just looking for the support of the people in the city that we live in and that has been really hard. It doesn’t take much to support another independent artist. Our shows aren’t expensive. Our songs are free to stream. We just want the city to show up and support us because we’re better together then apart.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part of being a creative is honestly receiving the love and support from the people who you had no clue you would receive it from. There’s been times where I’ve gone to a show and a random person will come up and be so excited to finally meet me and you never realize the people that you touch until you see them or you hear from them and it’s so satisfying. When you spend a lot of time on a craft and trying to perfect it and get to see the fruits of your labor firsthand it lets you know that all the time and work and effort you put into the craft is worth it.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Youlovechelsea
• Facebook: Chelsea Simone Music
• Youtube: Chelsea’s Corner