Chanelle Aristide

Why singing?
Music has always been in my life.  Since a young age I have always enjoyed singing and imaginative writing like poetry.  My father was a big influence in my life, he writes and sings and my sister and I loved harmonising to his new music ideas.  There is nothing like singing to a live audience and I would sing at any given opportunity.  I began singing lead vocals in a successful Covers band at the age of 16 before studying singing at ACM 5 years later.

Desert Island Disc?
Hmm, this is a difficult one there are so many I love– I think it would be a greatest hits of Marvin Gaye because that is quite a big collection of tracks with good variety and brilliant musicianship.  Plus a soothing voice with excellent harmonies.

First Album?
That's a hard one, mainly because my first album was a record given to me by my parents Whitney Houston.  Whitney's voice was such an inspiration. But the first single I actually purchased myself was was a 15inc record by Madonna, True Blue A side with the B side Holiday.  Played on my fisher price turn table.

The first gig you went to?
I remember going to some gigs in London parks as a kid, but can't remember any names of the artists.  The first I can remember was Ja Rule and Ashanti or Destinys Child, not sure which was the first one, but both were great.

Where do you get your inspiration from for your music?
I tend to always write lyrics sometimes they form poems, sometimes just words I write from an emotional situation - heartbreaks a good one.  I can be write a song based on an opinion or reflection of a situation, or even a news story that’s inspired me. I can be sleeping at night and suddenly wake up with a bass line in my head, or a melody line and I just have to get my Dictaphone out and sing the idea into it.  I used to never be without a pad and a pen, but with my smartphone I feel spoilt to have both note and a Dictaphone built in and take it everywhere with me.