Nashville based rock group CHLSY continues to break genre barriers with their alternative sound. Lead singer and songwriter, Chelsea Gilliland has been working alongside Grammy winning producer with 135+ billboard hits, Dave Audé and co-writing with several big names in the Nashville and Los Angeles community, including David “DQ” Quiñones, Chloe Lattanzi, Rachel Levin, and several others.
In February of 2021, Chelsea teamed up with two like-minded musicians, Sean Swanson, and Sawyer Dodds to form CHLSY and reignite 90’s music with their own modern spin. Vancouver is what CHLSY has referred to as an ‘extended single.’ It includes three songs that meld together following the same concept in the lyrics, with the emphasis on the song ‘vancouver.’ This is the third single to be released as a group effort. The trio wrote and produced the record together and sent it off to be mixed and mastered by Bay Area legend, Aaron Hellam.
The writing process for ‘vancouver’ began in a barn in Brownwood, Texas. This was months prior to the formation of the group and was the first song they wrote together. Former member, Korgan Robb began playing the arpeggiated guitar part that is heard at the start of the song. From there, Chelsea Gilliland began writing the lyrics and melodies while Sawyer Dodds and former member, Grant Fannin, worked on drum and bass lines.
The group performed this song for over a year at shows and it transformed as members of the band left and joined. ‘Vancouver’ was the glue that kept the band together. Sean Swanson eventually joined the band and took over production and bass for the song. The guitars were replaced by Chelsea Gilliland’s Telecaster and Marshall stack combination.
“When I first heard the guitar line, I knew the songwriting process was destined to be a therapeutic experience for me. Typically, when I see a song as the color blue, it ends up that way.” – Chelsea Gilliland
Gilliland experiences synesthesia and incorporates this into her writing. “One time we were writing and I was telling Sean to use a distortion that was more ‘yellow’ and he jokingly reminded me that he is colorblind. Now whenever I think about that I laugh a little.” Said Gilliland who went on to explain that the story behind the lyrics began with tapping into her inner child and inner teenager.
When she was in high school her dad got a job in Vancouver, Canada. She explained that she really missed him during this period in time and grew to hate Vancouver, Canada for taking her dad away from her. In the lyrics to ‘vancouver’ Gilliland explained that she wrote about several different traumas she experienced throughout her life due to exes, death, ex-friends, and the pain of being a teenager and a high schooler. She used Vancouver as a scapegoat for her problems. All of the pain that she experienced in her early years of life were channeled into this song.
The recording process for ‘vancouver’ began in a friend’s basement. Gilliland struggled to record a vocal take that she was happy with and because of this, the demo sat in their shared note for over a year. After performing ‘vancouver’ for a year at live shows, Gilliland grew more accustomed to the large vocal range in the song. When the trio got together to officially record the track, she was able to record the vocals all in one take. Meaning, the vocals heard in the track could be considered ‘live.’
The rest of the band used the demo as a foundation for the final recording. Drums were re-recorded by Sean Swanson in his brother’s home studio. Most of the guitars had to be re-recorded as well. Lucky for the group, they happen to live together and share a home studio where most of their recording happens. Chelsea Gilliland re-recorded the guitars in her home studio where Sean Swanson re-recorded the bass as well.
“It was really cool to watch the transformation of this song over the course of the year. I’m really excited to finally put it out and am overall very happy with the way it turned out. Especially being that it was the first song we ever wrote together.” – Chelsea Gilliland
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