Chanelle Davis

“Despite battling the freezing elements of an alleyway bar at night in the middle of winter, Miss Davis totally engaged her eclectic audience with unique charm. It is not often that we are enchanted by new talent, but stumbling across Chanelle Davis playing her beautiful songs reminded me of Norah Jones shaken up with a healthy dose of self-depreciating humour”.

Chanelle Davis; a diamond in the rough - and after a few years of polishing, the brilliance of her musical talent is really beginning to shine. At 25, she has grown into a confident, independent young woman with the gift to say what most of us can not, writing songs that are conversational and simple, yet mysterious and containing a soulful beauty. They are songs that make you feel, make you think, and are the heart of everything she wants to achieve with her life.

Chanelle's musical roots can be traced back to her first piano lesson at age four igniting her passion at a tender age. The ember within her smoldered throughout college, where she found herself involved in almost every musical group on offer. Although possessing all of the tools for academic success in almost any field, Chanelle chose the less traditional path, graduating with a Bachelor of commercial music from Waikato Institute Of Technology and a view that if the world needs songs it must need people to write them.

Fresh out of studying, Chanelle spent six months working as a receptionist for Dawn Raid Entertainment which served to feed her passion and creativity.

“Working for Dawn Raid was exciting and I learned so much about the music business, they really helped me realise which side of the desk I belonged on”.

A trip to her home town of Tauranga provided a perfect setting for her to refocus her musical career and within weeks Chanelle had made the move to Hamilton to front an alternative rockband. The band lasted several months until she realized rock was not her true calling, and began pursuing a solo career.

In 2006, after lots of ‘lounge concerts’ with friends and family, Chanelle recorded and released her debut album Better Than Alone. A stand out track, Your Only One was a finalist in the New Zealand Songwriters’ Trust Award 06, and her live performance of the song from the awards night featured on the album. Better Than Alone received a 5 star review in The Waikato Times, describing her music as ‘fresh, vibrant, and sure to appeal to a wide range of listeners’.

A move back to Auckland in 2007 has seen her career has grow from strength to strength, gaining national and international acclaim. Alight came 2nd in the Pacific Songwriting Competition ballad category, and she won the 2007 New Zealand Songwriters' Trust award with Dear Jon.

“Dear Jon is one of my favourite songs, it took me a year to write but it says everything I wanted to say to him. It worked out really well that his name was Jon because I had lots of rhyming options!”

In 2007, Chanelle performed at the Qantas Television Awards, Tauranga and Hamilton Christmas in the Parks, was featured on the cover of UNO magazine, and went on a successful six week summer tour with fellow singer/songwriter Daniel Munro. 24 shows and a few thousand kms later, she returned to Auckland to begin recording her second album titled Since Yesterday.

“Touring was a great opportunity to see if people actually liked my songs – cause you never can tell. When I got home I had a very clear picture of which ones were winners and which ones should stay in my bedroom”.

Since Yesterday will be released on November 3rd nationwide through ODE records. The album was produced by Kovi Mongelli and Chanelle, and mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound in New York. The full bodied sound captured by a range of live musicians(including a tap-dancer) makes Better Than Alone sound naked and raw, at the same time showing growth and diversity as Chanelle Davis continues her journey.