Today we’d like to introduce you to Cheyenna.
Hi Cheyenna, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
As a little girl, I was always writing and singing. I remember the time I wrote my first song. I was around age six and didn’t even know what I was doing. I was on vacation with my family at the Lake Michigan Sand Dunes Campground, and my dad had brought along this little silver sprint flip phone – the height of technology at the time – in case of emergencies. One afternoon, I got my hands on the magical thing and discovered it had a voice memo feature! That was the first time I’d ever held something that could record, and it was pretty exciting. For the next two hours, I wandered around the campground forest, singing random melodies into the phone and creating what I would later realize was my first song ever. I still remember some of the lyrics and most of the melody – it was along the lines of, “Don’t care what they think about you / follow your dreams / just follow your dreams and destiny.”
It’s unreal to look back on, but it’s so full circle and honestly mind-blowing that my young self at that age had such a strong inner sense of direction and purpose to be able to sing something that would later become a major theme of my life and journey through the music industry. Fast forward to second grade, I was learning piano and started writing songs on that. It was also around this time that I decided Nashville was the place I needed to be if I wanted to be a real, successful songwriter someday. After all, that was where Taylor Swift started out her career, and that was where all the best songs were being written. I stayed up late at night researching songwriting jobs and quickly learned there was no such thing unless you were signed to a staff writing deal at a publishing house. I also learned that most of those publishing houses were in Nashville. So, it quickly became my emerald city, my end goal, and guiding light.
For most of high school, I was very deep in the Christian church. In my younger years, I felt a deep resistance and rebellion toward it – especially experiencing the dichotomy of what they preached and the hardship I experienced in my young life – but in my high school years, it was in the church that I was able to find a community for the first time ever. I was able to be in music like never before, and I was able to be recognized for my “maturity” and “wisdom beyond my years,” while in environments like school, I always felt ostracized and misunderstood. But inside, I had always had a deep inner feeling that I would someday break away from Christian music somehow. I knew I wanted to be a songwriter, and I didn’t want to be boxed into only writing Christian music. I hated the feeling of being boxed into anything. I would sneak the one family radio / CD player we had up to my room and put on Columbus Ohio’s mainstream pop station, 97.9 WNCI – the devil’s music, as my mom put it – and our country station, which my mom tolerated, but made me shut off upon hearing any word like “sexy,” “hell,” or “damn.” I was constantly impressed by the catchy melodies and witty hooks of both genres and how Taylor Swift had music on both stations, melding the genres together. I wanted to write like THAT.
The first time I visited Nashville, I had such a spiritual experience – I felt in my soul like it was where I was supposed to be. My family’s financial situation still couldn’t afford college, and Belmont University was extremely expensive compared to the Ohio community colleges most of my peers were opting for. So, I applied to multiple grants and scholarships through as many programs as I could and graduated high school a year early so that my senior year, I could work full time as an office manager to save for tuition. It all paid off, and in Fall 2017, I moved to Nashville to begin my freshman year of songwriting and music business at Belmont.
Here, my story really began. I felt like my whole life I was leading up to this moment, this point of moving away from home and starting my very own life in a brand new city. I started writing with anyone and everyone I could and began playing out around Nashville. I realized I could really be an artist when one of my released songs under my pop project, Chey Rose, got added to a big Spotify playlist, “chill hits.” This was the first time I ever made real money from music – so I thought, I just need to keep at it, and soon I’ll be making enough to pay my rent with music!
Aside from the musical growth I was going through in Nashville, I was also able to expand without the influence of my religious family for the first time ever, and I learned so much. When I first got to Belmont as a freshman, I was still a good Christian girl who believed being gay was wrong. By my senior year of college, I had done a 180, gone through a massive spiritual and gay awakening, realized I myself was queer, and had cut off most communication with my homophobic family. It was really tough – but again, music really got me through it.
When I realized my new queer identity, I went through a really transformational period. I stopped releasing music and just began focusing on myself and my inner journey for the first time ever. Ever since arriving in Nashville, I had always been on a constant writing and releasing schedule and became a sort of workaholic with it. I had never really given myself the time or space to just live, process my past, and explore myself and my sexuality. So, I started digging deep into myself, uncovering layers of religious trauma and internalized homophobia, and I got into my first ever queer relationship, which taught me so much about myself. I started writing queer love songs and music that didn’t really fit in with my old “straight” pop project (no pun intended).
Then, in an effort to keep growing and exploring the queer community and music opportunities, I moved to Los Angeles for a year. That year was really, really tough, being in a huge new city at such a vulnerable time when I still didn’t feel comfortable in my own skin and new queer identity. But I met a ton of new writers, producers, and people to work with; I realized I’m non-binary and just grew so much as a person. I took my time and kept just living, working on my inner health and confidence, and wrote some for other artists. It was during this year that I got the vision for a brand new project where honesty, vulnerability, and queerness would be the main focus – I decided I’d release this new music under an old nickname of mine, “Cheyenna.” My very first single, “Here,” came out in August 2023 and it’s about my own coming out experience and realizing how much freedom there is on the other side of the fear – especially after cutting out family and friends who didn’t support my queerness.
After being in LA for a year, though, I came to terms with the fact that city life isn’t the best for my soul. I kept trying to make it feel right, but something always felt a bit off. I definitely met a ton of great people and am so glad I went through my overall queer transformation in such a lgbtq friendly city – but it was as if something in my soul was tugging me back to the road, to exploration, to something new. So, I spent my last few months in LA working, writing, and finishing my favorite songs so that they’d be ready for release – and then I hit the road, which is where I am now!
Through my journey leaving LA, I’ve really found peace and clarity within myself, who I am, and what I want. I’ve always loved writing and music, but I’ve always felt most happy and at peace when I’m in nature, exploring new places, and just being the free-spirited soul that I am, not tied down or boxed into one particular place or thing. My brand new song, “Drifter,” comes out November 13, which is so fitting for me at this time as I’ve been solo traveling across the US in states like Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. “Drifter” is all about living as a truly untethered soul, making peace with life’s uncertainty, and just letting the wind guide you wherever it’s blowing. I am so thankful to be where I am right now, and I feel more alive and aligned with my true identity than ever before – and SO excited to continue releasing my own meaningful music on my new project, Cheyenna! And who knows, maybe the wind will blow me back toward LA at some point.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely has not all been smooth! There’s been so much learning and growth through my writing, and a few times when I’ve lost myself along this crazy music career path. When I was younger, I always wrote for me. I wrote because I loved it. It provided me a safe space to creatively release and process emotion. Of course, I didn’t know that at the time – I just knew it felt good to write, to sift through things I was feeling, from silly crushes on boys to deep, heavy baggage I was having to carry as a kid forced to grow up way too fast. In that way, writing was also an escape, a mental vacation from the reality I was facing. I grew up the oldest of five kids in my large, Christian, conservative household, raised in the cornfields of central Ohio. In 2008, when the stock market crashed, we lost everything – including our home. So soup kitchens, food and clothing pantries, and free church lunch programs became the norm. So did moving homes and schools frequently. For a year of my preteen life, my family was homeless – we jumped around from tent camping in yards to crashing with various friends, to staking out in walk-out basements, and more.
All the while, I was writing and using music as a way to cope and deal with the massive stresses and responsibilities I was dealing with. Being an eleven-year-old worried about where I was going to be living the next week really thrust my psyche into an accelerated track of growing old before my time. I was eleven, writing songs about the “good old days,” how I was already nostalgic and longing for the “simpler times in life.” Wild! Without singing and writing, I don’t know if I would’ve survived that period of life. But that creative spark of rebellion in my soul kept me alive. It’s actually quite amazing, thinking about it now as an adult. I wrote a lot during that time. Thankfully, by age twelve my family moved into a stable housing situation. All our money troubles were not solved, however, and it was difficult not fitting in with the class of the neighborhood. Making friends was hard, and I switched schools almost every single year of my life – another reason I leaned on music so heavily. In high school, I was finally able to join my church’s worship team, which was so exciting for me because it was the closest I’d ever been to real, live music – I was never allowed to go to concerts or live music events – and I got to use a microphone and sing on stage for the very first time. Despite the religious part that was crammed down my throat my whole life, I am super thankful to have been a part of the community of the worship team because that was where I was able to really grow as a singer, have my first solo performances, and learn proper stage presence.
Then, in college, I started writing and releasing music right away – but I did make some friends that influenced me heavily into partying and dating around and just becoming someone I’ve never been. We all kind of go through that phase, I guess, mine just came in later since my high school years were so sheltered. But I got so far away from my sense of self, with my people-pleasing tendencies allowing others to dictate my adult decisions and actions for a while. I started writing less for me and more for what seemed “cool,” what would be popular, what would blow up on tiktok, etc. I lost my sense of self, my grounded, down-to-earth nature for a while. But it took going through all of that to come out all the more confident in who I am now, as both an artist and person. I’m not a super outgoing city life partier, I don’t have a big loud pop voice. I’m not all that ego stuff. I feel like I’m a quiet, deep thinker, an old soul with a soft calming voice, and that has always come through in my writing, so it just took a while for that to reflect back in my musical journey. My new project, “Cheyenna,” is the most me I’ve ever felt, and I’m so thankful for that.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I always say that first and foremost, I’m a writer. Not even a songwriter – just a writer. I write about everything, and a lot of the writing does happen to turn into song form. But I’m also an artist because there are certain songs that I feel are divinely inspired “downloads” I get, in which case I feel like I’m just the open channel too receive and communicate these messages. I think I’m most proud of the songs that choose me to work with – where it’s simply an idea or line dropped into my head in an instant, and I have to rush to the piano or guitar to start writing them. It’s those kinds of ideas that feel so divine and spiritual because they come so out of nowhere that it feels like the idea chose me to work with, which always makes me feel proud. I do think this method of being grateful toward the idea itself sets me apart from others! I hear a lot of writers or artists saying things like, “I wish I wrote that song,” or “I’m so mad I didn’t think of that line,” etc. But I think as an artist; it’s about making yourself a clear and open channel for those ideas and lines to choose you to be the human collaborator to bring them to life. It’s not YOUR idea – it’s just your honor to write it to life after it chooses you. Some of my favorite songs I’ve ever written really feel like I didn’t write them at all because it was so out of the blue and so divinely guided!
What was your favorite childhood memory?
I think my favorite childhood memory is around age twelve; I had a silver sparkly folder labeled “songs and lyrics to music” where I’d keep every song I wrote – usually on lined school-notebook-ripped paper. I remember thinking, “I just wanna release an album. How many songs do I need to make an album?” And not just any album – I wanted to write a mainstream pop album. I had seen some Taylor Swift’s CDs at stores like Target but was never allowed to listen to pop music – strictly Christian radio – so my mom let me rent a Christian girl band CD from the library, and their album had 12 songs on it. So I thought, all I need to do is write twelve songs, and then I can make an album. Just twelve songs. I listened to that album on repeat, danced around my room to it, and just wrote and wrote. I kept counting my songs up, but then I’d reach a point where I realized the old ones didn’t quite fit with the new ones, and I needed to write more to complete the 12 batch album – and of course, this cycle continued on and on for years, songs piling up, ideas upon ideas. But they were always in that same silver sparkly folder which I have to this day!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bandanacheyenna/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bandanacheyenna
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bandanacheyenna
Image Credits
Image credits: Elvis Noza @elvisnoza David Graham @davidcgraham
