News Chela

: Chela
Based: Melbourne
Listen: ‘Romanticise’
Similar to: Literal popageddon

After a false start playing bass in a punk rock band, Australian native Chela dropped the strings in order to discover herself in a more auspicious light. Back in 2012, she collaborated with Goldroom on ‘Fifteen’, a warm and driving chillwave inspired track, following it with vocal duty on Clubfeet’s Australian radio hit ‘Heartbreak’. Arriving in 2013 via Kitsune with ‘Romanticise’, it’s surprising to hear a shift in focus so quickly, and paying attention to the lyrics, it’s a shift that is both literally and figuratively seismic.

Instilled with gleeful energy, it’s an unadulterated slice of alt-pop. Drawing inspiration from the dance-floor, few tracks come close to reaching ‘Romanticise’s cohesion of highly polished production and vocal radiance. The charm of the track comes from the chorus, backed with a beat that won’t quit.

Tired with pessimism, and inspired by ‘a friend who would always give me a negative response’, Chela’s order to ‘feel good’, demonstrates a confidence and directness that produces a rallying anthem. The genius of ‘Romanticise’ is Chela’s quest to reintroduce pop positivity without pretence and it’s this tension that so perfectly embodies the delicious contradictions of the slick, clever, digital pop of now. She appears to be an artist blessed with a much-needed sense of fun.

‘Romanticise’ is a gem, basically, sparkling with the promise of even greater things to come. Chela is already moulding herself as a new pop obsession.