Stay Too Long

Eastbourne-based singer-songwriter Chaela is releasing her first solo single in five years on October 23 – which also happens to be her 30th birthday.

Creating bold, euphoric music with a darker electronic edge, she promises honest storytelling, with her songs turning real experiences into “glossy, unapologetic pop”, drawing inspiration from artists including Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish.

The new single is Stay Too Long, an upbeat dance-pop track about entertaining someone for too long despite them repeatedly letting you down and breaking your trust.

“It's about staying in a situation for too long that is not serving you,” she explains. “It's about someone that has broken your trust and you are thinking that they will actually change. I have been through that and it's a tricky situation. Dating at the moment is hard but I think it's a song that a lot of people will relate to. It's got an upbeat feel to the song in contrast to the emotional lyrics, I guess.

“I started releasing music in 2018 but I'd always been into music. My dad is a guitar teacher so music has always been around but I didn't start releasing until 2018. But then I took a little break around 2021 after I released another single. I trained to be a teacher, a primary school teacher, and I did that in a school but it was short lived. It wasn't for me. I am now a vocal teacher. I run my own vocal tuition called Waves Vocal Tuition, based in Eastbourne.

“The new single is like a pop track but more specifically dance pop. I would say it has got that dance feel to it.”

The aim is to continue releasing singles: “It's hard releasing an album if you are an independent artist that is not too well known. I would like to release something smaller like an EP but I'm not planning on that right now. I just want to release some singles and have fun and see where it goes. It's great to have the time to do it now I'm not a primary school teacher.

“When I released my last single I was just in the early stages of training to be a teacher and there was a lot of work. It felt like I never really gave the single the full attention that it needed so it's great now to be able to focus on that and really concentrate on my music. I write everything in the same studio that I teach from. It's all in the same space so it works really well.”

In addition to her own music Chaela is also the lead singer of the Eastbourne-based covers band The Normans.