Blending blues, alt-rock, rockabilly, and Americana with a cinematic edge, Chellcy Reitsma channels authenticity, emotion, and spirituality through her music and visual art, revealing the soul’s depth in every creation.
1. Your sound blends Blues, Alt-Rock, Rockabilly, and Americana with a film noir edge — a truly unique mix. How did this distinctive “retro yet modern” style evolve, and what musical or personal influences shaped it?
They are all my favourite styles that I have always listened to since I was a kid. I guess they just come out naturally since they are so much a part of who I am. I love retro styles. My favorite artists and influences are all very retro yet contemporary as well. For example, my top favourite artists at the moment are Asaf Avidan, Beth Hart, LP, Kovacs, and Barns Courtney.
2. Your project, “Desolate Days,” merges your visual art with your music through stop-motion animation. What inspired you to combine these mediums, and how did the creative process differ from your usual songwriting or painting practices?
Desolate Days from 2020, was written and created during covid as part of the InnovAIR artist in residency at Valletta Cultural Agency. I wanted to create something about the isolation experience, how so many people taught themselves new skills to help get them through isolation. So, I taught myself how to do a crude stop-motion animation using only my mobile, 3 peices of drawing paper and charcoal and white chalk. It was a fun challenge and I created over 800 drawings on 3 peices of paper for the video, photographing every mark with my mobile and compiling it in the Stopmotion App.
3. You describe your mission as creating art that’s “authentic, honest, and deeply personal.” Can you share a specific moment or song where you felt that mission come to life most powerfully?
I think my song ‘Fleshbot Prison’ was the first time I really acomplished all three in a very powerful way. My spiritual beliefs, my physical struggles from my injuries, my physical and emotional pain, my anger, my depression, my hope, my dreams, my feelings about all of it past, present and future; it all came out and culminated in that one song and was expessed so deeply, so completely, so effectively and so personally. It was the first time I felt I had really accomplished my mission as an artist in the most honest and authentic way; that I had literally, fully bared my naked soul in a song.
4. As a Grammy voting member and a full-time multidisciplinary artist, how do you balance the technical side of the industry with the deeply emotional and spiritual side of your creative work?
I compartmentalise them and focus on one thing and one step at a time. When I’m creating and getting inspired and writing I am solely focused on that for weeks or months and pour myself into it. Then the business and industry stuff happens later, separate, like a different personality is taking care of business. The creative part has to be held sacred, honoured, and respected as such. Business is buisness and can be done anytime in any frame of mind more or less.
5. You’ve spoken about art’s ability to “quantify soul” and change our reality through universal consciousness. How do you see that philosophy reflected in today’s music and art scene — and do you think audiences are becoming more receptive to that kind of depth?
There is a huge movement, a shift, in art, music, and societal beliefs towards this universal consciousness.
I think audiences and artists are getting sick of the commercial, mass produced shallow stuff and they are looking for real, raw, emotional depth that is our shared human experience that connects us all. You can see it in the rise of the independent artists. Take for example, Asaf Avidan, Patti Smith, Beth Hart, Nick Cave and Kovacs; thier concerts and tours sell out, audiences go for the experience, the introspection thier music and concerts and public speaking evoke, they attend not for just entertainment but for reflection, connection, introspection, expansion. These artists have almost cult like followings because thier concerts are spiritual experiences, authentic undefineable-genre-less music that inspires, they are story-tellers, and tell deeply personal, raw, honest stories with thier music and poetry. They bring people to tears and connect us all through a shared human experience, fragility, vulnerability and resilience and they receive 2, 3, even 4 standing ovations for doing so in every concert because people are moved by and respect thier message as artists and the connectivity one experiences in thier concerts, like going to the best church ever.
6. Looking ahead, what new directions or projects are you most excited to explore — musically, visually, or poetically — in the coming year?
I’m really excited about my next project releasing end 2026 and beginning 2027, my new EP titled ‘Home’. It’s a collection of country-rock songs I wrote while on tour in Tennessee and recorded them in Nashville. It was my first time recording as a live full band. The music director is the guitar and harmonica master Pat Bergeson, who just finished touring with Peter Frampton. I’m honoured to have him playing on the tracks and to have him as the band director for this upcoming project. Some of my goals for 2026 are to do more collaborations, I’m working on writing my 3rd full album, and I would love to play at more festivals abroad outside of Malta. Regarding my visual art, I’ve been returning to painting after a long break from the canvas in favour of film and sculpture installations. But now I’m feeling the need to get back to my roots both in art and music so painting and themes of home and love are prevailing in my music, poetry and art.
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