Though the remnants of Hurricane Helene covered Middle Tennessee, music fans from all over took to the fields of Harlinsdale Farm in Franklin for the 10th annual Pilgrimage Festival. Despite set shifts, less-than-ideal weather, and acres of mud beneath our feet, Chance Peña made time to sit down with Music Connection to discuss his first full-length album, Ever-Shifting, Continual Blossoming.
Music Connection: If you haven’t heard, our publication is called Music Connection. I’m wondering, first-off, in the context of Pilgrimage Festival, what does a “music connection” mean to you?
Chance Peña: I like to say that music is a remedy for reality. Say you're driving late at night listening to a song, or you’re at a show for a band that you like and you’re singing your heart out… I think it's something that can help you forget worries. To zone out of reality for a second and immerse in the music. For me, personally, with COVID, I didn’t play shows for a long time. I released some songs that started to do something and, at my first show back, was not expecting at all to have people sing my lyrics back to me the first time. It was crazy. So at shows like this, it’s just cool to have those moments with people. There’s times where it feels like a performance, but there’s moments where people are singing with you, and it's like we are all just hanging out in a big living room sharing this moment together.
MC: I was listening to “The Mountain is You” and to me, it spoke to the reality that, oftentimes, I am the biggest obstacle in front of me. In making this debut LP, what is one of the obstacles that you realized was standing in the way of you reaching this goal?
Peña: It was myself, 100%. Not even in bad ways, entirely. I can get really precious with music and the whole process of it, and up until this project I’d kinda done everything on my own. For the longest time I was writing alone, producing alone, and mixing alone, and I liked it. I have a hard time articulating my vision sometimes, but I was releasing three songs in a year. I just happened to make friends and, through those relationships, we started making music together. It’s different when you make music with somebody that you know and love and who loves you, because they know you. I’m not having to be like, ‘How do I get you inside of my head?’ My friends know me, so we can just go in and work on these songs together. Really, it was just letting go. That was the biggest obstacle for me - letting go of the reins a little bit and bringing on people I trust to help me see this thing through.
MC: What made you decide that right now was the time to put out a full length album?
Peña: It just felt like it was time. I’d been putting out a couple songs a year, and I felt like people wanted more. I felt like I had this urge to share these songs because, if I don’t do anything with them, I’ll just forget about them. My dad will remind me all the time, ‘What happened to this song?’ and I’ll say ‘Yeah, I don’t know what happened to that one, it slipped my mind.’ And I love all these songs that are on the album. There were some we cut because it could’ve easily been a 25 song album, but we tried to get it down before tour. So, 14 is good. I just wanted to share these songs.
MC: I’m curious, what psalm do you have [tattooed] on your wrist?
Peña: Psalm 18:1.
MC: What is it?
Peña: “I love you Lord, you are my strength.” It’s a great reminder. Especially being on the road… I mean, that is where “Mountain Is You” came from. You lose sight of yourself a little bit. It’s a good way to zoom out and be like ‘God’s got this, I don’t have to have everything on my own shoulders.’ When it gets overwhelming for me, I can just say ‘You’ve got it, I’m leaning on you. Do what you gotta do.’ It helps a lot.
MC: Absolutely. I love going to festivals because, a lot of times, I don’t know all the artists in the lineup. I’ve seen a lot of people online who are really excited to see you, but I’m also sure there are people who don’t know who you are. What do you hope that people come out of your set knowing about Chance Peña and what you represent?
Peña: One thing that's really important to me that I hope people pick up on and think about is authenticity… being yourself, whether that be in a creative field or just you as a person. Don’t be afraid to be who you are. Don't feel like you have to hide certain aspects of your personality or interests or hobbies. Just be you, and surround yourself with people who make you feel free and safe to be you. I think that's my biggest philosophy. That's the idea behind the song “I Am Not Who I Was” and the album as a whole. There are some things we can’t control and things change whether we want them to or not-
MC: Like today…
Peña: Like today! Exactly. Surrounding yourself with great people who love you for who you are, you’ll do your best. Whatever you’re doing, you’re doing the best you can. That’s all you can do! We can’t put so much pressure on ourselves to be perfect and to have everything go 100% as we imagined it, but we can roll with the punches.
For more information on Chance Peña, visit https://www.chancepena.com.
