Fri 7/22
Cleveland music fans will definitely remember local indie rock band Seafair, who made a powerful impact on the local music scene just a few years back in the mid 2010s when they were a highlight of countless special events including Brite Winter, Roar along the Shore, and the ill-fated InCuya Festival in 2018 (not their fault!)
The band, which debuted in 2011, played sweeping, symphonic rock, fronted by keyboard player Chayla Hope’s with her big, passionate voice and charismatic presence. They released a couple of EP and a 2015 full-length vinyl album, The Querencia before petering out, despite countless predictions of their certain greater success.
Hope is now going for that brass ring on her own in an unexpected way: she’s reinvented herself as a glamorous, platinum-blonde pop diva, releasing a pair of highly produced, beat-heavy singles, the bubbly “Love in Lo-Fi” and the new “Falling,” that draw heavily on 80s and 90s synth pop. In addition, Hope wrote and performed the opening theme “Caring Is the Key,” for the animated kids’ TV series Care Bears: Unlock the Magic.
She claims that her evolution from epic alternative rock to airplay-aspiring pop is a natural one. “Pop is the music that raised me, the music my mom used to listen to while cleaning the house,” she says in her press release. “It’s always been there for me as an anchoring and joyful force. It is me.”
The new single is mixed by Josh Gudwin, who’s also done work for Justin Bieber, to give some idea of the league she’s hoping to play in. And she’s released a very strange video she says was influenced by her background as a drag performer in Cleveland. The two tracks are a taste of what will be on her debut album Damn, Feelings, coming out later this year.
Hope will make her debut in her new incarnation in Cleveland this week at Greyt Culture’s monthly rooftop Golden Hour happy hour party. Get tickets here. Learn more about Hope’s new incarnation here.