By Michael Mondezie
Yes, Indeed! I’m a Hopeful Romantic.’ It’s not only a marketing ploy. Singer Monique La Chapelle genuinely embodies the title of her debut prolonged play (EP) album: The Hopeful Romantic.
An endearing La Chapelle gushed over the thought of a unusual fairy-tale sort of love where starcrossed soulmates find their way into one another’s arms.
‘At the identical time a hopeful romantic isn’t naive to the indisputable fact that it might probably all come crashing down at some point,’ she added with a sprinkling of reality.
The swashbuckling love crusader who throws their emotions to the wind is what the Port of Spain-born singer calls a hopeless romantic. La Chapelle says a number of broken hearts have taught her to ‘never approach love so blindly ever again’.
‘For my entire life I’ve been a hopeless romantic, but I’ve found that being hopeless means you don’t take caution in relation to falling in love. Unfortunately, I got my heart broken already and promised myself to never approach love so blindly ever again. In fact, I’ll fall in love again someday, but I’m wiser now and hopeful as an alternative of being hopeless,’ she said with smiling eyes during a web-based
La Chapelle, 26, is convinced that hopeful joy can extend beyond romantic encounters. She hopes to attach those sentiments along with her listeners on her debut seven-track EP. The project was released on September 9.
‘Aside from love I’m also hopeful, and optimistic towards life usually, and I make it my duty to encourage, and uplift others every time I can,’ she began saying.
Explaining that she openly shares of herself in her music she added that every track captures a real emotion at very real moments of her life.
That open, honest expression is already resonating with fans and has gained the project over 13,000 Spotify streams and just below 1,000 plays on Apple Music. Those are pretty good online stats for a new local pop act.
‘The album is about positivity and hopefulness. I discuss past relationships, my journey of believing in myself, and this will be heard on ‘Know My Name’.
The Hopeful Romantic speaks about romantic love, but I didn’t want it to only be a couple of romantic variety of love. I’ve found love in myself, music, life, my family and friends, and the fantastic thing about the world around me. Every song on the album is a reflection of who I’m as an individual, and my life experiences,’ she continued.
DISCOVERING TRUE LOVE
While La Chapelle openly sings concerning the eager for true like it is evident she has already found hers: music. The enjoyment of musical expression was first revealed to the gifted vocalist as a shy eight-year-old at Bishop Anstey Junior School, St Ann’s.
‘I remember being blown away by my music teacher Mr Michael White who was playing piano one morning by himself within the music room. I used to be walking by and I couldn’t help but open the door to the music room to see who was playing so beautifully. After I opened the door I saw him performing and he looked so completely happy and at peace in one other world. I said to myself, I would like to be there someday, I would like to play piano that great, I would like to learn music, it seemed so freeing,’ she revealed.
Seeing her passion for music Mr White soon reached out to La Chapelle’s mother for her to begin piano classes and as she recalls: ‘That’s where it began. I knew from then on that I had a passion for music and desired to do music professionally.’
La Chapelle went on to hitch the varsity choir at her alma mater Windfall Girls’ High School in Belmont, and later complete a level in Musical Arts at The University of the West Indies, St Augustine campus.
Those experiences have taught her to pour her soul into the music she creates, she added. It’s a message she shares openly with students at her La Chapelle School of Music.
‘After I sit at my piano or with my ukulele to put in writing, I all the time put my soul into my music. I even have this songwriter’s saying, ‘Don’t put anything right into a song unless you’re feeling it along with your soul’. At any time when someone listens to my music, I would like it to assuage them. I would like them to know they aren’t alone within the circumstances that they’re faced with. It might sound weird, but I would like to hug people’s hearts with my music.
‘My desire is that after they’ve had an exhausting day, they will placed on my music, and unwind emotionally. I made the choice to make use of my real name as my stage name because my objective is to present myself as an authentic person, with an undying love for music, and the gift of life. I would like to all the time show up as my true self despite what others might want me to be,’ she said.
