"With punky attitude and commanding presence... its pretty clear she is a star in the making"
- Metal Planet Music
"Chess Smith’s voice is akin to the raw edge of ex-Estrons Tali Kallstrom and the soulful power of Yonaka’s Theresa Jarvis"
- I'm Music Magazine
"Smith’s soaring vocal range … the parallels between Smith’s and Hayley Williams’ vocals can no longer be ignored"
- Fortitude Magazine
"[Her] vocals are strong and full of passion, range and power"
- BackSeat Mafia
"stirring, soulful and incredibly slick pop. That she’s drawing on experience and processing through art is powerful. That she speaks for so many is a grim reality. Chess is back, alright, and her voice needs to be heard."
- Aural Aggravation
"Raw, impassioned vocals"
- Get In Her Ears
"fiercely impassioned, brooding vocals"
- Gig Slutz
"powerhouse vocalist"
- Indie Central Music
"deliciously hard-hitting vocals"
- Gig Radar
"Powerfully delivered with feeling... 'Bounce Back' is defiantly soulful with suitably bombastic beats... a tuneful alternative #popmusic mantra for us to sing out aloud, or in our heads, with radical #selflove"
- The Zine
"I was pretty blown away by this from Chess Smith - [Disassociate is] an empowering and strong self-love anthem to blast out loud [...] PREACH!"
- Abbie McCarthy, BBC Introducing Kent
"With a past in rock bands and a voice that won’t back down, Chess has carved out a space for vulnerability that roars. Produced by Kent’s Fuji Hideout, Saving Lilibet isn’t a sob story — it’s a f***ing battle cry."
- Fame Magazine
All About Chess...
Hey…! I'm Chess Smith, a British pop/rock singer-songwriter with a love for writing passionate, personal & positive songs about mental health, and hitting back at toxic behaviour. My music is all about radical self-love, empowerment, and overcoming adversity – in the current world that we live in, full of competition, comparison, narcissism, and self-doubt, it’s such an important message. No matter how many curveballs life throws at us, when we know our worth and love ourselves, we are incredible. So, straighten that crown, and leave the haters in the ashes!
I began my career working with local rock bands in London and the Southeast, touring around the UK and experimenting with different genres along the way. I was raised on ABBA & Led Zeppelin, but my favourite artists are Alanis Morisette and Paper Route, so the combinations of these sounds created my love of versatility in music and crafted who I am as an artist today.
At the moment, I’m completely in love with modern artists like Chappell Roan, Holly Humberstone & Maggie Rogers… they are absolutely killing it!
I’m grateful to have had lots of opportunities to work with some amazing people throughout my career so far, including the legend herself, Jocelyn Brown, plus Emily Dolan Davies (Drummer of The Darkness/ Cher Lloyd), Paul Davis (Drummer of Sugababes/ Jericho), Ashley Kinsley (keys player for Beverly Knight), and Steve Harris (Gary Numan’s guitarist). It’s been a wild and amazing ride – or it was, until life threw a toxic spanner in the works, and everything came to a screeching halt.
In 2020, I suffered a severe nervous breakdown, which put a lot of things into perspective for me and forced me to take a long break from music. By cutting ties with all that caused this trauma, I gradually got better with time and found myself again. When I eventually started my recovery, it felt like the right time to solely focus on myself & my solo career. I wanted to write music that naturally came to me, as my muse, write for myself, write about my experiences in hopes it may help other people, and to write music surrounded by people that I trusted. I decided to step away from rock and into my alternative pop musical kaleidoscope, as I felt that a new path was needed… a fresh start…. A New Reign.
Since 2022 I have been working on a solo project, co-writing with the multi-talented Fuji Hideout, an amazing local Kent producer. I’ve called my project ‘Saving LILIBET’…
“Once I was labelled a Queen and I was living out my dreams, but this was short lived as I surrounded myself with toxicity, ousted out by those publicly…. but I will reign again and save the Queen, I’ll save myself now I know how to love myself.”
I'm so excited for this project, collaborating with Fuji Hideout and some amazing musician friends. I can’t wait to share it with the world.
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