Chanelmarie Brooks, a Twin Cities-based jazz artist, wanted to make an EP since she was 21. Now, at 28, her EP “A Soul Silhouette,” is set to be released in March.
Bunmi Adewunmi, who goes by Chanelmarie Brooks, spent many months collaborating with Helvig Productions. Brooks said work on the EP started in March 2024 and ended in November.
Part of the reason the production process took so long was because one song would influence how the next one would turn out. After recording her first song, “Saturday Morning Cartoons,” Brooks took time to think about what she liked about the song and what she didn’t, keeping those reflections in mind when creating the next song.
“For this EP, I really just kind of created the songs as I went along,” Brooks said. “Most studios would not allow you to do that, but this studio did.”
Helvig Productions is a Minnesota production company run by Stephen Helvig, who helped Brooks produce the EP. The studio works with musicians from different levels of experience, but Helvig’s goal is to be a resource for local artists.
Brooks gave the studio an idea of what she wanted for the EP, and the work started from there.
At the start, Brooks had an idea of the songs she wanted on the EP and what they would sound like. However, as she started the recording process, Brooks realized the songs were not turning out how she wanted them, so she changed her process.
She started to write and record as she went into the studio.
Brooks described her songwriting process as free-flowing because all her songs are based on her emotions and how she felt in a specific moment. She will start to sing about a specific moment and then add a melody. If she likes how that sounds together, she said she starts just letting her ideas flow and jots them down as they come.
Later on, she goes back and listens to the song and starts to clean it up.
“It’s a lot of back and forth. It’s a lot of free-flowing ideas,” Brooks said. “It’s a lot of recording, writing and erasing.”
Throughout working on the EP, Brooks sought feedback from instructors at The Dynamic Voice Program. The program is an online vocal training program run by Sophie Amelkin. Brooks said the program taught her how to be a better singer and navigate the music industry.
Amelkin, Brooks’ vocal coach, described Brooks’ music as calming and meditative. Amelkin said Brooks is “pure light” and brings so much joy and passion to her music.
Helvig described her music as a combination of soulful R&B and pop music.
Brooks described one song off the EP, “Saturday Morning Cartoons,” as a dreamy song filled with nostalgia, and while that was not what she originally imagined for the song, she is very happy about how it turned out.
Brooks said the hardest part of this process was conveying her ideas because music can be interpreted so differently. In the beginning, “Saturday Morning Cartoons” was intended to be an upbeat jazz song, but Brooks said it kept turning into more of a pop song.
“It was a very good pop song. Like it was amazing,” Brooks said. “But it wasn’t really my style, and it wouldn’t really feel authentic for me to sing that song.”
Brooks said it was hard to convey her ideas because she does not formally write music and is still learning how to describe different sounds. Her willingness to learn and receive feedback from others aided her in this process. Helvig, her producer, said new artists should not worry too much about having everything figured out and should just be brave and share their work with the right people.
“I give a lot of credit to Chanelmarie Brooks for doing just that,” Helvig said. “For showing up, asking questions, understanding she still has a lot to learn but also has a lot to contribute from a creative standpoint.”
If someone wants to start making music or to produce an EP, they should go on YouTube and search for what they want to learn, Brooks said. She suggested getting involved with the community.
“Anyone who could offer a piece of advice or give me a lesson, I went for it,” Brooks said.
Amelkin said the music scene in the Twin Cities is a gift because there are many opportunities to be in community with other artists.
Brooks took lessons at the MacPhail Center for Music at the same time she recorded the EP. She told her teachers about what she was working on and what problem she was facing, and they gave her advice. Brooks took what she learned from those lessons into the recording studio to better her EP process.
“Be patient and be very kind with yourself, because this is really hard stuff to do, but you just can’t give up, right?” Brooks said.
