After releasing seven albums during her time in the music industry, Cheryl B. Engelhardt has finally received her first ever GRAMMY nomination for her most recent full-length project, The Passenger.
After years and years of hard work, we are SO happy that her music, which she describes as “contemplative, experiential and a pretty good foundation for a soundtrack to your own life,” is finally receiving the recognition it deserves.
The Passenger is in the running for “Best New Age, Ambient or Chant Album” at the 2023 GRAMMY Awards, and this nomination is making history. The 9-track project was composed, produced, mixed and mastered entirely by women AND less than 20% of all the nominees in the history of this category have been female.
“I’m trying to use this nomination to bring attention to the wild misrepresentation of women in the industry let alone this genre,” Engelhardt revealed to Celeb Secrets in an exclusive interview. “As the only solo female artist on the New Age, Ambient, Chant ballot, I am 20% of the nominees, which shows how much work we still have to do.”
When creating music, Engelhardt “make[s] it a point to hire women and BIPOC and support historically marginalized communities,” which is clearly seen in The Passenger.
One of Engelhardt’s goals for the new year is to “use the platform of this nomination to do some more activism,” and we have 100% faith in her!
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In addition to being incredible from top to bottom, The Passenger is the first album to be created on a cross-country train ride.
“I got on the train two weeks after my best friend and collaborator Kevin Archambault passed away from cancer,” Engelhardt said. “I really needed to get away but was so exhausted from grief, the pandemic, everything.”
“Being in my own room where I could lie down but still see the country go by at 80 miles an hour was the perfect place to process, cry, and experience something I had never experienced. I was able to write with my tiny keyboard and laptop, and a bunch of headphones. I wrote mostly in my room but occasionally went to the dining or observation cars for a change of scenery,” she revealed.
Read our full Q&A with Cheryl B. Engelhardt below, where we chat about this exciting nomination, the creative process behind The Passenger and more:
Celeb Secrets: For people who may not know who you are as an artist, can you explain your musical style?
Cheryl B. Engelhardt: “Absolutely! Having a background in film scores and pop music yet turning to the new age genre for my own personal anxiety-combating, my music is contemplative, experiential and a pretty good foundation for a soundtrack to your own life. Not specific enough? How about if you did a spell and the ingredients were Enya, Imogen Heap, and Sara Bareilles, the cauldron would spit me out.”
CS: Your album The Passenger is nominated for a GRAMMY Award for Best New Age, Ambient or Chant Album! After releasing six albums prior to The Passenger, how does it feel to finally receive your first GRAMMY nomination?
CE: “Oof, it feels like a wave of calm satisfaction has washed over me. This journey has been full of surprises while simultaneously being really intentional. Every move I made was in support of this life goal I had, somewhat arbitrarily, set for myself on my 23rd birthday (February 23rd). Each album up to The Passenger is a snapshot of where I was on the journey. Being so close to the destination feels like a thrill. It’s exciting and life-affirming.”
CS: The Passenger was composed, produced, mixed AND mastered entirely by women! What led you to your decision to make this album with no direct male influence?
CE: “At first it wasn’t intentional. When I was on the train across the country producing each song, the women who ended up being featured performers just popped into my head and I thought ‘I should invite them onto the album.’ Then when I got home I started mixing it and realized the mixing of this particular body of work was really an extension of the composing process. At that point, I knew I had wanted to hire a female master engineer (as a business owner, I make it a point to hire women and BIPOC and support historically marginalized communities), so it just sort of all fell into place and boom, I have an electronic/ambient/new age album composed, produced, mixed and mastered by women.”
CS: Less than 20% of all the nominees in the history of this category have been women. Do you think this nomination is helping create change surrounding women in the music industry?
CE: “I’m trying to use this nomination to bring attention to the wild misrepresentation of women in the industry let alone this genre. It boggles my mind that a genre that is based on connection (to others, self and the divine), experimenting, flow and healing – all energetically feminine qualities – focuses so much on men: gatekeepers like playlisters and radio stations continue to disproportionately highlight men in the genre, which puts more money in their pockets, allowing them to pay for better publicity so they get more attention, so the gatekeepers find them… and so on and hence the pattern is underway. As the only solo female artist on the New Age, Ambient, Chant ballot, I am 20% of the nominees, which shows how much work we still have to do.”
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CS: The Passenger is the first album created on a cross-country train ride. Can you tell me a little bit about this experience?
CE: “It was incredible. I got on the train two weeks after my best friend and collaborator Kevin Archambault passed away from cancer. I really needed to get away but was so exhausted from grief, the pandemic, everything. Being in my own room where I could lie down but still see the country go by at 80 miles an hour was the perfect place to process, cry, and experience something I had never experienced. I was able to write with my tiny keyboard and laptop, and a bunch of headphones. I wrote mostly in my room but occasionally went to the dining or observation cars for a change of scenery.”
CS: What is your favorite song on the album and why?
CE: “Ooh, that’s like asking which kid is your favorite. Like, we all have one but we don’t want the others to know. So if you don’t tell, I won’t. It’s track two: ‘The Light That’s Left.’ There is some super subtle but crafty voice leading (classical music composition stuff) that I think is pretty top notch, yet it is still totally an ambient track. I love how it lingers – it gives moments of just waiting for what’s next. I felt that this song represented the lingering light of my friend Kevin. Listening to it feels sad for me but I know it’s not a sad song. It’s contemplative, and sonically it just ‘melts faces’ (a friend told me that.) I also like that the title can be interpreted as The Light That HAS Left or The Light That IS Left. Kevin is both.”
CS: Who/What are some of your musical inspirations either artist-wise or in your personal life?
CE: “I am lucky to say that artist-wise actually crosses over into my personal life. An early mentor and inspiration of mine is Rob Mathes, who is sort of known as the most famous musician you’ll never hear of. He does arranging and orchestration for people like Sting and Bruce Springsteen and conducts the Kennedy Center Honors and things like that. I love his writing style especially how he voices chords and have been obsessed with his music since high school. I also have the pleasure of having known Sara Bareilles since we both were on tour way back in 2004 and stayed in touch with her and her music. Other women I adore and grew up with were Enya and Imogen Heap and I think you can hear their influence in a lot of what I do if you listen closely.”
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CS: What does the process look like when you create a song? Are there any quirks to your method?
CE: “It depends on the song, especially if it has lyrics or not. For example, I got asked to write a choral piece for a school’s solstice concert. I spent months researching all sorts of solstice practices from around the world to craft lyrics that would do what the piece needed. With The Passenger, it was more about letting the sounds and the scenery of the train ride work together. I feel like I stepped aside and let go of the control a bit… one of the reasons I named the album The Passenger: I let inspiration drive.”
CS: What emotions do you want to provoke through your songs in the future, and what do you want fans to take away from your music?
CE: “I think the power of good new age and ambient music is that it provides a soundscape for the listener to process what they need to process. Unlike pop or country or other genres that dictate emotions (you know that breakup song you hear in the grocery store that makes you wanna cry), I create my new age music so that someone else can feel theirs. I also think that when I am having my own experience (like grieving on a train) while composing, the energy of that experience will be translated to the listener, without needing them to experience the same thing. So to answer your question: I want the music to evoke whatever emotions the listener needs to feel (and perhaps hasn’t allowed themselves to feel.)”
CS: Do you have any goals for yourself in 2023 career-wise?
CE: “Win a GRAMMY award. Also… Use the platform of this nomination to do some more activism, specifically write for more social justice choirs, and return to the musical Kevin and I had almost finished before he passed. (It’s called Boiler Room Girls and tells the story of the women involved with the Kennedy tragedy around Chappaquidick in the late ‘60’s).”
CE: “I’m such a heart-on-sleeve transparent kinda gal. I once asked my dad before he passed away (sorry this is getting depressing) what he thought everyone knew about me. He said ‘anything you want them to,’ implying that I’m pretty expressed and try not to hold down secrets. But if you really need one, I went to Cornell University. But that’s not the secret, I talk about Cornell all the time. The secret is that I didn’t think I’d get in: it was a ‘reach school’ for me. The whole time I was there, I was hyper aware of what a privilege it was to be there. So much that I did a double major (biology and music), I was in an acapella group and I rowed on the crew team, all while holding down my job as a bouncer at a local bar (cocktail waitress was just not on brand for me so they moved me to bouncer). I tried to take advantage of every minute there. I think that was good training for life, though: just being really grateful to be here.”
Let us know what you think of Cheryl B. Engelhardt by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sending us a tweet at @celebsecrets.
Be sure to listen to the GRAMMY-nominated album, The Passenger, below.
