THE YEAR THAT
Chelsea Jade
Ispent 2015 building up to move to America, with no real concept of whether it was a plausible thing to do. My year was one of flux, where I would take every job that cropped up so I could afford to pay a lawyer to get my visa. There was this dedication to ambition, and I was willing to get my hands dirty to do it.
Then, when I got my visa and came to LA in November, I realised that was just the first step. After all this immense hope and ambition. I was really at ground zero.
In the lead-up, I’d felt like a seed in my own life, because I had to regress. I had to move back in with my parents, and suddenly I became a teenager again. I found things like going out with friends late at night really exciting. You have to steal all these moments while you can, because you might not have them again.
Right before I left for America I went to a 10-day silent mediation retreat in Kaukapakapa. Everyone else’s impression was that they would ascend to a higher level, but it was like trudging through a sludge pit. It was difficult not to speak or write or read or exercise for 10 days. But it was good preparation for coming to America. I knew it would be difficult.
The fact it was so difficult when I got here is like an acknowledgement that I hadn’t committed until I moved.
I moved in with three expat New Zealanders, who were all musicians at varying stages of their careers. That was an interesting way to see how things could go here.
I thought I could make friends by participating in things. I was really involved with The Gilmore Girls as a fan, and there’s a podcast where two guys watch every episode and podcast about it. I went to one of those by myself — that didn’t work.
The best part about being here was that there are people who have already done it and are more than willing to usher you into a more comforting place. People like [Goodnight Nurse guitarist] Sam McCarthy and [producer] Leroy Clampitt helped me make my ambitions directional.
And I had my first Thanksgiving. Four New Zealanders crashed an American Thanksgiving. New Zealanders don’t indulge in sincerity the way Americans do. We’re not insincere, but when we had to go around the table saying what we were thankful for, we couldn’t keep straight faces.
Once Thanksgiving is over, the next day it’s Christmas. In America, they adorn every city with Christmas junk. What you see in New Zealand is like an echo of that. The first Christmas we ate our Christmas dinner at a diner, which I loved.
Now I’ve come full circle. Yesterday, Sam was on the train to his studio and overheard a woman talking about the fact that she had moved from Missouri to be a singer here. He got home and we looked her up and she’s got an incredible voice. We went: “YOLO” and emailed her to see if she was interested in a songwriting session. I feel now I have the strength to do that sort of thing.