Cherry Chaise
When Valentine’s season rolls around, Nashville singer-songwriter Cherry Chaise locks in.
Rather than shooting arrows to make people fall in love, Chaise writes songs to help people stay in love, or fall even deeper. Every February, she relaunches her seasonal side hustle: Cupid for hire — or more accurately, Cupid for commission.
Chaise studies the stories and quirks of couples around the globe via Songfinch, a website that assigns professional songwriters to construct custom songs using clients’ memories.
Songfinch users have the option to select Chaise, who writes under the name Kat Elizabeth on the platform, to create their tune. Clients start by choosing their preferred song genre, tempo and “vibes.” Then, they send three must-have details about the song’s subject, along with any extra information that might help Chaise flesh out the story. Chaise and her clients typically don’t speak further after the initial request, so three to five days later, the buyer receives a complete surprise.
“I’ve cried and bawled in my room over songs that I’ve written for other people, just because the story turned out so beautifully and I was able to find the perfect chords to go with it,” Chaise says. “And I’ve just hoped that was something that could also bring such joy to their lives.”
Chaise has been working to find an artistic balance between her own songs and those she writes for others. In both cases, her songwriting sessions typically begin in the car after an eight-hour workday.
Until she was 27, Chaise made music under her given name, Kat Elizabeth Hetrick. After releasing two EPs, she diverged from the indie-folk path she’d been traveling, veering in the direction of indie pop. In an effort to carve out a space for her new style, she created a pop-star persona for herself.
In May 2024, Cherry Chaise was born.
When Chaise takes the spotlight, she keeps Hetrick locked away in her metaphorical “basement.”
“I decided going forward, I wanted to have a separation of self, and have a stronger foot forward,” Chaise says. “And Cherry Chaise became this persona of somebody who is not afraid to make art in a world that’s kind of fucked-up.”
She adds: “I’ve always kind of said, ‘I don’t write the songs — I am a song. And I’m going to spend my life trying to write the song that I always wanted to be.’”
Chaise says she has no filter when it comes to song ideas, and often writes about any situation she might find herself in — like a quippy ballad about seeking solace in the aisles of a Target, or a synth banger about failing the physical fitness test in middle school.
“It’s very much a spiritual experience for me,” Chaise says. “If a song is going to be written, it makes itself known that it’s going to be written.”
With nearly 200 commissions under her belt, Chaise experiences an extra dose of dopamine when she gets to tell a queer story through song, often connecting heavily with LGBTQ clients as a member of the community herself.
So far, Chaise has maintained one overarching goal in her commission career: to create a full-length album about someone’s life — and she actively encourages those interested to apply by reaching out to her on Instagram (@cherrychaisemusic).
“I would love to find a client who is interested in doing an album about their life, with each song a different part of their life,” Chaise says. “That is truly my dream client — that’s my dream project. If there’s anyone out there in the world who wants to do that, I really hope they come to me.”
Chaise debuted the first song under her new musical persona, “Good Sport,” on Feb. 7. The synth-pop track is an ode to ’80s Jazzercise and people who, like Chaise, had athletic-induced asthma in middle school.
Even after Feb. 14 comes and goes, Chaise remains booked and busy on the commission front. After all, there’s always birthdays, anniversaries and other assorted holidays for her to soundtrack.
Plus what to read, watch and listen to on Valentine’s Day
