Chase Fernander has one of the coolest monikers out there, and to get to know her you just have to listen to her music. She puts everything into her songs. From anything that’s ever happened to her … to anything that she’s going through and anything she wants to accomplish — all of her thoughts are usually in her music, because it’s her best form of venting and the best avenue for her to get things out.

Born Krista Gilbert, it wasn’t a name she felt was cool enough for the stage. She selected the nickname “Chase” that her grandfather Arnold Pyfrom, deceased, had given her. His reasoning for calling her “Chase” was as simple as you could get. She was an active toddler that he was always chasing. He started calling her “Chase”. She stuck Fernander onto the word and the Chase Fernander moniker was born.

She can almost be likened to a female Clark Kent, a fictional American comic book character — a newspaper journalist by day, and a disguised superhero when needed to fight crime. While Krista Gilbert/Chase Fernander is not a crime fighter, outside of the hours she spends at her nine to five government corporation job where she’s an administrative assistant, she’s in Chase Fernander mode — singer, songwriter and rapper — a woman with an enviable neo-soul quality sound to her singing voice and whose rap vocals are reminiscent of TLC’s Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes.

It’s those vocals and her message need to be listened to closely on her most recent single, “Dear John”, a mid-tempo hip-hop ballad open letter to men that offers a unique social commentary on the challenges of women in the spotlight and women in general who are more often than not seen only as overly sexualized beings. And then there is “Cookie” which is known as a ladies anthem, and is a fun, infectious up-tempo club song with bold, catchy lyrics.

Outside of her singles, Chase Fernander has been incredibly busy and is making ready to drop three new songs she recorded with producer Rory “Padrino” Bowe in Miami. Of the trio of songs, “One Shot” she expects to release as early as October. She also recently released a music video with Wendi Lewis for the song “Where U At?” on which she’s featured.

Her recent hectic schedule also saw her shoot a video for “Dear John” which she says should be released within the next two weeks, as well as the release of “One Shot” video.

While she’s busy releasing new videos and music, the new singles will join her already released body of work that includes her first ever single “Don’t Make Me Hate You” which she released more than 10 years ago, and the 2010 hit “Train Tracks,” the song that most people seem to relate to. Her fans can also look forward to the release of an EP early next year.

Just who is Chase Fernander

Krista Gilbert was born into a musical family. Her father Keith Gilbert was a drummer in a local rock band called “Stranger”; and she’s the niece of Dr. Tyrone “Butch/Plati” Bartlett. She grew up surrounded by music.

Unlike most artists who got their start singing in church, that was not the case for Chase Fernander. She says it all started with her father. She grew up hearing the story of her mother Valarie Gilbert attending her father’s band rehearsals while pregnant, and of being told she was most active in her mother’s womb during those visits.

“So I like to think I was influenced by music even before I was even born,” says Chase Fernander.

She started to learn the keyboard at age five, before her family relocated to Grand Bahama when she was seven-years-old. They couldn’t find a keyboard teacher she liked much, so the youngster moved on to her father’s instrument and took drum lessons which she eventually had to give up because her dad did not have the patience to teach her.

“He sort of figured because he was such an awesome drummer that I should have just picked it up, but it was harder for me to get into that,” she recalled. The youngster then gravitated to bass guitar when she was 11, but dropped that quickly as well.

At age 13 she started putting pen to paper and writing music. It was around that this time that she started singing, but she didn’t have the confidence to go with the voice she had.

“Growing up listening to rock music, I thought you had to have a really big range, and hit high notes, and my ideas of singers were of the Whitney Houston’s and the Mariah Carey’s, and I couldn’t do any of those things then, so I turned to rap. I had a ‘brother’ Julian Nicholls (deceased) who was into rap music and I kind of just adopted the love for rap after being around him. It was also much easier for me to perform, much easier for me to write. It’s not like singing where the notes have to be so pretty. You just kind of have to be aggressive, have good wordplay, and good stage presence to be a rapper,” she said.

When she made her debut at age 16 on the local music scene Krista Gilbert tried to keep her rapping and singing separate and went by two different names because when she performed music in either genre she felt she was two different people. As a rapper she was known as Genesis, and her singing name was Chase Fernander.

“The rap part is the more aggressive side of me and my avenue to get all of my anger out if I felt upset or mad about something. Singing is when I’m happy … when I’m in love … when I feel free-spirited about things.”

After a time she stopped rapping and did more singing and the Genesis name fell away. She said her rap fans missed her, and she began doing both genres under the Chase Fernander moniker.

And while she has a day job, she says the music industry has been good to her, especially after she started taking the art form as an artist seriously last year for herself. In the past she said she was encouraged to perform by other people when all she had really wanted to do was write. She has written over 200-plus songs that she says are just sitting there.

Artistically, she says she has only just begun pushing herself to the point where she made music videos and put herself out there as a solo artist. She has found the positive feedback on her recent efforts motivating because of the work she’s been doing song wise, writing wise and in collaborations. Now, she would like to see just how far she could possibly go in the music world. While at the same time doing battle with the natural shyness in her personality that doesn’t crave the limelight like most mainstream artists do.

Chase Fernander says while she’s enjoying what she’s doing, first and foremost, music for her is an outlet.

“It’s the only way that I can release any thoughts or emotions,” she said. “I would always tell people if you want to know me listen to my music, everything is in there. Anything that’s ever happened to me, anything that I’m going through, anything that I want to accomplish, it’s usually in my music, because that’s my best form of venting, my best avenue of getting things out there.”

Musical influences

She counts her father as the first influence in her musical career, among many other people, she said singing wise, Patti LaBelle is her absolute favorite, but she likes the Jill Scott’s and the Erykah Badhu’s … the neo-soul singers.

“I think soul music is so refreshing and so relatable, and you can really feel what the person is trying to portray when they do it in the form of soul, neo-soul and jazz.”

While she has a variety of musical likes Chase Fernander refuses to be lumped into one genre, and her new music will reflect that. She incorporates her singing and rapping. She says she can no longer do just one or the other.

She’s also a member of three different bands — Juke Box Live with Rik Carey from Baha Men, The Jupiter Band and Summer Weekend.

Juke Box Live is an event band. The band sings at private events, weddings and conventions and plays more top 40s and oldies. The Jupiter Band plays more Bahamian and jazzy music and performs two nights a week at Bimini Road at the Atlantis. Summer Weekend, a hip-hop, R&B, reggae band is a new band that she’s recently put together.

While she’s eager to see how far she can go in the music industry Chase Fernander has already had a pretty big experience having opened for Beyonce in Las Vegas at age 18. She entered a talent competition and won, which meant she took to the stage before thousands of Beyonce fans. She actually chalks up that experience as the beginning of her love for being onstage. That experience she said gave her confidence and the energy to perform.