Meet Elyse Haren | Singer/Songwriter, Educator and Business Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Elyse Haren and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Elyse, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
To me, risk is synonymous with courage. Courage is key. It doesn’t need to be blind courage or endless courage. Courage is taking a deep breath and say 30 seconds of looking past you fears and taking that leap of faith.

Taking risks and having courage has had everything to do with my success in music and my new music education endeavor. From hitting send on that first email to a big time rock mixer, Mark Needham, to ask him to mix my first album, to investing in my new music education sticker business, Chord Pals. The bigger risk you take, the more the person you are contacting knows how serious you are about your career.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I love to make music, write songs and sing. Music has been my refuge, my therapy and my path to happiness. I am most proud of the having my first song I ever produced and mixed entirely on my own, Headphones, picked up by a music sync company for licensing. I’m most excited about my new synth pop anthemic song, Fireflies, and the music video coming out March 1, 2022 under my new music moniker, Esslee. I wrote this song the first few months of the Covid lockdown and it’s very close to my heart. It will be available on all streaming platforms and the video will be released on YouTube.

Getting to be where I am today has been a road with a lot of turns along the way. It required adaptability, resilience, craftiness, and a lot of hard work. It was never easy, but it wasn’t supposed to be. You are creating your own path, creating something out of nothing and hopefully blazing your own trail.

Music led me to create my own teaching business where I get to inspire girls, young women and even some parents to make music, sing and play guitar, and learn to music production. Having my own music teaching business led me to start my education company called Chord Pals, which utilizes custom-designed vinyl animal stickers to learn notes and chord fingering for guitar, ukulele and piano.

The best lesson I’ve learned along the way is to follow your heart and listen to your intuition. Don’t be afraid of veering off the path you intended at the start. Your destiny may just be on one of those paths you never knew existed.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well. luckily for the first time in my life, I am living by the beach. So, I would make sure the trip started with a walk or bike ride along the strand. I’d make sure we got to dine at one of the open air breweries in Redondo Beach with live music. We’d dine at my favorite sushi restaurants – either Izakaya or O-sho Sushi. If the weather permitted, I’d see if we could rent a sailboat or any boat and get out on the water. Of course, I would love to pick up some fresh local fish or meat and BBQ on our front patio and open a bottle of Pinot Noir from the Santa Inez Valley or a Zinfandel from Paso Robles.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d love to dedicate my Shoutout to Samuel Knaak. He is an incredible producer, mentor, supporter and teacher. Sam has been a driving force in giving me the encouragement to produce my own music. He and I have collaborated on several projects together for film, TV and even helping one of my guitar and production students get into the college of her dreams!

Website: greeneyedowlmusic.com chordpals.com essleemusic.com

Instagram: @elyse411 @IamEsslee

Linkedin: LinkedIn.com/elyseharen

Twitter: twitter.com/elyse411

Facebook: facebook.com/elyse411

Youtube: youtube.com/elyseandtheaftermath

Other: elyseandtheaftermath.com

Image Credits
Photo Credit: Matt Dinan