With the release of his debut album, ‘Ever-Shifting, Continual Blossoming’, Chance Peña continues to build on his already burgeoning music career. The album covers a range of sonics ranging from Americana, blues, indie folk and country while lyrically tackling the nuances of relationships both personal and professional. The album’s title was inspired by Peña’s analysis of life and its ever-changing nature, “I was in my girlfriend’s backyard reading a book and it was just talking about how we’re always growing, ever-changing and that whole concept.” Peña shared, “that’s exactly what I’m writing about right now and ever-shifting continual blossoming is just a more poetic way to say.” Many of the songs reference the experiences he’s gone through in recent years and the practice of not dwelling on things, Peña explained, “just taking the idea of surrendering and letting the seasons change when it’s time, because I feel a tendency to want to control the things that happen in my life.” He shared, “some things you just have to let go of and I think through the process of letting go and allowing that change to happen, more beautiful things than you can imagine or plan yourself, happen.” The album features the viral track, “i am not who i was”, which has amassed over 294 million global streams, and many other standouts like “The Mountain Is You,” “Suddenly” and “Muscle Memory”. Peña noted the specialness of “Suddenly,” which kicks off the album, “it’s partially coming from a the context of a relationship but also an outlook on life, how things can change so quickly and without warning.” He shared, “you realize things about yourself. For me, I have a tendency to put other people’s needs before myself and I think that’s a great thing to do but there’s a good kind of selfish where you can’t constantly neglect your own heart. You’ve got to fill yourself up, you can’t always be pouring out and I think that song is me learning that lesson.” Peña performed at Austin City Limits this year to large crowds before heading to Europe in support of the album.
Chance Peña spoke with B-Sides host Pete Mar at ACL 2024 about performing at the festival, his debut album ‘Evershifting, Continually Blossoming, Chris Stapleton and more.
