Chelsea Basham spent much of her childhood larking around with her two older brothers and working in her parent’s Retravision store in Wongan Hills, 182 kilometres north east of Perth, population about 1,400 and shrinking. The radio was never far away. She loved the sound of the new breed of Australian country artists … Lee Kernaghan, Kasey Chambers, Troy Cassar Daley, Melinda Schneider, Adam Brand, Beccy Cole … and wanted to be like them.
Chelsea went on to win some local talent quests and toured Western Australia with Lee Kernaghan at the tender age of sixteen before her first pilgrimage to the Tamworth Country Music Festival the following January. From there, she fell in love, moved to Sydney, made an independent single, toured as much as she could, broke up with her boyfriend and went back to Wongan Hills to lick her wounds. And all before she was 20!
Chelsea Basham’s debut album I Make My Own Sunshine, released 24 August, 2012, on Compass Bros. Records through EMI.
