Shaylen Opens Up About Her Move from Pop to Country: 'Something in My Heart Wasn't Happy Anymore'
She was born in Chattanooga and raised in Dallas and moved to Los Angeles to chase her pop dreams in Los Angeles. But after a decade of chasing stardom that always seemed just out of her reach, Shaylen is back where she started — in Tennessee.
And she's never felt more at home.
"Nashville is where I can authentically be me," says the pop-turned-country artist known as Shaylen in a recent interview with PEOPLE. "I think it's funny how the timeline played out though. It's just not the timing sometimes that you think it's supposed to be."
The self-proclaimed "black sheep" of the family, Shaylen was born a lover of music who begged her family for a piano at the age of 5 years old, and soon discovered that she could mimic the commercial jingles she would hear playing on the living room television on the black and white keys beneath her fingers.
Shaylen
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"My dad listened to everyone from Elvis Presley to Frankie Valli," remembers Shaylen, who attended Plano Children's Theatre in Dallas, Texas as a youngster. "But then, I remember the first-time hearing Brad Paisley's 'Whiskey Lullaby' and then 'Stay' by Sugarland. Hearing those songs was monumental for me. It just made me feel like nothing in the entire universe made me feel like music did."
Soon, Shaylen was doing everything from auditioning for a Christian pop group to starring in a television show to signing a record deal mere days before her 18th birthday, with a label already directing the careers of artists such as Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj. Unfortunately, the promises of that record deal never seemed to materialize, leaving Shaylen in the middle of California feeling somewhat lost both personally and professionally.
"I remember at that time, I had nothing to my name except for my clothes and a few things in the car," remembers Shaylen. "I was living in a 232-square-foot apartment for a thousand dollars. I was working five different jobs, doing everything just to stay afloat."
Shaylen
Nevertheless, Shaylen continued chasing the pop dream, snagging her first publishing deal in 2016 and signing with Republic Records two years later. But before her career truly could take off, COVID-19 hit and forced Shaylen to take a moment for some much-needed self-reflection.
"There was something in my heart that wasn't happy anymore," says Shaylen, who officially moved to Nashville this past summer after the massive success of her country-infused single "What If I Don't." "I lost my 'why.'" She pauses. "During my 10 years in Los Angeles, there were a lot of identities and different versions of me. I had purple hair. I was saying the F word every two seconds. I just finally realized that wasn't me."
Shaylen
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But her new single "Roots" is so very her, as Shaylen did co-write it alongside Jess Cayne and Eric Arjes. Making it even more special is the fact that the song's nostalgic music video features a series of touching snapshots of her life thus far.
"[Making this video] was so therapeutic," she remarks of the music video premiering exclusively on PEOPLE. "I spent three weeks, five hours a day, going through every [VCR] tape that my parents had ever taken of me. I just remember looking at it and realizing that I even forgot who I was. Watching these videos reminded 'little me' that I am doing things now that I freakin' have always prayed for. In a way, I made this video for myself."
