Singer Chance Pena on Writing for John Legend, Album No. 2 and More

Singer-songwriter Chance Peña is still riding the high of releasing his debut album, Ever-Shifting, Continual Blossoming, and he has no plans on slowing down.

The 24-year-old took the first weekend of Austin City Limits by storm, performing for an enthusiastic crowd at Zilker Park on Friday, October 4. Before hitting the festival’s T-Mobile stage, Peña sat down with Us Weekly to dish on his experience on The Voice, his plans for album No. 2 and his dream collaboration.

“Ever since I was a kid it’s been The Lumineers,” he exclusively told Us. “It still is.”

Peña got his first taste of success after auditioning for season 9 of The Voice in 2015, wowing coaches Adam Levine, Gwen Stefani, Blake Shelton and Pharrell Williams with his rendition of Ed Sheeran’s “I See Fire.” At just 15 years old, Peña earned a place on Team Adam and made it to the live playoffs, learning what it takes to have “a steady career in music” once he eventually branched out on his own.

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Peña dropped three EPs before releasing Ever-Shifting, Continual Blossoming in September. He celebrated his debut album while touring with blues rockers Kaleo, who he said made him “feel like part of the family” on the road.

Less than one month later, Peña already has his sights set on his next project. “We’re doing [ACL] and then we have two days [off],” he told Us. “Then we fly to London [for] our Europe tour. So, we’ll be there for a month and then probably after that I’ll write some more … and have something else ready to go before the next tour.”

Keep scrolling for more from Peña — including how he ended up contributing to a hit John Legend song:

Us Weekly: You’re from Texas, was it always a goal of yours to play this festival? How does it feel to be [playing ACL]?

Chance Peña: It feels very exciting. It’s probably the coolest festival, from what I’ve seen so far. Just all the backstage stuff. Growing up, we were not a festival family. I went to my first festival last year when we played Bonnaroo, then I’ve done a bunch this year. It’s cool. It’s fun. Just hanging out back here, running into other artists and stuff like that.

Us: You got your start on The Voice a few years ago, what lessons did you take away from that experience?

Chance: It just taught me to work hard. That it’s not easy. I think having a steady career in music just takes a lot of consistency and a lot of passion in surrounding yourself with good people because I feel like there can be a tendency to try to do it all on your own and try to maybe not work as hard as you should. People say the music industry is cutthroat — and it is — but I don’t know. You gotta push yourself.

Us: Do you still keep in touch with anyone that you met on the show?

Chance: I got a couple buddies that I keep in touch with. My buddy Zach Seabaugh, one of my best friends now, we met on The Voice. He’s on tour right now doing his thing, but he’s kickass.

Us: You also contributed to a John Legend song, [“Conversations in the Dark”], can you tell Us how that happened?

Chance: So, initially that song was for me. I did a writing trip to New York when I was 18. We wrote a few songs and that was one of them. And I ended up not putting it out. It’s probably a year later, the producer texted me, he’s like, ‘Can I call you in a little bit? I have something to tell you.’ And I kind of thought it’d be something exciting. He called me, he [was] like, ‘John Legend wants to put the song we wrote on the album.’ And that was kind of that. I was 19 at the time. I was just freaking out. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. And it’s still very cool. Just random. I think that plays into the whole consistency thing. I was just writing a lot of songs with a lot of people, and one of them happened to do something really cool.

Us: Did you get to meet him at all through that experience?

Chance: Never got to meet him. When I do, I have an icebreaker.

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Us: An amazing icebreaker! Your album just came out, it’s incredible. Have you heard from any other artists who have listened to the album?

Chance: Nothing specifically about the album, but I mean, definitely this year I’ve just ran into people. We went on tour with Kaleo, just got done with that run, and I’ve loved their music for so long and they’re just all such good people. Over that month, we all got really close and, you know, became buddies with everybody. That was cool. That was, like, best case scenario, you know? Because you can look up to somebody in their music and it’s nice that their hearts are as good as their music is. That was a really cool thing.

Us: Any other highlights to share from that tour?

Chance: Oh, I don’t know. I mean, overall, it was just fun. ‘Cause like I said, they made us feel like part of the family and just my band is such good people. I have a couple of my buddies on [the road] with me, my brother [and] my girlfriend, [Lydia Kaseta], who’s also an artist, is in the band. We’re just a traveling family, you know? And it’s just been so fun to go through all these, the highs and the lows together. … It’s the best. It’s so fun.

Us: When do you start thinking about the next album? Do you give yourself a break before jumping back in?

Chance: No breaks. Because I just start writing songs. I’m like, ‘These are cool.’ And I just kind of keep track, make a note, or write ’em down. I think right now I have five so far for whatever the next project’s gonna be.