Her rehearsal space, affectionately referred to as The Music Room, is Thea’s cosy hideaway; the place where she can shut herself in with only her piano for company. This, one can safely assume, offers the perfect situation for her fingers to freely tinkle the ivories and her creative juices to wander. Indeed, Thea’s Music Room is where she has written many a song and rehearsed for her performances, but it is also where she teaches her students about the joy of music. For the

Ahead of the official launch of her Tuxedo EP tomorrow, Chess tells Michael Bugeja about her musical journey so far, the benefits of crowd-funding and her plans for 2014. It might seem like 2013 was a quiet year for upcoming artist Chess, but a closer look will reveal otherwise. Not only did she release the Babygirl remixes (which did well in Greece during the summer), she also put out a music video for her song Storm and hooked up with local producers Re-Ne & ER on the dance

There’s been a lot of studying, a lot of gigging and a lot of collaborations happening in the musical journey that upcoming artist Chess chose to undertake when she relocated to the UK just a couple of years ago to follow her dream. The London-based Maltese singer and songwriter says her decision was hard to make, but she has no regrets. “For anyone with dreams of having a music career, it’s the best place to be,” she says, referencing the British capital’s eclectic mix of cu

What do Jo Micali, U-Bahn, Muxu and Carlo Gerada have in common? The answer is, of course, they’ve all worked with Maltese vocalist Chess, each production turning out to be a resounding success every time to the point that despite being based in the UK, Chess is quite a familiar and in-demand name within the local dance and pop scene. The decision to move to the UK was, as one might expect, not easy, but for Chess, it was the only way forward. Music is her dream and the only

Chess (real name Francesca Galea) has been living and studying music in the UK since last September. Without a doubt, one of last year’s more popular pop tunes from the local scene was a slinky R’n’B number called Stilettos by a new artist calling herself Chess.Urban music, however, isn’t the only groove this young lady is good at, as we found out later when she popped up again on the airwaves as the voice on Jo Micali and U-Bahn’s Making You Mine, a massive club hit. Pop mus