Who knew the girl who quit piano lessons at four years old would grow up to be a rock star?
Born Eva Hernandez but known for making music under the name Eva Kaleigh the Rockstar has come a long way since her musical journey started in Duluth, Georgia, a small suburb outside of Atlanta, Georgia. While Kaleigh quit playing the piano, she never stopped making music, teaching herself how to play multiple instruments.
Kaleigh moved across the country to attend USC to study psychology, music production, and the music industry, she began to see the power and importance of her voice. In her psychology classes, she was learning about depression and social issues that affect young people in our country. In her Black Music History class, she learned that so much of Black American music had been stolen and copied.
All this news knowledge, pent-up frustration, and passion from her childhood exploded as she released her first EP titled “Rhythm of Love” on September 15, 2023. Kaleigh states, “My music is very inspired by my life. Sometimes literally, but sometimes, I see a lot of things that my friends go through and my family goes through. And that’s also very inspiring to me. Because I’m a psych major, I feel like I do take an analytical mindset a lot towards life and my music.”
Like many young people who grew up in the South, Kaleigh’s first introduction to music was through her grandfather, who listened to soul and blues artists like Little Richard, Al Green, Etta James, and Muddy Waters. “I grew up listening to all of like, soul music, that rhythm and blues stuff. And like that is probably like my favorite genre ever” says Kaleigh.
Coming from a mixed background with a Black mother and Mexican father, she grew up hearing hip-hop and corrido, paying close attention to the stories and imagery. As she got older, her taste in music expanded into being a fan of the boy band One Direction, and even after the band broke up in 2015, Kaleigh still found herself watching the band’s old videos, imagining herself performing on stage, stating, “I wanted to do that, not only be on the stage. But I wanted to make the kind of music that he was making; I wanted to have that type of positive influence on the world.”
Her love for creating music was also deeply influenced by her upbringing in Atlanta, a vibrant city teeming with creativity and renowned for its music legends. Reflecting on her inspiration, Kaleigh shares, “Andre 3000 is one of my greatest influences in this regard. He seamlessly transitions from crafting rap anthems to soulful acoustic melodies on the same album.”
“Rhythm of Love” was an unexpected release from a young Black and Mexican girl in 2023. In a time when the media can barely accept that Beyoncé made an album that wasn’t R&B, Kaleigh shook the table by releasing a rock ‘n’ roll EP. While Kaleigh admits it herself, the influences of 60′s and 70′s artists like Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and the Beetles are clear.
Her smoky yet sweet voice is what makes her music stand out in the crowd. Her lyrics are relatable and show true to where she is in life as a college student, with themes of romance, relationships, and proving that she is the president of the campus Cannabis Club.
Kaleigh is right on time, as there is a renaissance for artists of color as they break down racial barriers about who belongs in what genres. After all, as Kaleigh states, “I don’t want it to continue to be that joke of, ‘Oh, you like rock music? That’s so white of you.’ Because I think that’s bull, music is not racial,” says Kaleigh “It’s not! It doesn’t abide by those lines. It’s a good thing for us to acknowledge the roots because that allows us to see, yeah, everyone can like this.”
As a self-producer and artist, Kaleigh has been performing all over Los Angeles to fund her musical career. A challenge that she takes head-on “Me personally, like, everything that I do as an artist is a direct, like, attack against my fear. I don’t respect my own fear. And so like, I’m always trying to push myself out of my comfort zone.”
Kaleigh has talent and an ear for music. Being so young, she has plenty of room to only get better. Kaleigh says that she has big plans for the end of the year. An EP that will be paired with a documentary that will highlight her creative process and her journey to its release.