Don't Look Back

Don’t Look Back is the debut retrospective 5-song EP by Chena Kovax recorded and produced over a span of 8 years. In those years Chena was studying in Pittsburgh, PA, coming into her own as an artist - singing back up for local icons like Gene Stovall and playing with contemporary greats like Daru Jones. 

Eventually she made her way back home to New York as a young 20-something and with time, healing, and intention, matured into a confident creative; writing, producing and gigging with other artists at legendary venues like NYC’s Webster Hall and Harlem’s The Shrine. 

Nearly a decade later, in collaboration with MH the Verb and JSBeats of The Nobody People, that original collection of songs written and recorded many years prior was reviewed, refreshed and remastered. The 20-minute project re-introduces Chena as the unique solo artist that her long-time listeners have grown to know and love.

Genre-breaking and ahead of its time Don’t Look Back features a romantic yet haunting blend of Rock, Folk, RnB and Trip-Hop that chronicles the emotional rollercoaster of love that is lost and found. 

Workshopped on the now defunct stage of Pittsburgh’s beloved Shadow Lounge Performance Café, with her then Portishead cover band, “Glory Box” - Don’t Look Back was later recorded with local friends and collaborators like Emmy Award winning producer Emmai Alaquiva, at his historical East Liberty studio YaMomzHouse. 

Its first single, Cashmere is the EP’s earliest track. The song was written and recorded in 2008 in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania home of late friend, DJ and Producer Reese Vex Brown. When he tragically passed in 2021 she knew she had to release the track and all the great work from that time in her life that only she and a few friends listened to in virtual secret.

Despite learning how to DJ, writing, producing, choreographing and even featuring for other artists, it wasn’t her own fear and doubt that kept Chena sitting on these songs for so long. Kovax worked in the industry after returning back to New York and presented her music to multiple Grammy Award winning producers. They didn’t get her; told her she had to pick a lane; chose a space in order to be more marketable. Over time she watched as artist after artist broke with lo-fi boundary bending records that she felt was in the vein of her sound. 

Finally after lots of inner work, support from her community, and a whole new music industry at her fingertips, Chena Kovax is excited to be releasing her first EP called Don’t Look Back. No longer hiding, she hopes this record will encourage others to allow themselves to be vulnerable enough to share their truth, their art and their pain with the world; to believe their story is worth being told and to rebel against the machine that tells us all to play small. It is through this act of collective courage that we can all heal, together, one day at a time.