MULTI-TALENTED HOUSTON BASED TRIPLE THREAT
PERFORMER’S DANCE, POP AND ROCK INFLUENCED DEBUT
EP ‘SUPERSTITIOUS’ IS PRODUCED BY LOUIS YOELIN,
WHO HAS WORKED WITH ROCK BAND VALORA AND
FORMER KSM SINGER AND EMERGING DISNEY ARTIST
SHELBY COBRA
* * *
Roberts, a Six-Time National Solo Dance Champion and
One of Music Connection Magazine’s Hot 100 Unsigned
Artists of 2012, Runs Her Own
Non-Profit Dance Academy for Kids from
Ages 5-18 in the Houston Area
On the supercharged dance/pop title track to her highly anticipated debut EP Superstitious, Shevyn Roberts (www.shevynroberts.net) sings playfully about astrological signs and the things presumed to bring us good and bad luck. In the infectious song, penned by EP’s producer Louis Yoelin, she may be looking up at the stars wondering which boy to hang with—but in real life, the multi-talented singer and dancer is fully grounded with an intense work ethic and a burning desire to get out there and spread her joyous sense of fun.
Fans in Roberts’ hometown of Houston have been feeling her vibe for the past few years. In 2008, her video for the song “Wild Child”—a track from her first EP, produced by Dave Carlock (P!nk, Nine Inch Nails)—aired on the city’s Hot TV. Later that year, she was a featured artist at Jingle Jam, a holiday time concert put on by 104.1 KRBE (Houston’s #1 Hit Music Station) that included performances by Rihanna, Chris Brown and Gavin DeGraw. The following March, the singer performed as the only featured artist at the Britney Spears concert pre-party at Houston’s House of Blues; she ended 2009 by opening for an about-to-explode Justin Bieber at the Verizon Wireless Theater. Roberts capped 2012 by being named one of Music Connection magazine’s Hot 100 Unsigned Artists of the year.
In the type of cool digital collaboration that can only happen in the 2010s, Roberts originally hooked up with Yoelin online and developed their tracks by recording her vocals in Houston after receiving fully produced tracks that he sent from his studio in Los Angeles. Yoelin is currently working with several other young breakthrough female artists, including the rock band Valora (Hollywood Records) and former KSM singer and emerging solo artist Shelby Cobra (Disney Records). In addition to writing and producing tracks for them, he helped them sign their label deals. Yoelin’s credits include singer BC Jean and song placements on numerous TV shows, including “How I Met Your Mother,” “Criminal Minds,” “The Hills” and “The Real World.”
Fully reflecting the unique chemistry between Roberts and Yoelin, Superstitious includes the clubby dance track “It’s On Tonight” (the one tune featuring her sharp rapping skills!), the edgy, relationship driven pop tune “Upside Down,” the free spirited, rock-influenced “King of My Prom” and the energetic rocker “Better Than The First Time.” The EP wraps with “Rock Wit U,” which finds Roberts’ sultry vocals chiming in after we hear the familiar sampled voice of the late Michael Jackson. That track was helmed by renowned Houston and Atlanta based producer Jay South.
During the few years she was developing her sound as an artist from the childlike, teenybopperish flow of her first EP to the mature and confident R&B on Superstitious, Roberts—a six-time National Solo Dance champion as a teenager with the American Dance/Drill Team School and Showtime International—in 2010 opened Shevyn’s Dance Academy, a non-profit organization for kids ages 5-18 offering ballet, jazz and hip-hop dance classes (all the styles that Roberts does). The school—originally located in League City, Texas, now in Kemah, near the Kemah Boardwalk in the Greater Houston Area—has worked over the past few years with several hundred students.
If things had worked out differently, for all of Shevyn’s later success as a dancer, actress and singer, she might have ended up an Olympic champion. When she was 8 years old, she was a competitive gymnast, training with legendary coach Bela Karolyi, and reached Level 7 in performance (10 is the Olympic standard).
Instead, her teen years were full of regional dance and drill team competitions and studio dance classes where Shevyn continually raised the bar for herself even as she won those many solo competitions. “My main thing was jazz and lyrical dance, contemporary dance,” she says. “Lyrical dance is a bit like ballet, sort of classical in feel but with more feeling. I would do routines to Whitney Houston and Celine Dion and put a lot of emotion into it. My teams traveled to different cities in Texas, including Houston, Austin and Dallas where the nationals were. What’s cool about the music I’m doing now is that as a live performer, pop/R&B still requires me to incorporate jazz into the mix. Hip-hop is part of it too, but it wasn’t my expertise, so I tell the choreographers to give me a jazzier style. We create a hybrid I like to call jazzy hip hop.”
Upon graduating from high school, Shevyn moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting—and quickly landed a spot on the Emmy winning soap opera “Days of Our Lives,” on which she appeared five times. She simultaneously went to acting school and the Hollywood Pop Academy, where she worked on developing her musical talents and quickly realized that she liked singing more than acting.
Despite her burgeoning success as a recording artist and performer, Shevyn hasn’t given up acting entirely. She recently starred in a romantic action film called “Because I Love You,” and appeared on the red carpet for its premiere in 2012. Other recent media activities include performing her music and being interviewed on the “Great Day Houston” TV show and appearing on the cover of Storm Magazine, which did an exclusive interview.
Speaking of her multi-faceted career, Shevyn says, “All of this has definitely been a fun ride, though it’s not all fun and games and involves a lot of hard work. It’s great to be part of the performing arts and being able to express myself creatively in so many settings. I can’t wait to get out there and perform more. I’m really excited about it!”
“Superstitious” is available for purchase exclusively at: www.shevynroberts.net
