She is a nursing major by day, but when class ends, she walks back to her dorm and strums her guitar, creating songs from thin air.

Annalis Chaves is a singer-songwriter and a freshman nursing major from Houston who just released her first single on Spotify titled “Midnight Eyes”. Chaves was able to get her single on Spotify because she recorded her song in a studio back home, using a company that uploads songs to major platforms.

The cover art for Annalis Chaves’ new single Midnight Eyes.

“The first time I performed ‘Midnight Eyes’ in front of people was at a music and arts festival,” Annalis said. “I was so nervous I was shaking and everything. But it was so cool because all of my friends were in the audience. I loved it.”

“Midnight Eyes” is a country song, but Annalis said she is still exploring what other genres of music she is interested in performing.

Though music has been a part of her life since she was a child, Annalis said it took her a while before she could perform and play instruments well. But once she got the hang of it, she fell in love.

“When I was a kid I had a little recorder, and I would play kid songs in the car,” said Chaves. “Then I picked up my brother’s guitar when I was in middle school and started messing around, but it was really bad. But what forced me to really learn was when I was in a worship band and all the guys graduated, leaving me with the four chords I know on the guitar. That’s when I really discovered my passion for music.”

Annalis said she is thinking about what she wants to do in the future because she is at a crossroads between pursuing a career in nursing or music. Though nursing is a more stable path, music is her passion.

“I really enjoy medicine and I really enjoy helping people so I picked nursing,” Annalis said. “Then I put my song out and realized maybe I really want to do music so right now I am seeing how I can balance them or seeing if I am just going to pick one.”

Annalis wrote her first song in the fifth grade; however, she said the song was terrible, and she stopped writing songs until she met a boy who was a songwriter in high school. Although she was influenced to begin writing songs seriously, she said her songs were not great until she found inspiration.

Annalis Chaves performs her single for the first time at Freshman Follies

“Last year when I started dating my boyfriend is where all of the inspiration came from,” Chaves said. “I just started writing, and all of this stuff came out of me, and I was like, ‘What the heck is this?'”

Annalis said writing songs came naturally, and her process begins by writing individual lyrics that she eventually changes and strings together to create a full song.

“I can’t just sit down and start writing; it just kind of comes to me,” Chaves said. “I feel like I’m bragging when I say this, but it’s definitely a God-given gift because I can’t even explain to you how I do it.”

While being a freshman can be challenging and busy, Annalis said this year has brought her more free time than she had last year to express herself through music.

“With college, you have your classes, but then you have whatever the time you have” Chaves said. “It’s given me more time to just sit down and mess around on my guitar, and maybe something will come out of it.”