Chelsea Todd was born in 1988, the 2nd of 5 children. She was raised in Bradford, Ontario, Canada. Music was always on at home, and her Mother taught her some piano. They found she had a knack at learning pop songs by ear, but didn’t study music formally.
Inspired by metal bands like Lamb of God, Metallica, Pantera and System of a Down, Chelsea began teaching herself drums in 2003. She played in private, up until 2005, following the sudden death of her Mother.
To cope with the grief, Chelsea dropped out of school to try to launch a band, called Axiom. When the band broke up in 2007, she was unable to hold her mental health together. Her older brother helped her to move out of their Dad’s home in order to focus on her health, and build a career in education.
Just as she began revisiting her passion in 2014, her journey was interrupted by another family crisis. She began supporting their Father through early onset dementia.
• Fall 2017: Chelsea and her partner of 10 years have a child. Chelsea says this was the catalyst to play music again. She began studying with Drumeo on her own and visiting hourly rental studios to build some chops.
• Fall 2018: Chelsea finally reconnected with an Axiom guitarist to join metalcore band Dead Beyond Fear, with whom she recorded an album called “Malice for the Hated Enemy.”
During this time, Chelsea had discovered her child had a lifelong medical condition called TSC. This posed another serious setback. The COVID-19 Crisis also postponed band efforts in 2020, so Chelsea reset her aims toward her son, her personal improvement and single/ co-parenting.
• Spring 2021: Chelsea was invited to join a glam/prog band, It Cometh. They are currently writing a concept album to be released in 2023 and are playing the South/Central Ontario network.
• Winter 2022: Chelsea launched a professional Instagram and TikTok drum page under the name “@ChellfireDrumz” to share clips of drum covers or studio time. She also departed from Dead Beyond Fear.
• Fall 2022: Chelsea joined forces with Dana Bowman of Death Perception, to start a band called Death Club, who are expected to release an album in 2023.
Chelsea recalls, “It was difficult to make stable, consistent effort needed in order to achieve the speed, stamina and creativity to contribute to a metal band, so I had to put my dreams aside, temporarily. As the Internet grew, seeing female drummers gain spotlight globally, I had to reflect deeply and decide that I would do this for myself, and stop measuring my efforts to another person’s level of success. Just being a part of a band and creating/performing music is the reward, rather than the stats or recognition on a global platform. I acknowledge there are many people who can’t follow their passion, for health or family reasons. Fortunately, I am able to try several times, and my “attitude of gratitude” helps me stay grounded during setbacks that arise.”