Today we’d like to introduce you to Chloé Caroline.
Hi Chloé, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born and raised in Manhattan Beach, California in a home where I was constantly surrounded by a variety of music from the Stones to Sinatra to Fleetwood Mac and Dolly Parton–but a ton of 70s influence for sure. My father, who’s own dad was also a singer with his own radio show, was also in bands and therefore always making up songs and playing himself as well. I was always very drawn at a young age to melody and lyrics that were far deeper than you think a child would understand, but when I listened I just felt beyond connected to how they made me feel. I sang and made up songs around the house to make my sister laugh constantly and when I was six, I began piano lessons and wrote my first song. However, I wasn’t the kid singing at state fairs, I took choir and sang at the talent show once a year and beyond that was very much a bedroom singer but I loved it so much. Creative writing was always right there alongside as well. I would create storylines and started writing “chapter books” in 4th grade because I loved getting lost in my imagination. I turned to poetry when I was 11 after getting very sick and in such isolation, it became my solace. I realized they could be turned into melodies and that’s when songwriting became my friend, as a means to express everything I was feeling or as a form of escape at such a pivotal moment in my life. I taught myself guitar at that same age and that’s when my music became more than just a hobby, I felt pulled to it.
I loved that it was universal and I loved that there was something in it for everybody where we all belonged. I was always the floater in school relating to all sorts of people and always befriending the new kids so they had a friend. Once I got sick, I especially knew what it felt like to be alone and it made music that much more beautiful to me. I felt understood. I was a regular high school kid involved in various school activities, I owe cheerleading a lot of credit in my ability to perform in front of a crowd. When I was 17, I recorded a couple of demos of my original songs because as I posted them all on Facebook, I would go to school and my friends would come up to me mentioning how much they related to them and wished they could listen. That really reinforced that music was something I needed to pursue further. I graduated and immediately moved to Nashville at 18 not knowing a soul. From there, I began my career while also studying Music Business at Belmont University, working and interning at record labels and publishing companies. I became an even better writer constantly writing alone but also suddenly co-writing with other producers, songwriters, and artists old and young–anyone who’d write with me. I made an EP and started building a fan base on social media originally through an app called Pic Collage where I could post my YouTube videos within collages and kids from all over had never seen an artist on the app.
300k followers later, I was connecting one on one with almost everyone, responding to every comment, message and due to that interaction built a solid foundation where they trusted me and felt related to. That transitioned over time to Instagram and Twitter as well and when I became the first indie artist with a song added to Radio Disney and Disney Channel as well as Nickelodeon, it helped even more. Growing up with a dad who worked in film too also made me love the film/tv world and I made it a goal to write for placements. Though I hoped to be known one day in Nashville, my goal was always to think bigger not focus on being the cool kid there–build an international fan base, write for film and TV, etc. Since 2014 I’ve released at least two albums of material, had various film placements, acted in movies with my music, and am now rebased in LA but floating between both there and Nashville with every intention of continuing to pursue my dreams while spreading light and hopefully making people feel more understood. I called my sound a New Southern California sound and I think it is a fresh lane for pop that ties together the old, the new, the real, the synthetic, the storytelling and the imagination. Like California, it’s a melting pot authentically Chloé that (I hope) makes you want to drive down PCH.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’m not sure it ever is! It’s a career that relies so much on pure passion, persistence, and faith. For me, my biggest turning point came two years after I graduated college. For so long, I had been in this state of management—trying to have a hand in maintaining “balance” in every area of my life that I was drained. I felt stuck because even though I was doing everything I was supposed to do, having success, and growing, I wasn’t satisfied with the present moment. I was always looking at what to do next distracting myself from the fact that I wasn’t really living or listening to my intuition that maybe some big leaps needed to be made that would require me to let go in some areas so I could make room and level up to what I felt I WAS ready for. I had been sleeping on my own happiness for a while, not realizing that part of being a better artist AND person meant experiencing more than I was allowing myself to have by holding on so tight.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a singer-songwriter but I also act as well. I like to think of myself overall as a creative and entrepreneur but music has been my ultimate love and where most of my career has focused. Being an old soul and also a free spirit, that intention and light is interwoven in everything I do. I am most proud overall of being able to create with vulnerability and put my most authentic self out there regardless of it maybe not being what others are doing, or even traditionally trending… yet 😉 But really, I love that if I get to put a smile on one person’s face who really needed a friend just by being freaking real, I did my job. I also don’t think there’s a female in pop right now with the sound I’ve been working so hard at creating. You have male artists like Harry Styles and Shawn Mendes who have such a cool combo of real instrumentation in their pop songs as well as paying homage to the past, and that’s where mine fits in its own West Coast vibey way. My new single/music video “Ready” I am also very proud of because it’s inspired by my own journey of taking a leap of faith and it’s been so fun watching it inspire others to do the same.
What does success mean to you?
Success to me has far less to do with a desired outcome or expectation and everything to do with choosing to lead with love and truth over anything else. Anything you do coming from that place is successful because it’s grounded in authenticity. The outcome, big or small, can’t be measured if it comes from what and where the intention was placed to begin with. Of course, I would pass out if I got to play on stage with Stevie Nicks or have a world tour with a number 1 song, but truthfully my main reason I wrote the song is the same: write something from my heart and soul. If it reaches millions, sick. If it reaches one girl in her room in Ohio or Mexico City, sick. The success lies in having a finished song that I created with honesty.
Contact Info:
- Email: Manager: Lindsay Fellows – [email protected]
- Website: www.chloecaroline.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/chloecaroline/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chloecarolinemusic
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/imchloecaroline
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/chloecarolinemusic
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/chlo-caroline
- Other: http://spoti.fi/2GsiP9S
Image Credits:
James Lamar
