With two incredible, ethereal singles now released, we caught up Chloe Rodgers to find out a little more about the exciting young Nottingham artist.
Just two tracks into her young career, Chloe Rodgers is an artist that is drawing attention for her ethereal and atmospheric brand of pop, accented by the artists impossibly angelic voice. ‘A Delphian Lullaby’ and ‘Faces’ may, as of yet, be the only glimpses that we have into the artist, but they hint at a vast array of deeper ideas and talents that the artist possesses. There is an intangible, captivating quality to the artists sound. It feels immediately like an ocean that we have only really brushed the surface of. For all of its alluring aspects and spellbinding qualities of Chloe’s voice, there is almost an impending darkness that lurks above. The result makes for a sound and a project that sticks out as something to really keep an eye on and sink your teeth into.
As her second single is released and further establishes the talent and consistency of the artist and her memorable sound, we had a chat with the Nottingham-based artist and found out a little more about the person behind the music.
Who TF is Chloe Rodgers?
Not really sure to be honest. Ask me again in a year.
How long have you been making music?
Literally since I learned to talk. When I was learning to read at nursery I used to get feedback from the teachers saying I was learning but needed to just speak the words rather than sing them – I shit you not. And my papa always used to make up songs with me about the stories he’d read to me so I quickly learnt to do that on my own too. I’ve got lyrics in folders somewhere that I wrote at 4/5 years old that are just hilariously terrible. Stuff like “I’m sitting on the floor, it’s sparkly as well, it’s like my bestest friends, have cast a lovely spell” 😂
Why do you make music?
Because I love it. It’s been brought to my attention recently that music is just how we decorate time. For people who genuinely enjoy your music, it’s like you’re making those few minutes a bit more meaningful, colourful, emotional or just more nice for them, the same way an artist makes a little bit of space nicer or more thought-provoking for people. Even if it just gives them a catalyst for an emotion they’ve been needing to let out. & I want to do that for myself too.
What are your biggest influences?
I feel like I may have answered this in an earlier question… my papa was my biggest influence because of the story thing so I’ll just give an example. He made up a story for me when I was in year 1 about taking me to a banana shop and the shopkeeper lying about whether he had bananas in stock or not and we made up a song about it that still gets stuck in my head sometimes. I begged my teacher (Mrs Russel) for weeks to let me do a ‘show and tell’ to the class with a banana so I could tell everyone that story. He was the apple of my eye.
What would you say has been your best moment so far?
If you mean the best moment of my music career, I’d probably say when I supported a lovely and crazily talented American band called the Harmaleighs at The Bodega in Notts and in the middle of their set one of them announced through the mic that they had been nervous to approach me after I played because they thought I was so good! Hearing that from them just made my year. If you meant the best moment of life in general, I wouldn’t know what to tell ya. Maybe it was the time my papa was at our house & I took him for a nap (it wasn’t long after he came out of hospital after a brain op that went wrong so he wasn’t really himself anymore). I sang to him and I thought he was asleep, but then when I finished the song he poked his little head up and said “can you play me another one chlobo?” And that was really special.
How would you describe your sound to somebody unfamiliar with it?
Eerrrr. With regards to ‘A Delphian Lullaby’ and the next couple of singles we’ve got lined up to bring out, I’d say it’s ethereal and emotional indie music, with influences from Radiohead, Massive Attack etc. But we have some songs in the works that are nothing like that at all so I wouldn’t know how to summarise altogether.
What’s your dream “I’ve made it” moment?
If I’m allowed to be completely unrealistic, I’d say writing a song with Thom Yorke. If not, I’d just say it’d make me incredibly happy to be able fill my own fridge in my own house with money I’ve made just by making music. Is that even realistic though?? It’s hard to tell.
We love your debut release ‘A Delphian Lullaby’, could you tell us some more about it?
I started writing it ages ago, got about halfway finished and got stuck. Then a few months later I came together with Mollie Ralph and she helped me to finish it. To me it became about a relationship I was in at the time that was extremely toxic and hard to escape. It started out as just our voices and an acoustic guitar, which I really miss but I am also completely in love with the direction Anders & I ended up taking it in.
What should we expect to come from Chloe Rodgers?
Well, lots of music. I want to wander off on all the different musical tangents that I can. Besides that I don’t even really know what I even expect from myself so I couldn’t tell you.
And finally, who is your biggest fan right now?
Definitely my nana. She listens to my music every day, shows all her friends and gets sooo excited for me to the extent that it gets on my family’s nerves that she’s always talking about me, hahaha. Obviously there aren’t many gigs at the minute but she comes to pretty much all of them when I do have them. She sends me the loveliest messages about my music too, telling me it touches her soul. I really don’t know what I’d do without her.
