Photo Credit: Jordan Keith
When watching Chloe Star’s music video for her first single “Element,” one thing becomes immediately clear: she’s a bad bitch. Bad in both the colloquial sense of being a gorgeous woman and in the literal sense of her maybe being a little dangerous — I hope those guns were fake, or at least rentals.
When her living breathing image was translated across our respective computer screens, her vibe was much more lowkey — lacking in metallic miniskirts and intense smokey eyes — yet the idea came across the same. She carries herself with an impressive amount of self-assuredness and I can’t help but be jealous of her. This is no coincidence: Chloe has spent a long time becoming the badass singer-songwriter she was meant to be.
Chloe Starr grew up going between Los Angeles and her parents’ native reservation. Though it was a turbulent situation, she found ways to express herself: “As a kid, I always loved music and growing up I journaled a lot,” Chloe recalls. “I didn’t know how to express my emotions. All I did know [how to do] was to write it out on paper and that was like a release for me. [I was] journaling everyday and that turned into writing poetry and that turned into ‘oh I can kind of turn this into a song.’” From those experiences, Chloe emerged as a natural songwriter. She started to teach herself how to play the guitar and piano in hopes of becoming a bonafide artist, but along the way she would have many false starts.
“As a musician you don’t get instant gratification and you feel like you’re constantly fighting and fighting and fighting. And me dealing with that on top of life struggles, I reached these points of like, I just need to take a second,” she says. “I needed to go through these phases where I was able to grow up not just as a human being but also as a creative person . . . I feel like those moments were so crucial to my creativity because now I’m in a place where I’m comfortable with who I am and what I write about. Now I do use every experience that I go through whether it’s happiness or heartbreak in my storytelling whereas before I wouldn’t have been able to tap into that vulnerability.”
“I [would do] projects then [take] breaks. I had gotten into making art during Covid which felt like I wasn’t really walking in my purpose fully. I kind of had this enlightenment of ‘I need to get back into music,’ . . .And here I am!”
Chloe still utilizes her journaling practice and her knack for the visual arts when writing — when she’s sitting down with her producers she’ll recall previous journal entries or art that she’s created to form an authentic emotional structure for her songs. “[My process] varies per the mood but usually I’ll have a producer in the room and he’ll pull up a beat or pull up something and I’ll start with melodies,” says Chloe, describing her process. “I’ll hop on the mic and start mumbling gibberish. Nothing makes sense and whatever I’m really feeling in that moment I’ll tap into that place I’m in. [Then I’ll go through my journal], I’ll be like okay I was feeling like this in this moment and I remember what it felt like, let me now use that in this song.”
Sometimes she’ll even have a specific art piece or visual that inspires her to channel its auditory form. “I had a studio session a couple of weeks ago and I had already walked into the room knowing what I wanted to write about,” she says. “I didn’t have the sound but I had the visual, so I was actually able to turn that into a sound so they both [work off of] each other . . . and that’s just how it works in my head.”
Thus far, Chloe’s process has resulted in a dynamic meld of her influences including Post Malone and Billie Eilish in a trappy anthem that boasts the confident, self-loving attitude she’s developed over the years. “I feel like my first single [Element] was a great intro to my fun confident bad-bitch self,” she says. “I wanted to come [out with] what I’m actually about, I don’t give a fuck about judgment or about what people have to say really. I feel very comfortable with myself.” However, the elements of “Element” are only the beginning of the musicality that Chloe has to offer.
When speaking of her upcoming singles, Chloe describes the vibes as very similar though the third single lined up exhibits her punk rock side as influenced by her favorite band Third Eye Blind.
Chloe’s next single, “Straight Girls,” an electro-pop/trap beat exploring sexuality, will be dropping March 17 along with a music video on the same day. It’s safe to say that the third single will be out some time afterwards, as Chloe plans to have the entirety of her debut EP out by the end of the year. “[I’m stoked on] my third single because that’s where you start to get the full grasp of where the ep does eventually come together,” Chloe says. “It’s a lot of storytelling about my experiences […] with relationships, friendships, having fun making mistakes and learning from those mistakes and growing up.”
Post-EP, the world is Chloe’s oyster. While she eventually hopes to tour the country — and more eventually, the world — her more immediate hopes lie with how she can make you feel. “I want the listener to feel more comfortable with their sexuality and [to know] that they can be who they are and not worry about feeling judged by others,” she says. “I definitely [hope I can allow] people to walk in their most authentic self.”
You can follow Chloe on all music platforms as Chloe Star and on Instagram and TikTok as @frenchtoastkiller. You can stream her newest single “Straight Girls” on March 17.