Artist Of The Week #182 - Chloe Rodgers
This weeks Artist of the Week is fast rising alt-pop artist Chloe Rodgers has just released her highly anticipated EP ‘Back To The Quay’. While her earliest work saw her explore a more electronic aesthetic, ‘Back To The Quay’ has allowed Chloe to venture into a more organic territory, regularly swapping out synth-laced production for a more acoustic direction throughout. Elevating her distinctly lilting voice, this new material offers the next step in her powerful musical evolution, delivering more of that vivid and progressive sound from start to finish.
Chloe took a moment to talk to us about how the EP came together.
Hey there Chloe, how are you? So your debut EP is out now - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
Hiya, I’m great thanks! It feels brill. It’s taken ages to put together because of the lockdowns. We were trying to finish it all year and struggling because we couldn’t be in the same room. Also because I was having trouble with my voice in the spring & summer and it took a while to get it back to normal, so to finally finish it and get it out there feels great.
It is titled ‘Back To The Quay’ - does that have a certain meaning behind it?
Back To The Quay is the title track because it’s the song from the EP that is closest to my heart. I wrote it after losing my papa, who was such a huge part of my life. He taught me to tie my shoes & ride my bike, inspired me to sing and encouraged me to be myself.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative process you are happy to share with us?
So bits of it were recorded in London with Anders (my producer) and bits of it were recorded in Nottingham either from my room or at Soundwave studios. BTS stories, hmm… well I’m not sure if this is going to be TMI, but there are alternate versions of Bones and Free Your Mind that got binned. Those were the songs that took the longest to finish because my voice was just not playing ball. I re-recorded the vocals so many times but I wasn't in a good place mentally. I eventually ended up being diagnosed with OCD. Finding this out made so many of my problems make so much sense and I started to feel like there was gonna be a better way out. I started getting my voice & creativity back and starting to handle things better. I had a few sessions with Anders and we upgraded both Bones and Free Your Mind by a thousand levels. I’m in a much better place now emotionally, musically, creatively, spiritually, all of it. And I’m working on some more music that captures this time period as well as the new found positivity I’ve got.
What are the key themes and influences on the EP?
I think the EP is quite eclectic in terms of its energy, lyrics and sounds but I think it’s tied together by my voice, Anders’ mixing / keyboard work and the raw emotional places that they come from.
Do you have a favourite lyric on the EP? If so, which one and why?
It’s a bit hard to pick… I think the choruses for each have my favourite lyrics. So with Better View “I dreamt I was a bird and I could fly away with you; I could see for miles but you were the better view”. I just really love that imagery and I feel that way about my partner right now. With Back To The Quay it’s “like my lighthouse out in the sea, there to lead me safely back to the quay”. Again I just love the metaphor of my papa being a lighthouse to guide me to safety as he was always there to look out for me. (Feels like I’m writing a PQA paragraph in English lit). In Bones I just like the kind of dark, sinister energy in the line “Bones in the yard.” And in Free Your Mind I like the transient, flowing. psychedelic images that come into my mind when I hear the lyrics “we get swept away, and we change our shapes, we fly far away, and our accents change. In time we are fading”. These lyrics acknowledge the evolution of all of our characters as we lose some parts of ourselves and gain new parts, and these lyrics look forward to change with positivity.
Now the EP is out there - what next for you?
So as I mentioned I’ve got plans for some music I want to write about the tumultuous year I’ve had, and I have some exciting ideas about a concept album to start working on as well as a few singles in the meantime. Now that I’ve had my first headline show in Nottingham I’m hoping to start playing some more shows with my full band and get some festivals booked in as well.
