A Quick Catch Up With KLOE

Glaswegian pop starlet with the world at her feet...

One of the most endearing things about KLOE is her honesty.

The Glaswegian pop starlet blew up at the tail end of last year, becoming an internet sensation with her lucid, lurid, synth pop productions.

Snapped up by a major, it's been a whirlwind ever since, with KLOE documenting her travels on social media.

Yet that honest, forthright viewpoint remains. KLOE's voice is fresh and direct, calling it as she sees it – because that's the only way she knows how.

Clash spoke to KLOE from her dressing room in Hamburg, a mere hours before she got on the flight to play our party at The Great Escape.

Here's how it went down.

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So, how's Hamburg?
Well, I don't know. I've just come straight from my dressing room, we've only been here an hour… but so far, so good! There's a red light district where they don't let girls in, apparently, so if you're a girl and you walk down the red light district in Hamburg you'll get attacked by all the sex workers… which is great! So, avoiding that. But no, we're with Charlie Puth on tour. It's been good. We were in Berlin yesterday, and the day before that, and then before that it was Belgium, Cologne, Munich. And then we're off to Amsterdam tomorrow.

How have you taken to the touring lifestyle?
Do you know, I love it. I genuinely love it. I kinda hate being back home now because I don't know what to do with myself. It's weird. I've got my best friend as my tour manager now, and it's just us two. It feels like we're backpacking through Europe, trying to find ourselves. We literally finished our degrees in our hotel room! We've been having a laugh, and it feels so normal. It's weird that I feel so normal about it, but I love touring.

Where's the best place you've been to? Apparently you love L.A.
I feel like the working part of L.A. was good, but I like a drink… and I'm still underage in America, so that part was not so good! Haha! I think my favourite place was Toronto.

What was it about Toronto that appealed so much?
The people are just so sound. I don't what it is… we've been there twice now, and the last time we were over was for Canadian Music Week, so we've got a few friends there now, we get along really well, and it feels dead similar to Glasgow. We went there the first time from L.A. and thought it would be quite similar to America but it's completely different – it's more like the UK than anything. And the people are really nice. Lots of Scottish people go over to Toronto and live there, so we met quite a few Scottish people. It really reminded me of back home, I think that's why I liked it so much.

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There's no egos or anything, it's really down to earth…

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Toronto is both quite big and quite small at the same time – everyone knows one another.
Totally. The music industry there is so tiny. We met our label over there and it's literally like six people or something – it's hilarious. Everyone is really nice. It's very different, it's not like the UK at all. All the bands, even the independent bands, are all friends with the A&Rs. It's weird. There's no egos or anything, it's really down to earth, and you don't get that LA or London bullshit. Which is cool.

Have you had a chance to actually write while you've been on the road?
It's been hard because every time I have a minute off I try to write. I came back from America and had four days off – then I went straight back down to London to write. I'm kind of in a weird purgatory land of… I don't know what the album is yet. And I feel like I'm getting… not frustrated, but I feel like after this I really want to take time and write by myself with two producers that I like. I've told everyone that's what June is going to be.

I say 'have a break' but having a break for me means writing by myself. So that's kind of what's going to be happening. June, and then we don't have anything – we've got festivals from July to September. And that's it, I don't know what's going to be happening towards the end of the year. But we've got loads of surprises planned.

Have you found yourself almost with too many possibilities at times?
Totally. I wouldn't sit here and lie to you, but I honestly don't know what I'm doing. Especially going to LA, which was super weird and intimidating. Not to blow my own trumpet but I actually got to work with really big people and a lot of them weren't nice. And it's kind of soul destroying to go there and have someone try and make you into this little thing. So a few times I've had to go to people and say: I wrote my own lyrics, I'm really sorry. You can still get your writing credit if that's what you really want, but I'm writing the song.

That sounds really disrespectful to the writing industry, and I love writers but I just don't think it suits me to write with other topliners. That's been really hard. But there's a producer from London called Lostboy, who's incredible. He's done my next single. And we're a similar age.

How did you meet Lostboy?
It was through the label but we have loads of mutual friends. He's the nicest guy ever, we just literally go to his house, and his room in North London is his studio. I hate going into big, fancy studios, it freaks me out. I prefer normal situations – have coffee, biscuits, smoke out the window!

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I get on better with older people sometimes…

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Is it an age thing, as well?
It's weird. I kind of feel like I've grown up really fast but I don't know if it's the age thing that's intimidating, it's more the back catalogue. If someone's worked with Pink or Beyonce you'll immediately think: shit, they're really good, they're better than me. It's the automatic response of an insecure teenage girl that's come from nothing, and then you're going over to this big studio in L.A. That's kind of what's intimidating for me.

I get on better with older people sometimes, because they're just funny. Like, this one guy I worked with in L.A., we wrote a song called 'The Bottle' because we sat and tanned a bottle of Japanese whisky… having a great time! Some people will be, like, you're on their clock – they won't care, and get their assistants to run around after them. It's funny to see how the other half live.

It's not for everyone, that life. So will these experiences inform the writing, do you think? Or will it be a blank slate when the tape starts rolling?
I don't know what it is, it's not so much the experiences you have on tour it's more being away from everything you know. In America I was an ocean away from all my troubles, there was literally nothing there – I could be whoever I wanted. Just having that feeling, that kind of freedom, it frees your head a bit. Obviously when you're travelling so much you spend a lot of time just stuck in a van, so it gives you a lot of time to think, and you're not having to go in to worry about going in to meet people all day. Like in London, you have two hours when you can think all day, and then it's the show.

It's good, it's helped me, being away, because it's cleared my head and now I know what I want to write about. And then it's like… I always get myself into trouble anyway. On tour, already there's so many stories that I can put down in songs when I get back and it'll be hilarious. And because I'm with my pals, as well, it's not really any different than when we go out in Glasgow, except we're in another country. So it's been cool.

I think it'll be quite easy to go back and write, because I feel like I'm ready to go out and actually do stuff. I wish I had the set up with me, but I don't because we don't have enough money for a microphone. We'll need to ask the label nicely! But yeah, I think we'll do some good shit when we go back.

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Catch KLOE at The Arch, Brighton tonight (May 19th) as part of The Great Escape.

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