Chloe Jane Has Stories to Tell From Those 'Sleepless Nights'

Her signature fusion of hipster-era EDM and Euro-pop glamor has already earned her the respect of music critics. But her debut album, Princess of the Night, will launch Chloe into her rightful place among the new generation of pop girls. In a time where fun, freedom and some good old millennial optimism is the new scorecard of pop, Chloe Jane is stepping confidently into the spotlight, ready to bring home gold.

Read our entire interview below.

So, congratulations on “Sleepless Nights.” It’s a gorgeous track. I’m especially taken by the lyrics. What inspired your songwriting process?

Well, I wrote “Sleepless Nights” during a time when I fell into very inspiring love. I met someone who I felt really connected with., The reason I felt connected with them is because they took all sides of me.

I grew up in New York, and I was bullied a lot at school because I was different. Doing my music, ice skating, posting videos online. I've always felt I've been judged my whole life, growing up, and then this person came into my life and I opened myself up. They lifted me up even more. They took all sides of me and lifted me up. When we first met each other, we basically didn't sleep. We're just up all night talking, and I didn't want to sleep because it felt so good to be with them.

It has the light and the dark, “Sleepless Nights.” You would think it's a painful, sad song. It feels too good to be awake to sleep. But it's a love song. It's an uplifting song. It's euphoric. I like to make music that's very uplifting, and to add light and inspiration to people's daily lives, because the world's so dark, right? Everything from my shows to my music to just my messaging, I just want to inspire younger people, all people, and bring a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.

The single is accompanied by some seriously slick ice skating visuals. I know this isn’t just a Winter Olympics homage - you’re a professionally trained figure skater. What’s the story behind your music video?

I had this wild idea that I wanted to do it on a frozen lake. It really happened when I met this videographer and director, Max Varenyk, through a mutual friend. I told him about this video idea, and I had this song. And he said, “yeah, let's do it. I've been looking for an artist who can ice skate. I've always dreamed of doing a project like this.” It was a big passion project for both of us, and we're like, Okay, well, where are we going to do it?

He called up his friend Vanessa Bowers, who is very big in the ice skating world. She's a choreographer on the UK show, Dancing On Ice. She travels the world skating on frozen lakes. She’s super viral for her [lake skating] videos; she knows all about frozen lakes. We called Vanessa, and she said we have to do it in Canada, in this place called Banff. They have about 200 frozen lakes in the area. But the thing with frozen lakes is they're very tricky to shoot. You have to be so lucky, because day to day, the conditions change based on the temperature, the climate, the wind. It was tricky to plan and organize because we didn't know which lake was going to be frozen and which would be safe to skate on or conditions would be good.

She went in [a few] days early and scouted, and then Max and I arrived. We had a safety woman, Michelle, there. It was minus 25 degrees outside. It was always also a dream to have a white piano in the setting. I called 30 different companies to try to find a white piano in this small area of Canada, and I found this one guy that has a piano shell, and you put a keyboard inside, so it looks like a grand piano, because no way you can get a grand piano on a frozen lake.

I found the solution and we stuck it in the back of our car. As we're opening it up, our hands were frostbitten when we set it up and it was sunrise, the perfect light was happening. And then we almost got arrested! This guy shows up. He's like, “What's going on here? Do you have a permit?” It was only four of us, a small team, and we're like, this is for content, and he was very nice. The Canadians are very nice.

What drew you to ice-skating as a child, and when did you decide to pivot from ice-skating to music making?

Well, I grew up figure skating. My parents put me on ice skates when I was three for the first time, amazing. I really got the hang of it fast, I guess. I started taking lessons, and then I was fully set on being an Olympic ice skater. So all of my middle school years, I'd wake up at 4am, go train before school, go to school and go straight back to the rink. I absolutely loved ice skating, and I was training, competing, traveling around the country.

Then, when I was 11, I started writing songs on the piano, because we had a piano at home, and I fell in love with music and writing. I had a lot of troubles at school with the girls, so I would be expressing my emotions through my songwriting, but also through ice skating. It was another way I could express myself through movement and performance. I fell in love with music, and then I started DJing when I was 13.

You have a pretty insane story there, I believe…

Paris Hilton gave me my first gig, opening for her at her children’s charity event. And then that introduced me to live music performance, DJing, singing. I had my own residency. Ice skating slowed down, but I still went all the time for fun. I just stopped competing.

Tell me about your inspirations, both sonically and aesthetically, in music.

I pull a lot of inspiration from the dance and electronic scene. I grew up in Ibiza, I spent a lot of time there when I was younger, so electronic music and the sounds and sonics really inspired me. I also grew up playing the piano. Being a musician, I've always combined both songwriting and melody with electronic music. Being able to fuse that with the energy of dance music and sound has defined my music. I grew up listening to Alicia Keys, but also David Guetta. Whitney Houston, but also, like… Tiësto!

I always try to focus first on the song, the storytelling, saying something that's important and meaningful to me. I've been doing this since I was 13, so I've tried many different genres and sounds, discovering who I am as an artist. I've been working really hard on an album of music.

Yes! Your debut album, Princess of the Night, is coming out later this year.

It is! I feel like that’s my alter ego, the princess of the night. The Princess meaning the soft, elegant, Swan Lake, ice skating, piano side; and the night being New York, grunge, downtown, club, late hours. It's these two sides of myself coming together, which makes sense, because I'm a Gemini.

I’m a Gemini too! What’s the story behind the formation of this album?

With this album, I’m bringing emotion and my story to the dance floor. Going through struggles and sharing that in pop dance music. It's okay to be different, to be yourself, because I grew up in a setting where it wasn't accepted who I was, and I feel like on the dance floor, it doesn't matter who you are, where you come from, who you love. And there's a lot of sad, more personal songs, but there's also songs that feel like my most empowered self. It's the balance of the two: having fun, but also keeping it real and vulnerable. It's this fine line. I've been blending these two worlds.

Pulling a lot of synths, Swedish pop sounds, arpeggiated basses, melodies, live strings. I got a whole orchestra on a couple of the songs with, like, EDM drops. It's really fun making this, and I'm very excited for the world to hear it.

Image courtesy of Chloe Jane