Although lockdown presented the perfect opportunity to dive headfirst into defining her own sound for herself, it was a challenge for Chloé. “Lockdown was a bit much for me because it was everything that I hate. I had to force myself to do all the content that I don’t really enjoy, like mixes aren’t my favourite thing to do in the world and I hate doing livestreams. What I love is going out and playing to people.” She was also dealing with several worsening situations in her personal life; as a winter lockdown began looking more and more likely in the UK, Chloé’s living situation became expensive and unstable, and she found herself in a bad headspace. So, she booked a ticket to Mexico at the start of October. “I didn’t really say bye to anyone,” she says. “I told a few people, but I didn’t want to worry anyone. I wanted to escape and not be a burden.” She backpedals a bit, justifying herself as she speaks: “I know that you’re not a burden when you’re in a bad headspace, but I just didn’t really want to be around anybody.”
She flew to Tulum, and then when that became a popular site for pandemic raves, she moved an hour away. After that, her thought was: “may as well go and live in Colombia for a bit.” Cos why not? The lockdown conditions in Medellin, where she eventually ended up, were difficult, with a strict curfew imposed over the weekend and from 5:PM to 7:AM the next morning during the week. Though intense, Chloé treated it as time out rather than an extended holiday. “I just wanted to be existing somewhere. I felt really privileged to have this time. And I feel like I remained relatively calm. In the UK I was stressing so much about stuff that was out of my control. I just slowed down and enjoyed the privilege of not having anything to do.”
Read this next: Reclaiming Medellín from gang rule has transformed the Colombian city’s music scene
The time away seems to have given Chloé a renewed sense of self-assurance, a deep embedded knowledge that whatever she chooses to do in music, she has enough of a professional support system that she’ll weather the changes. This translates to her approach to the label arm of her nightlife brand Pretty Weird, which she’s building up gradually with a more regular release schedule and plans for roster parties: her next solo release on the label will be from DJ ADHD himself, and she hints that her previous artist release Nikki Nair and DJ ADHD have linked up for a collaboration. In terms of progressing Pretty Weird, Chloé says, “I haven’t really got a strict ethos for it. I’d quite like to keep finding new names. It’s a bit more exciting like that, so I’m going to keep going through my promos and I think I’ll come across some magic at some point.”
Fluidity seems to be Chloé’s way of proceeding in this new stage of her career. I ask what lessons she’ll be taking forward into the Chloé Robinson era from the Barely Legal era, and she issues the two main edicts of this new mature stage: “Keep it fun—not too serious—and don’t have any rules.” Simple, easy to remember, and perfectly sums up the Chloé Robinson approach to life. Whether it’s spending lockdown in Medellin or spicing up the house and techno world with a healthy bit of garage sprinkled into her sets, she’s clearly not afraid to follow her instincts. The difference is that now, a decade into her career, there’s a big crowd hypd to follow her lead.
Catch Chloé Robinson play back-to-back with Special Request at Warehouse Project in October
Jemima Skala is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Mixmag, follow her on Twitter
Credit: Source link
