Music, Pop Culture

Chloe Ament Wrote An Entire EP About Her Favorite Books, Read About Her Music Here

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Chloe Ament

This is an interview done with Chloe Ament, read her story below! If you, or anyone you know, would like to be highlighted in The Zillennial Zine, shoot us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com or DM us on Instagram!

Q: Tell us your story! Where did you begin and how did you reach the caliber you’re currently at?

A: About two years and I started this TikTok account where I would post videos about my favorite books and movies, and, shockingly enough, people actually started following me. Honestly, it wasn’t until I started that account that I realized pursuing music could be a possibility for me because whenever I would live stream myself singing or post a video of an original song, I’d get such a supportive and encouraging response from viewers. So, this past June I worked with my older brother, Patrick, and the two of us released a single together called “Alternate Ending,” a song that was heavily inspired by two characters in a book I had just finished reading, Shadow and Bone. When I posted about it on my TikTok, it got a lot of attention because so many people loved this idea of writing songs inspired by books since it made it that much more relatable for them (if they’ve read the book the song was about). My brother and I decided to keep going in that direction and by the end of the summer, we had written and recorded an entire EP with a few of our friends, where each song was inspired by a different book. I posted a video about it on TikTok a week before its release date and it managed to get half a million views! That still blows my mind.

Q: What makes you love what you do? How long have you been making music? Would you call it your passion?

@cjament

i wrote this and i’d appreciate it if you could just idk like it – #fyp #foryou #originalsound #ProjectCar #singing #sadsong #pickedbydixie #trending

♬ original sound – chloe ament

A: For me, what makes music so enjoyable is being able to share it with people. I’ve been singing and writing poems and lyrics since I was in elementary school, but I’ve only ever felt the drive to create more when I can share or work on it with others. It’s always so exhilarating to see someone else’s response to something you’ve spent so long working on. I grew up in a musical family, so I like to think that my fate was practically sealed before I could walk, but I didn’t actually start making my own music until my junior year of high school in 2019. I remember listening to “All I Want” by Olivia Rodrigo for the first time and being so taken with her lyrics and melodies that I decided that I wanted to be able to do the same thing. Ever since then, I’ve written as much as possible – it’s become kind of therapeutic. Over the summer, I began writing with my older brother and the two of us realized that our musical preferences sort of complement each other. Now, he produces everything I write.

Q: What are some accomplishments or milestones you’ve reached lately?

A: Well, a few days ago we hit 60,000 streams on my EP “Daisies,” which is a huge milestone for us because it’s been out for less than a month and had already passed the two singles we put out prior, Alternate Ending and Ghost. I know that 60,000 still isn’t a lot compared to many of the successful artists out there, but I’m still so happy to have reached it.

Q: Tell us about Daisies!!

A: There’s so much to unpack here! I’ll try and give you a small history of each song.

Cliché: So, after my brother and I released Alternate Ending in June, we immediately began working on our next project, which he was convinced needed to be an EP or an album. At that point, we both decided that whatever we were going to work on should be something more collaborative from the start. One day, Patrick came to me with a melody he had come up with on the piano and he told me we should write the song together, so that’s exactly what we did – we sat down in the living room, him with his guitar and me with my notes app open, and we wrote Cliché. I remember listening to the instrumental and knowing that the song was the embodiment of the enemies-to-lovers trope, so I chose my favorite enemies-to-lovers couple, Jude and Cardan from The Cruel Prince, and started working on the lyrics!

Stranger: I wrote this song on my bedroom floor months before we started working on Daisies. This song’s lyrics are definitely more personal than others I’ve written because I wrote them when I was having a tough time and really wanted to talk about it but felt that I didn’t really have anyone to turn to. I can remember wanting to write about the how I was feeling but didn’t think that I, alone, would be able to do the song justice, so I decided to base the lyrics on yet another book couple, Maxon and America from The Selection. Originally, I had imagined it to be a slow and somber song, but my brother had other plans…

Back to You: This song was written about two characters, Kaz and Inej, from the book Six of Crows – it was actually the first song that I had written upon request from my Tiktok followers. I remember I really had to sell my brother on this one, but I’m really happy with how it came together – I like to think that it’s the sister song to “Alternate Ending.”

Ghost: I wrote this song right after I finished rereading New Moon last fall. Actually, I was on a huge Twilight kick at the time and remember thinking that I wanted to write a song that I could imagine playing in the New Moon movie where Bella is staring out her window watching the seasons pass after Edward left her. We had to cut some verses because I got a little carried away and had some trouble streamlining the song, but my brother and I both really loved this one, which is why released it as a single before the EP!

The Water is Fine: So, this one has a little bit of a story behind it. Back in December of 2020, my brother was in a band with a few of his friends and he came to me because he wanted help writing a duet with really intricate harmonies. He brought me the lyrics of “The Water is Fine,” and the two of us sat down together – me creating a melody and him creating the instrumental. Honestly, the number of demos we have for this song is insane; me and my friend, Angelo (the guy who sang the male part), must have recorded it at least three times before our final recording session. In fact, when we had that final recording session, it was about ten o’clock at night and we decided to record it on a whim and thank God we did because it was… ethereal. Literally, just recording the backing vocals gave us goosebumps – the song just had such a beautiful process and a beautiful outcome. Unlike the other songs on the EP, this one wasn’t originally written about a book, but when we started working on it for the EP, I realized how it told the story of these two characters, Lira and Elian, from the book To Kill a Kingdom.

Daisies: I can remember writing the song “Daisies” with my friend, Allison – we locked ourselves in my room and I played this melody for her on guitar that she ended up really liking. She came up with the idea to write the song about Rue and Katniss in The Hunger Games, and the next thing I know, she has this beautiful set of lyrics ready for me to sing. It’s probably my favorite song on the entire EP.

Q: Do you have any advice for someone who is starting out in the music industry?

A: If I had to give someone advice about pursuing music, I’d tell them that everyone’s journey is different. It’s so easy to think that in order to be ‘successful,’ you have to be exactly like every other famous singer or influencer out there – that you have to have the same start, write the same kind of music, dress the same way, etc. – but that’s not true at all. My brother and I record and produce all our music in the basement of our home or in a college dorm, which, while it doesn’t seem very “professional,” has proven to work just fine for us. I tend to fall into the trap of trying to mimic other artists or think that I’ll never make it if I don’t model my music and life after other successful artists, but what’s really important to understand is that no two stories look the same. I don’t need to become Billie Eilish or Taylor Swift or Phoebe Bridgers because the world already has them – what the world doesn’t have is Chloe Ament. It may sound cliché, but just be yourself. Also, be patient with yourself. Don’t give up if you release something and it doesn’t do as well as you anticipated! When my brother and I released “Ghost” as a single, it did so poorly, I was seriously considering quitting music and owning it all up to a childish pipe dream but thank God I didn’t, or else we never would have released “Daisies!”

Q: What do you want our readers to know about you and your music?

A: I feel like it’s important that I say that you don’t have to read the books that the EP is about in order to understand the songs! I’ve had a surprising number of people reach out to me and ask if the song would spoil the book if they haven’t read it yet, and I have to clarify that the music is more about the feeling that I got while reading, not really about the plot itself. I write about things that I’ve read and things that I’ve watched because I don’t have much life experience to write about, but that doesn’t make the songs any less meaningful or authentic to me. Hopefully, in the future, I’ll be able to share more songs about reality than fiction, but I guess you’ll have to wait and see!

Q: Anything else you would like to add?

A: This is only the beginning. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but I feel that “Daisies” was just a taste of what my brother and I are capable of accomplishing. I’m so excited to share our next release with you guys… keep an eye out on October 29th!

Go Check Out Chloe Ament!

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3bAJYz1UylrqS4DgaU9aOu

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/chloe-ament/1572205998

Instagram: @cjament

TikTok: @cjament

How much do you love Chloe Ament and her music? Let us know in the comments below!

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