Chloe Caroline takes on Nashville
The debut LP from Chloe Caroline, “One Left Standing.”
Almost three years ago, Chloe Caroline left the South Bay’s musical DIY breeding grounds for Nashville, Tennessee — the site of the Grand Ole Opry and numerous ghosts of rock and roll’s past — to see just how far her already quickly evolving singer-songwriter aspiration could carry itself.
The Music City is distinctly different from Manhattan Beach, where Caroline often found herself in search of equally eager musical counterparts, and not only wrote, but also recorded every single note of her extensive catalog of songs in a bedroom at her parents’ house –- usually crooning in front of a video camera and then sharing her bedroom cuts on Facebook and with friends. What came out of those humble and early sessions was a ton of attention and a seemingly endless inspiration to write and perform her painstakingly personal tunes. Nashville was a chance for Caroline to seriously pursue the musical bearings she had gained in her South Bay hometown. She moved there to expand her style, to naturally grow her already blossoming musicality.
“With each song and video that I posted on Facebook and shared with friends, the more people would reach out to me and tell me how much my music resonated with them,” says Caroline. “I started to realize that my writing and songs were affecting other people, and that singing and songwriting was more than just a hobby to me, but rather something that I want to be my career.”
Now Caroline finds herself at the center of the city that has long been known as the “Songwriting Capital of the World.” Songwriters from all over the world have and continue to flood Nashville’s heavily saturated music scene to learn the art and share their passion of songwriting.
“I had only visited Nashville once, for orientation at Belmont University, but when I was there I saw a million people wanting to do the same thing as me,” says Caroline. “Which could seem discouraging or intimidating, which it kind of was, but at the same time, coming from Manhattan Beach, I didn’t have that many friends who were also songwriters, so going to Nashville, meeting all of these people who are so passionate about their music, and discovering the creative buzz around the city, I felt right at home.”
With her debut EP, One Left Standing, written, recorded and almost ready to be released, Caroline has made the most of short time spent in Nashville, not only learning the convoluted business side of the music industry at her internship at Black River Entertainment, but also closely collaborating with other local musicians and songwriters.
“Since coming to Nashville I’ve had the opportunity to start co-writing with a range of musicians, some indie-rock driven, others more in the country vein,” says Caroline, a Mira Costa High School graduate who recently returned to her hometown for the Costapalooza benefit concert. “Each collaboration proves another growing experience for me as songwriter, as I get to see how other musicians work and their process behind the words they craft and allows us to share the stories of inspiration behind each of our songs.” ER