Photo: Jimmy Fontaine
It’s a fine day for 17 year old indie pop artist [Chloe Moriondo](https://www.chloemoriondo.com) to release her new single, ”I Want To Be With You”. The track is a nod to high school crush nostalgia paired with a coming-of-age sensibility that can have a certain comfort in this moment of uncertainty.
Moriondo has been on the rise from the early age of 13 when she began covering songs on youtube and garnered attention from all over the world. Taking the steering wheel in her music career, and leaving her young self behind, she is now focused on creating her own music and entering the next phase of her journey. We got to chat about “I Want To Be With You” and life as a young artist in the music industry.
**Tell me about your headspace during all of these life changing current realities such as the pandemic?**
It's definitely been a little bit overwhelming, for me and for everyone right now. I just graduated high school right after the pandemic started happening. Jumping into a full work mode and trying to keep up with everything that is going on in the world as well not just here in my room, but in the entire country and the world is a little bit stressful sometimes. But it’s definitely a really great thing that I’m able to write my own stuff and I’m able to work right now, I stay pretty grateful about it even though sometimes it gets a little bit stressful.
**Has it affected the way you create music at all?**
For sure, I think everyone has been learning in their own ways and I wrote my own stuff alone in my room to begin with, but working with other people was a thing I started doing right as the pandemic started setting in. I have had to learn how to write and collaborate with other people remotely which is a little bit weird, but it’s fun.
**You started playing covers on youtube at age 13, and since then have grown into the artist you are today, what is it like to be in the music industry at such a young age?**
It’s weird it doesn’t even really feel real. I know there's a lot of other kids my age who have been doing music for a while, but it still feels really odd to me that this is finally it. This is exactly what I’ve been working for this whole time and now I can just keep going and keep working for it. It’s odd, but I try to look past all the overwhelming stuff and think that I have a lot more time now since I started so early.
**Tell me about your new single “I Want To Be With You”, what is it about and how do you feel about releasing it?**
“I Want To Be With You” is, along with “Manta Rays”, a pretty cathartic song. I remember I wrote it in LA on one of my first co writes ever and it was really nerve wracking. It feels like a high school crush to me, or at least trying to grow out of the feeling of a high school crush. It’s a weird little love song for kids who don’t really know what the hell they are doing.
**What is it like to be a queer artist, what kind of messages do you hope to send out with your music to listeners who might relate?**
I hope to provide some kind of safe space and some form of comfort and hope for queer kids and anyone who identifies as LGBTQ+ who want to make things for themselves and want to express themselves. That is something I have always believed in and has taken me to really great places so far and I have met a lot of really great people online and in real life. I would hope to send the message that it’s really important to just keep yourself open minded, be true to yourself and not think too much about other people's reactions to what you are going to do. I’ve changed a lot in the past few years since I was 13 making stuff on youtube, which is when a lot of people saw me and started liking my stuff, and I definitely had to not think about other people's opinions when I make changes for myself and when I do things a little bit different.
**What is your process like when you are creating music?**
My process has always been nothing super structured. I like to start with some sort of vibe if I’m working with someone else, if I’m working by myself it starts randomly, if I have an idea in my head or a melody and a bunch of words I’ve been singing I’ll start working on that myself. A lot of the time I start with fragments of ideas and start piecing them together.
**When do you feel the most invincible?**
When I’m doing shows. I hope to be able to do them again because I miss being on stage so much.
**What do you miss the most about getting to perform your music live?**
I started at the end of 2018 so it doesn’t feel like that long, but it’s been a couple years. I just got into it just enough that I miss it like hell now. Even though it's a little overwhelming sometimes as a 17 year old touring and putting yourself out there to other people and playing your stuff to hundreds of people is a little bit stressful sometimes, it’s one of my favorite things to do ever so I miss it a lot.
**Where do you see yourself in 5 years in regards to your musical career? Any goals for the future?**
I try not to keep too much of a goal-oriented mindset about music mostly because I don’t really know what I’m going to want or who I’m going to be in 5 years. I like to think I’m still going to be doing music as much as I am now, and hopefully more. I’m hoping I will have a cat and my own place and I’ll still be making lots of music and touring. Hopefully life will be more normal then.
**What is a recent music industry challenge you have faced and how did you overcome it?**
I think one thing that has been the most important for me is getting over the anxiety of other people working on my stuff and listening to my music and helping me with it. I was really nervous and pretty anxious about other people touching my songs when I first started really making my own stuff, but now since I’ve gotten over that I did my first co write right before it was weird to fly and that really helped me jump into a lot more options and a lot more ways I can go with my music and I’m really excited about that.
**What is something about yourself that most people don’t know about?**
I was actually really good at math at high school. I hated it as much as everyone else does, but I was actually pretty good at it.
**Any final thoughts?**
“I Want To Be With You” is going to be really cool and I’m excited for it to be released. I’m trying to take my music in a lot more of a fun and rocking direction that I hope a lot of the kids that listen to my stuff now will be super into. I’m really excited and I hope other people are excited too and willing to come along the ride with me.
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