Chloe Violette laughs her brief French reverie as she loses her train of thought, and tries to remember where her long and melodic sentence was taking her. She speaks with a beautiful cadence, and though she apologises for rambling, she need not – her words are beautiful to listen to.
With a little nudge, she grabs the thread and takes off as though she never stopped, lavishing praise on the arts community of her hometown, the Mornington Peninsula, a hub she tapped into to create the video for her single Hurricane, nearly a year since the song’s release.
“What’s taken the time, is that I’ve wanted to do a release that did the girls justice, the gorgeous women that I worked with, who worked so hard, and are now my wonderful friends. We wanted to release it in a way that we’ll look back and be proud of what we’ve done.”
The video, and the Melbourne based songwriter’s tone, is triumphantly strong yet vulnerable. As she proclaims the future is female, Violette says pioneering femininity is imperative.
“In the past year and a half, I’ve really been exposed to how important it is [for women] to stick together and join forces. There’s this natural tendency to compare yourself to other people, particularly other girls, to think ‘Oh she’s so beautiful, why can’t I be like her?’ Being an artist and a sensitive person naturally, it can be really difficult to stop those thoughts coming in. But I’ve learned those things just eat you up.”
Attributing her increased awareness of women’s issues to living with a gender studies student, and living in the heart of Melbourne’s arts precinct, Violette’s desire for collaboration, and highlighting its importance, permeates her attitude.
Collaboration, she says has been the most fulfilling and nourishing experience as an up-and-coming artist who is still really unsure of herself. Joining forces with these people, making friendships and empathising with each other is important, it reiterates the notion that we’re not alone.
“People want to make sense of the world through song, or art, or taking photos, telling stories, theatrical productions. We’re all bouncing around together, blindfolded and trying to find our own purpose.”
Hurricane was taken from Violette’s EP Gypsy Girl, released late last year, a collection of songs written by the now 23-year-old while in her teens.
Her maturation over the last few years, though she laughs at the suggestion she’s anywhere near being a “proper adult”, has brought her attention to the potentially negative connotations of the title. But the innocence of choosing that title perfectly captures what the term means to her.
“A gypsy girl is an air of naivety,” she says. “Of wanderlust, of knowing there’s something more, and wanting to find things that make us tick. For me, a gypsy girl is that air of wanting to further your own ambitions through wandering and making mistakes and learning the hard way over some tears and taking leaps.”
Taking leaps into an uncertain future, and embracing change, is certainly something Violette is familiar with. The uber-talented, and ludicrously busy artist, is currently studying a double degree in secondary teaching and musicology, alongside a diploma of French language, which brought her to see education speaker Charles Fadel the night before our talk. The session, she says, reinforced so much of what she’s come to know and aim for in her life.
“One of the things he said that resonated with me was ‘Change is fearsome, but not changing is dangerous.’ It sounds a bit cryptic, but you come to crossroads every so often where you need to take a leap, take a jump, and that can be quite daunting and fearsome. “
“But if you stay still and don’t push yourself that bit further to take that first step into something different, like releasing music or deciding to launch a film clip, and try to move mountains and study full-time, if you’re stagnant, that’s when things become dangerous.
“Sometimes that’s really scary to pack your bags and go to France on exchange, or release a CD, Maybe in ten years time I’ll hate the songs, but I’ll do that because it’s scary, and it’s necessary to move forward.”
By Claire Morely
