"She's almost like an idea; this girl you can't really catch."
"I'm also expecting a call from the carpet cleaners as well. You are so much more exciting than the carpet cleaners!" Chloe Violette gushes over the phone. "I'm just gonna put it out there, I've never done a phone interview. I'm excited but I'm also a bit 'ooh' because I'm a very expressive person. Disclaimer: I can tend to be a little bit word vomity when I get nervous, lots of words seem to fall out of my mouth..." and she proceeds to paint vivid portraits of this affliction for the next few minutes until we're both giggling.
Violette doesn't merely bubble cheerily along during the interview - she accents her emotions and anecdotes with her voice; singing often and with gusto. "Crazy couple my parents. That creativity and love for life has definitely come out through [me]," she jokes.
"I've had this question before from some political theatre makers that are in my circle, like 'do you actually know the term gypsy girl can not necessarily have the best connotations?'"
Her debut EP Gypsy Girl mirrors her own natural grace and warmth, stripped acoustic folk and clear, sparking vocals with an expressiveness that speaks of youthful joy, adventure and love. "I've had this question before from some political theatre makers that are in my circle, like 'do you actually know the term gypsy girl can not necessarily have the best connotations?'" she answers of the title. "But I wrote Gypsy Girl when I was 17, about when you're young and naive. I could sense the journey life was going to bring would have lots of soul searching, wandering if you will... finding new places or relationships, different human beings and stories. I guess Gypsy Girl to me in terms of who the girl is in the song and the narrative that follows her — she's this whimsical, naive, ethereal beauty that comes with being young, but also the mistakes and the finding and the journey at that age. She's almost like an idea; this girl you can't really catch." She suddenly bursts forth with a few lines from The Sound Of Music "How do you catch a moon beam?"
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Violette is so bright and vivacious that when the conversation turns it feels like a plot twist. "When I was 19 I fell into a deep, deep clinical depression... I was in a psych ward for six weeks. Partly, it was the scariness of realising that I'd like to pursue something in the creative industry, but it's quite terrifying, intimidating, scary... At the start of that year, when I sort of declined into crazy states of mind, I was comparing myself to other musicians, in particular male musicians. It's a man's world - it always has been, it always will be, especially in the music industry - it's bloody scary." She quotes Theodore Roosevelt: "Comparison is the thief of joy."
"When I think back on that time - room E6 of the psych ward - it's cool to realise I've come a long way... Being inspired by people who are following their creative endeavours and thinking 'if they can do that, I can give it a crack too!"