News Chlöe Howl: ‘We’re Allowed To Make Mistakes’

Of the many things you could label Chlöe Howl - refreshing, provocative, outspoken, the next Lily Allen? - the words “clichéd” and “overly sentimental” wouldn’t come to mind. And so our conversation turns to the 17 year-old’s pet hate, above everything else: Fan Art. “I hate that! And they have the quote underneath [an image] and try and apply it to their life… Everyone’s obsessed with fucking Twilight.” We’re at the end of our chat, Chlöe speaking from outside her “bunker” of a studio, and it’s the first time that she pauses and zips her mouth shut. “I’m not really into witches and wizards. I always associate it with, I dunno… I won’t say in case I get in trouble!”

By this point the topics of conversation have descended from music, friends, boys, right up to the conclusive statement: “Your boyfriend’s not a vampire - no!” But if Chlöe’s worried about getting into trouble, she’s probably left it too late. Her first two tracks - ‘No Strings’ and ‘Rumour’ - have an esteemed hitlist of no-gooders for whom Howl pulls no punches. The former’s about your average lad-type who wouldn’t commit beyond a quick snog. “That’s about all the sleazy get-togethers that I saw at parties,” she informs us. Anyone who’s heard that track must have taken a pause from their daily routine at the line “fuck your no strings / I hope I have twins.” So it’s a relief in some sense to hear it’s not expressly autobiographical: “Everyone thinks it’s from my perspective and all my friends keep trying to guess who it’s about… But no, it’s just a general thing.”



Every chunk of gossip that helps form ‘Rumour’ is, we’re told, genuine scandal that Chlöe heard amongst her peers while at school. The girl who went off with her brother’s dealer and had a kid; the good-girl who’s on the dole and spends her cash on booze; the Christian cult child who grew up to be a bit of an odd character in the bedroom. They’re all real. Or at least, they’re all supposed to be real. These guys aren’t the target of Howl’s wrath though; it’s gossip culture itself. “Why do people my age not stick together? We’re all just trying to find out who we all are and that’s why we’re all being twats.” She sums up the school experience quite nicely by saying “we’re all in a place where we’re allowed to make mistakes and be losers.”

Although she’s not exactly peddling copies of Hemingway in a rucksack, Chlöe’s always been something of a storyteller, but not in the conventional sense. For all her Twilight hate, you could label her a Stephenie Meyer-type who went under the radar, all in the name of ousting JK Rowling. “I was seven years old and I wanted to try and write these books to rival Harry Potter. I wanted to write my own version. Because I was never into reading.” She compares her maddeningly ambitious childhood to the present day: “I was more into making up stories myself. So this definitely feels like an outlet for all that.”



A contender for understatement of the year emerges when, asked about her lyrics, she says “I try not to sugarcoat it.” The question on everyone’s lips: What’s she writing about now? “There are a couple of guys I know who are massive players and just treat girls like shit. They’re all into the whole no-strings thing.” It’s easy to imagine a few nervous fools who once crossed Chlöe’s path, waiting for their shortcomings to be recalled in recorded song. What do all her friends think about this? “I’ve always hidden [my music] from everyone I know… My friends are all proper little music snobs. I was really scared of what they’d think.” Writing a good “hundred” tracks in the course of a year however, she’s “got to a place where I know what I’m doing and I’m comfortable with myself now.”

‘No Strings’ and ‘Rumour’ helped settle any nerves. Even the music snob friends love them, “which is nice,” Chlöe remarks. “I don’t know what I was worried about.” Those two tracks form a debut EP out later this year, following which we presume will be a debut full-length. Signed to a major, under the legal drinking age and likely making all of her acquaintances paranoid that they’re the subject of a hit single, there’s plenty of room for slip-ups but Chlöe Howl is showing no sign of encountering any of them. In fact she’s well on her way to becoming 2013’s most prized, exciting pop success.

Taken from the March 2013 issue of DIY, available now. For more details click here.