Sir Chloe: “I think a lot of the lyrics just ended up being pretty pervy…” • Neu • DIY Magazine

With a debut album entitled ‘I Am The Dog’ landing this month, a recent photoshoot that finds her deadpanning the camera whilst wearing a baby goat around her neck like a scarf, and a series of new tracks called things like ‘Leash’, ‘Salivate’ and ‘Obsession’, it’s perhaps surprising to find a very chilled, unassuming presence on the other end of the Zoom when we chat to Sir Chloe’s central figure, Dana Foote. “I am myself on stage but I think it’s a different part of who I am - I’m not bringing that person when I’m having dinner with my friends,” she shrugs amicably.

Formed while studying in Vermont - “We didn’t have a college town; it was just 800 kids in the middle of the wilderness,” the vocalist notes - Sir Chloe’s first output was recorded as part of Dana’s thesis project. Writing a short set of original new music for the assignment, one of those first tracks - ‘Michelle’ - was later included on Sir Chloe’s 2020 ‘Party Favors’ EP; unlike most people’s homework, however, the track hit gold on the TikTok slipstream and, to date, has racked up nearly 200 million plays on Spotify.

“Once ‘Michelle’ got some attention then everything sped up, but it’s maintained that momentum so we’re all super grateful that we’re able to continue to do this,” Dana notes of the experience and its all-important following years. “There’s so much rubbernecking in this business; it’s so saturated now and it’s fantastic that, maybe for the first time in history, musicians can curate their own audiences and make a voice for themselves, but it’s a lot of competition.”

‘I Am The Dog’, however, is the point where Sir Chloe elevate themselves even further above that competition. Nodding to the razor-sharp guitar skills of artists like St Vincent or Mitski, Sir Chloe’s wares are riffy but in distinctly unobvious ways - peppered with visceral imagery and a lusty aura. “It’s not very much about sex but I think it does come off that way!” Dana laughs. “A lot of this album is just about finding control in the chaos of the natural world and I think a lot of the lyrics just ended up being pretty pervy… My favourite film is Barbarella and I was watching that a lot. That’s a pretty pervy movie…”

The insatiable ‘00s indie soar of recent single ‘Hooves’, or ‘Salivate’, with its Pixies-like howl, might not be pervy on purpose but, says Dana, she did try some other tricks throughout the album. “I was originally trying to put the word ‘dog’ in every song, which I was not successful doing,” she notes. “But a lot of what is written is with playing live in mind; being fun to play on stage.”

This summer, the band will have some pretty big stages to fill too when they open up for Beck and Phoenix’s mammoth US roadshow (also featuring Weyes Blood, Japanese Breakfast and Jenny Lewis). Buoyed by the “permission to experiment and get weird and creative” that each new phase of the band is bringing, Dana might be leaving the goat at home but Sir Chloe clearly don’t need any tricks to win out.

#AD