By Lexi Goodland
Chloe Carrubba is a Plymouth based folk singer-songwriter. Coming from a town near London, her family moved to Cornwall where Chloe studied drama at Plymouth Marjon University. Having now graduated, Chloe has a part time job and also works as an actress and has just recently finished a sold out show at the Barbican Theatre in Plymouth called An Evening With Krampus. Her acoustic-orientated sound is gentle but supported by powerful vocals and is very much rooted in the folk genre. I caught up with her when she played alongside Falmouth based bands Hops and Baggs as well as Welsh based The Rainbow Maniac at the Junction, Plymouth.
CLUNK: How did you get involved with music?
Chloe Carrubba: I guess I have always been musical. I went to drama school and studied acting and that always incorporated music as part of that. I really started writing my own songs probably in the last 3 years – good ones at least – and playing live over that period of time, but it’s music that I like and I enjoy playing so it doesn’t really feel like work.
CLUNK: How do you find inspiration for your songwriting?
CC: My songwriting is really biographical, it’s everything that has happened to me and it’s very specific. My song ‘Helter Skelter’, which is going to come out within the next month or so, all the lyrics in that are exact things that happened so I talk about the pattern on the shirt and things like that. I have to write based on experience, not always my experiences, like I wrote ‘Late To The Party’ based on one of my friends’ experiences, but everything has to be from a real life event for me to get inspiration. It’s hard to be genuine if you haven’t had the genuine emotion.
Listen to ‘Helter Skelter’ here:
CLUNK: Who would you site as your musical influence?
CC: It’s so strange because I go from Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks,Fleetwood Mac, Kate Bush, to Oasis and The Stone Roses. I mean, I don’t write songs like ‘Waterfall’ or ‘She’s Electric’ – I wish I could – but all of it is that songwriting and I think that Noel Gallagher and Ian Brown have those qualities that Joni Mitchell and Stevie Nicks have and I think that although my genre is probably more based within those females, the songwriting comes from those guys as well.
CLUNK: If you could describe your sound in three words what would they be?
CC: I would describe it as spacey, indie, folk.
CLUNK: What’s in the pipeline for you this year?
CC: I’m releasing my single ‘Helter Skelter’ which is a love song, we’ll say it’s going to be out on Valentine’s Day because it’s a love song and I think that’s a good idea. Then I’m going to get in the studio and finish recording my EP, and then I’m playing a festival called LauFest which is in Wembury in Devon. I’m just kind of seeing where it goes, I’m gigging and playing a lot locally and seeing how much I can branch out. It’s a nice place to be in.
Follow Chloe Carrubba on the following: