Cloe Wilder, a freshly 18 year old pop artist out of Clearwater Florida, releases track "Fake ID", opens for Charlotte Sands on her US leg of tour, and shares her journey that started when she was only 14. We were lucky enough to chat with her about tour, graduating early, and life as a popstar at her LA show.
When did you start music?
Wilder: I started really young. When I was 4 years old, I was very classically trained and was just singing and I took vocal and piano lessons, then went on to my first writing camp when I was 12. I would do almost anything musical that I could get my hands on, I would do talent shows and recitals, and karaoke on Thursdays in the sports bar in my hometown of Clearwater, FL.
Moving into your writing process, do you find yourself pulling inspiration from anyone specific? Whether it be lyrically or sonically?
Wilder: Obviously I am a huge fan of Lana Del Rey, and so a lot of inspiration comes from her, but I'm very big on the folk scene in my newest project, especially 2010 folk so I was referencing a lot of Bon Iver. But recently, I also love a lot of other artists like Holly Humberstone and her lane of music.
I get a lot of my music taste from my older sister, who's 11 years older than me, and so everything that was in her taste was in my music taste. I would definitely say I started listening to Lana at an alarmingly young age. However, I can say that it shifted my whole perspective on life and art.
Sonically, I think that I pull more from folk artists like with the messy doubles and things. I also think it's really cool that I'm starting to reference myself more and more in my songs. So, when it comes to producing and writing, the doubles and the reverbed backgrounds and a super dragged, clear lead comes from me mainly just from me recording so much.
Talking about production, do you typically work with a single producer or are you constantly working with new ones?
Wilder: Sam Nicolosi has produced pretty much every project of mine for the last four years. We met when I was 14, produced my first EP together, and we just continued writing together after that.
We do have a long distance producer-artist relationship so I tend to write a bunch on my own in Florida, which I love because I can bring a bunch of ideas back to LA when I come back, which is super fun because we usually just sit in my backyard and hang out together and write a bunch of songs.
You mentioned starting to reference yourself in your music a lot, but where do your lyrics come from? Your writing is super visual and vivid, so what does your writing process look like? Are you coming up with lyrics randomly, do they come to you in odd places like the shower, or in line at the grocery stores?
Wilder: It could be literally anything. I mean, yeah it could definitely be the shower, or sometimes when the moment is happening I know immediately that I'm going to reference it. For me, I am very aware of everything that is happening around me and I'm trying to make it all sort of profound all the time.
In one of the songs on my upcoming project, I reference changing dresses in a drug store and that actually did happen to me on a tour last year, so just little things like that.
But in my song "Fake ID", I created a story around something that was really happening in my life, trying to get a fake ID but I am very obsessed with imagery and that definitely comes from a lot of the modern songwriters that I love.
Who would those artists be, if you don't mind sharing?
Wilder: Definitely artists like Phoebe Bridgers, I went to her show in 2020, I think and that created a sense of "Oh, I see" moments for me when it came to songwriting because that was a visual experience for me.
We noticed that Jesse DeFlorio is your main collaborator on a lot of your visual projects. How do you think that working with someone so constantly helps you build out your world?
Wilder: Oh my goodness, well I definitely think that having a personal understanding of you is really cool because they’re just going to know what you like and that's what happened with me and Jesse.
We also met when I was 14, that was a big year for me, and so that was perfect because we sort of built that foundation together and did a bunch of photos and I saw some of his video work and we did our first video together in 2020.
From there, we just kept doing videos together and he started hearing the songs before anyone else and we just stayed really connected and it makes total sense, and I just really really love what he does.
Your latest releases are “Fake ID” and “Little White Pills”, what’s your craziest fake ID story?
Wilder: So I was desperately trying to get a fake ID when I was 17 and a half, and it feels silly but I play all these venues and shows and I just want to be able to go out with my band after and I couldn't!
The first time I tried to use it was in Boston with all of them, and I had thought “For sure, these people are all in their 30s, no one is even going to look at me” and we played a gig there and I was literally hanging out with everyone, and we went in and it was taken almost immediately.
Honestly it was so embarrassing because I’ve used other people’s IDs in the past at college bars and it always worked so that was just a little bit of a humbling experience.
There was one time I went to the Bahamas for my 18th birthday and there you don’t need a fake ID because their drinking age is 18, and I lost my wallet so I left my other fake ID there, along with my real ID.
Did you end up getting a new real and fake ID?
I actually did, and my mom is supportive of the fake ID mainly because she knows that I’m not troubled.
“I’m not really worried about her going out to drink, it’s mainly a social thing. On our last tour, they were all going out after shows and she was the only one underage, but after shows Cloe is super social so I just want her to have a good time with her friends”, her mom adds.
I hope that some 16-year-old girl in the Bahamas found my ID and brought it home and is using it and having a good time.
Going back to you growing up in Clearwater, Florida, how do you think that community of artists takes a part in your music and your writing?
Wilder: You know I actually didn’t get super involved in that creative community because I did online high school, and went to a super tiny Montessori school before that, up until eighth grade.
I kind of just knew who I knew, my family was there but I didn’t really know much of the music scene other than my little school music and talent shows.
I really think that I just tried to keep up with music as much as I could. I listened to so much music and I was constantly keeping up with what I could, but once I started doing the back and forth from Los Angeles and Florida, that was really when I started developing a music career and shifting for me.
Lastly, being freshly eighteen years old, what do you think are some of the things you wish or don’t wish about going on the road, school, etc?
Wilder: I finished high school six months early online, but I did a really fun graduation party to kind of try and wrap it all up in a pretty bow, but I had a lot of weird regrets about high school while I was still in high school actually.
My junior year, I definitely had panic about it. I hadn’t done my first tour yet, and so I was very confused and nervous about the closing of that chapter, so then I tried to go back.
I mean, I was literally in the process of applying for this school and I got my first tour offer, and I was like “Oh okay! This is awesome and great” and it was a complete shift in perspective, and I ended up being totally fine about it.
I sort of ended up having an “everything happens for a reason” moment because if I had ended up going to the school and having to decline the tour I would’ve been devastated about it.
In between junior and senior year, I went to the school I was actually zoned for in my district and I went for a single day and had a horrible experience. I was literally counting the minutes on the clock and couldn’t enjoy myself at all.
And so that was definitely my “girl you’re totally good” learning experience, and a lot of lessons that I’ve learned have definitely come from outside of the classroom, and just actually experiencing things and doing them for yourself.
Now I realize that I don’t feel deprived of any experiences, but I do find myself looking for little bits and pieces of youthful experiences, but I definitely don’t think I am deprived.
