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It’s a rainy day in Paris when I sit on the terrace of a café about to meet Chloe Slater, a rising artist from Bournemouth who is currently opening for Role Model on his “No Place Like Tour” EU-UK run.

If you're like me, then the algorithm has surely led you to Chloe Slater at some point in the last two years. With carefully crafted videos where she shares her music in a way that feels relevant, relatable and fun, it is hard not to want to dig deeper. Her latest single “War Crimes,” which she describes as her first real protest song, is a clear sign that when there is something to be said – Chloe will speak up.

What is most striking about her music are the lyrics, which all have a critical way of dissecting what is happening in our modern world. From horrible landlords who overprice your flat, to out-of-touch celebrities, to governments that fund wars – Chloe has never been afraid of tackling these topics in her music, and she has clearly found many fans that resonate with everything she has to say. As she tells me during our chat: “I'm not particularly worried about trying to commercialize myself or to fit into some sort of pop standard because I'm not a pop star, I’m a rock star!

After she shows me her freshly purchased squishy baguette magnet for her fridge magnet collection, we hop right into discussing her artistic trajectory so far, her first protest song and the fun community she is building with her fans. 

OnesToWatch: Hi Chloe, thank so much for meeting me on this rainy day.

Chloe Slater: Hello, it’s so nice to meet you. Yeah, it’s a very Parisian day I suppose.

(2 girls come up to us and congratulate Chloe on her performance last night). Does that happen to you a lot (people walking up to you)?

I live in Manchester, where I’ll just be going about my day and then someone will come up to me and I don't really know how to act. It can be awkward and it just takes a while to get used to, but now I like it, because I like getting to meet people all the time. A lot of people just come up to me and tell me that they thought I was Daisy Edgar Jones, I probably get that equally as much. 

Yeah, I know you have a whole music video for “Harriet” where you play her “Normal People” character, so let’s hope one day you can meet her. 

I wanted her to be Sally (the person that Role Model brings on stage during his song “Sally”). I thought it would be so funny if she was Sally and then I would get to meet her. 

That would have been wild. Did you want to be Sally? 

It would have been fun to in Manchester, but I get to be on that stage for 40 minutes every night so, I think it's probably nice to let someone else do it. I also have gotten to hang out with Role Model and be on this tour, which is insane, because his album “Kansas Anymore” is one of my favourites. So, I am so grateful because I truly never thought that this was going to happen.

I’m truly happy for you. And I see that on this tour have been doing cartwheels on stage every night.

Yes, it’s such a fun thing to do and I think the next logical progression is to become like Benson Boone and do backflips, maybe I can learn over Christmas. And instead of Moonbeam Ice cream, I’d probably have like Custard flavoured ice cream. 

Custard is so elite. Honestly with cartwheels I’m already impressed, I’d love to learn how to do one. I was going through your newsletters and in one of the first ones you wrote something along the lines of being jealous of seeing other artists on stage, because you wanted to be them - and now you are. So, how has that transition felt from going from posting and posting until something stuck and then growing on TikTok, to then being able to take it onto a stage? 

Yeah, I mean, it's such an amazing feeling. The difficult thing is that you never really take in everything that's happening at the time because you're always looking forward to the next step. I'm always constantly working on how I can get it bigger and how I can play bigger shows and write better songs. So, every now and then I try and think back to that time when I was just writing in my room and no one knew who I was, and I’m sure in a few years I’ll look back to now and think “wow.”

Has it never overwhelmed you at any point or have you ever found yourself in like a new situation where you were like, how am I even going to take this on?

There are some things that are overwhelming. In a way what´s intense is that you never stop, especially with social media, you always have to be doing something. So, I actually look forwards to going back to the UK, writing and just enjoying the winter, it´s my favorite time. I also find it a bit scary being at music festivals and being backstage with loads of other musicians and lots of famous people. It feels like you're in a playpen with loads of kids that you don't know and you're expected to go and play with them. You know, when your parents make you go and play with kids that you don't know. It's such an intense pressure to try and make friendships in the industry with people that you only see for like 10 minutes every six months. But overall, I just love it and I think it's really fun. 

I had never really thought about how it must be hard to make friends in the industry, wow. Who's the person that's been most intimidating to meet? 

I mean, there's been people that I've seen that I didn't go up to because I was too scared to talk to. Chappell Roan was at a festival that I was at and I was way too scared to talk to her, but in a way, I prefer keeping them as like what I think of them in my head. I prefer just hanging out with, I don't know, people that do normal jobs, but I do normal jobs.

In a way I get what you mean. As a journalist, it's always a bit odd that this person I'm seeing on my phone all of a time is just in front of me and we are just casually talking and I realize “wow, they are just a person.”

Do you think I’m different than what you saw online?

No, you’re actually exactly how I would have expected. But even then, to me you will still be Chloe Slater the rock-star, because I still probably won’t get to know you at a deeply personal level you know?

I get what you mean and I like idolizing someone. I don't want to know about the bad stuff. What if you meet them and like they chew really loudly or something? I would rather keep them as this mythical person and not meet them and just enjoy their music.

I mean as an artist you try to share a certain story and you keep people within that story, so you’re real life outside of that artistry doesn’t always have to be involved.

I agree, but even though the story I share is authentic and I am 100% me, I don't want to share all of me. Everyone has to have some personal to themselves, otherwise we’d go crazy. The artist can be this magical, mystical person and they can be whoever you want them to and I think that's amazing, as long as you don't start pushing that on the person and expecting them to be what you think they are. 

Absolutely, that is such a relevant conversation about keeping your well-being and people being able to separate the artist from the human. I wanted to get into your music, especially your latest single “War Crimes,” which is amazing and has such symbolic cover art. You said it’s your first real protest song, which I can, I can see why, but at the same time for me, all of your songs have this critical political thinking in them. So, I just wondered why it’s your “first”?

I'd say a lot of my songs before have had a political message, but I think this one feels like I released it about a topic that was very prevalent at the time and that people were protesting about. It’s the most current issue song that I've released and it was a message that was needed at that time, which I think is important when writing a protest song. 

Do you see your songwriting going more in that direction now?

Well, I'm not going to put myself in a specific box and I'm not, you know, some sort of Oracle of wisdom and I don't think I'm the person people should go to for their political opinions. But I will always continue to write about what I feel and what I care about whether it's my own personal life, how I feel, my love life, or the way I feel about the world. 

It seems to be a big issue nowadays with everything that we have going on, when an artist does not use their platform to stand up for something; but at the same time there's this kind of paradox, as you say, where you aren’t an Oracle of wisdom, and can only express your opinion as a person, but not as an expert. So how do you feel about that, to what extent should people be asking artists to be vocal?

It’s quite complex, but like the question is basically is: is it bad if musicians don't speak out? I think if you're in the position where you have such a big platform, a lot of people will feel the urge to speak out. I don't even have a very big platform, but it's so important to me to speak out about things that are going on, but obviously that's also because my music is about topics like that. Whereas I guess if we're talking like big, big pop stars where their music is nothing about politics, it might be different. However, when something as awful as a genocide is going on and your country is enabling it, the least you can do is a little Instagram post just saying that you stand with the people who are being oppressed and displaced.

I do think that that morally, anyone that cares about people should speak out. We have so much access to information about what's going on in the world, so I think it's everyone's duty, not just celebrities, but everyone's to try and stay up to date and speak up.

Yeah, I completely agree. At any point when you were starting to share your music, did you feel a pressure to, as you said, go more towards more approachable music as opposed to something that is political in nature? 

I think luckily because I've been making that kind of music from the start, all the fans that I've gained are into me because of that. They're into me because of what I stand for and what I believe in, so I'm not particularly worried about trying to commercialize myself or to fit into some sort of pop standard because I'm not a pop star, I’m a rock star!

Yeah, there's a massive audience for that and you’re already finding them. How about your fan page Riot Youth, how did this come about? 

Yes! So, it’s my live account where I show videos of me playing live, pictures of the fans. Almost like in the Myspace era, you know, where people would sort of like post albums after a night out and it's like pictures of like everyone on the night out. I want it to be like that, but for my shows and to form a little community of anyone who comes to my shows to be like, “oh, that's me”! 

I think it's really fun. That's super nice to have that community.

Yeah, we really need a return of community. I think social media is a disguise as a thing that helps people to make friends and talk to friends, but it actually has ended up being something that's pushed people away from community and people would rather just stay on their screens rather than go out and connect, which is so important for humans. 

I 100% agree, but still, for artists it can also be a good vehicle to find their people at first. When you putting your music out there, what was the feeling you had? 

I have loads of demos that I've never even released and then I released my first song, ¨Sinking Feeling¨, and it didn't really do that well, but I still loved it so, I released it anyway. But then when it came to ¨24 Hours¨ (my next single), I kind of just had this feeling that it was going to work. I was so like scientific with everything I would put into the video captions tailored to whatever trend was happening in that specific time. And I just thought, if this doesn't work, I don't know what will - and then it did work. 

What would be your dream 24 hours? Like if I gave you unlimited budget.

That's a really good question and fun. I'm in Paris, so I'd do 24 hours in Paris. I'd probably like, have a nice dinner and a nice glass of wine to start with and then I really want to go up the Eiffel Tower and then I'd probably go clubbing around here. 

I honestly think this is our New Year's resolution, you will learn to cartwheel and I will be able to backflip and go on the Eiffel Tower.

Sounds like a deal, just please don't backflip off the Eiffel Tower (laughs).

Who are your OnesToWatch?

Um, I love Erin LeCount, she's like my favorite at the moment. Florence Road and Audrey Hobert, she's incredible. 

Oh, I love Audrey, I hope to catch her on tour. Thank you so much for this lovely chat and good luck tonight.

Chloe: Thanks so much.

You can listen to Chloe’s latest single, "War Crimes," here:

*This interview was edited for length and clarity