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The real ones are always an antidote; life being what it is – a spectrum of poisons – it’s hard to qualify. Chloe Tang’s latest EP ‘POISONALITY’ is a fierce testimonial, a venom-filled reality check that bleeds out those pricked by her past and cures all who’ve been through the same flytrap of ‘love, sex and drugs.’ Given her fearless voice and lyrics, why parse when we can go to the source? Keep reading for the latest on this creative’s ideas, vision and bold, if not dangerous, musical output: 

OnesToWatch: Who is Chloe Tang? Why are you an artist?  

Chloe Tang: I am a Chinese American Millenial/Gen Z cusp Pisces with a big heart and a bigger attitude. My main goal is to empower my listeners. Whether that’s finding confidence in your identity, sexuality, or just where you fit in the world, I’m with you and my music is the soundtrack. With some early 2000s-inspired percussion, blended with sultry pop melodies and deeply rooted empowering messages, my music is 100% satisfaction guaranteed-designed to make you feel like you can take over the world. Make room bitches!! She’s cute but vicious and ready for business. 

I am an artist because from a young age I knew there was nothing else I could possibly put my entire heart into doing for the rest of my life. It really starts and ends with my love for music. I got addicted to the feeling certain songs gave me- it was never just one dimensional. Music that really moved me had physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional effects on me. When I realized I was creative enough to potentially provide that feeling to others, it was over. I’ve committed my life to learning the music business and embracing the other less glamorous elements of being an artist so I can have a lasting career in music creating and inspiring. 

You seem to embody a creative fearlessness; is that natural or nurtured?  

It’s both. Moreso nurtured but originated from a natural place. I have always had a very creative and free-spirited nature even when I was a child. I didn’t thrive in a structured school environment – I didn’t necessarily struggle, but I really didn’t enjoy it and never felt like I was reaching my full potential. I’m grateful to have parents that saw that and nurtured the creative inside of me. They recognized my love for music and art and always supported it, which largely contributed to my career today. From that, I got very comfortable creating seriously, not just as a hobby. Even going to a middle school for the arts, I was very privileged to be around mentors and adults who took their job extremely seriously, setting an example for their students knowing we would be the next generation of musicians. Growing up in these environments fed my natural desire to push boundaries in pretty much every way. This led me to fall in love with the process of taking in new sounds, trends, information, and experiences and using them as fuel to write music. I crave originality and am very lucky to have been able to practice constantly reinventing myself to achieve it. 

What is ‘Poisonality’ all about?

POISONALITY is all about growing into my personality. The poison part refers to “poisoning” or killing the parts of me that I had adopted from my surroundings but weren’t ever really part of me. I wrote all these songs at different points throughout my journey living in LA. They were written from real experiences I had or phases I went through. It was my first time in a city where it felt like there were no rules… I was trying drugs I’d never done before, exploring my sexuality, making new friends, and most importantly discovering my own values, boundaries, and true personality. Like most people, I grew up stuck in a status quo so when I finally got comfortable exploring life I had a field day haha. 

What’s your writing process and how has it changed?  

I start with a concept, usually something that’s sentimental to me. I feel I’m a stronger writer in sessions when there’s an established thesis- especially when it’s my artist project. Its challenging for me when melody and production come first because I’m a very message-focused songwriter. At the end of the day I want my music to say something. It’s cool to have a catchy song but if it doesn’t mean anything it doesn’t feel as special. Once the concept is firm, I like to work on production/melody/lyrics all at once. Developing all these elements together makes it more productive in my eyes because one doesn’t have to depend on the other. You can adjust as you go. My process has changed quite a bit since I first started writing. I used to just sit down and come up with a piano or guitar riff then fit lyrics into the melody I instinctually heard. Now, I’m a lot more fearless and experimental. I give myself the space to explore different melodies and lyrics which challenges me to find the best option that fits my sound and conveys the message. 

Any collaborations or features? Who produced the EP?  

No features on this one. I had some ideas for a few artists I thought would be a good fit for certain songs on the EP but in the end it was a fully independent project and to be transparent I didn’t have the funds to get the feature I wanted. That’s the life of an independent artist! I do love that the EP really started and ended with me though, and I’m really happy with how it turned out. I know it will just make the next project even more special when I have the opportunity to feature some artists I really look up to. Each song had a different group of collaborators. The producers on the project include David Burris, Joe Pepe, Tommy Driscoll, Luis Najera, and Josh Grant. The other writers/musicians include Tima Dee, Sammy Hakim, Taylor Jamison, Jeremy Totays, Dominic Vigil, Carlos Elias, Dani Poppitt, Dan Richards, and COTIS.

It’s clearly such a visually inspired work, how’d that come together?  

Visuals are probably my favorite part of planning a rollout. Because all these songs are based on real experiences, I was able to pull inspiration from specific moments to figure out how I wanted to depict them visually. My vision for the album art was to show the duality of nature vs. surrealism. I wanted to mix natural elements like greenery, oceans, deserts, and humanity with futuristic details like chrome, metal, and supernatural beings. This represented how equally important nature and nurture were in the process of finding myself as an adult. I worked with an amazing digital artist named Ulysses to create the art for 4 singles and the EP. From there I dove deeper into the visualizers, photos and socials content for each of the singles keeping the overall theme in mind but curating photo and video shoots to each individual song. PRIMAL was easy to keep on theme because everything I did was jungle themed. I even bought and returned a bunch of plants from IKEA and set up a backdrop in my house to do a little DIY photoshoot. 2.0 was really fun too. My friend Brad and I just explored downtown Phoenix and shot some cool clips here and there to put together a visualizer. I have to give him his flowers for that because he’s really good at making a low budget video look amazing. OPTIONS was a difficult one for me to execute because the vision I had for the social media teaser clips was pretty elaborate and would have required a budget which I didn’t have. So I asked my uncle to sneak into his apartment complex tennis court to film some Tik Toks and borrowed my other uncle’s car as a prop for some more short form videos. I SEE U ended up being a huge shoot for visuals and press photos thanks to an amazing photographer I met in Phoenix, Kiss Sundara. He put together such an amazing crew to make my dream of becoming a “Chrome Cowgirl” come to life. I knew I wanted LSD to have an other worldly and cinematic music video depicting my recollection of the acid trip that the song is about so I spent weeks in my creative bag planning every detail so it would turn out how I wanted. The video turned out better than I could’ve imagined. So overall, all the covers represent POISONALITY, but each song also has its own visual identity that we tried to bring to life.

Besides this excellent EP what else should we be on the lookout for? 

Look out for some sneak previews of the singles that will be following the EP!! We already have some fun ones in the works! I’m also hoping to go on tour soon- nothing locked in quite yet but that’s definitely on the docket! Who do you guys want to see me tour with?

Whats inspiring you right now outside of music? 

I’m currently in Toronto, so I’m definitely feeling inspired being in this city. Some other things/people would be film, neck ties, Indian food, traveling, fashion, and late sunsets. 

Revenge is best served or with?

I think the best revenge is peace. Being unbothered and having no care or thoughts about negativity is the most powerful thing you can do for yourself. I try not to even talk shit because that’s bringing that energy back into your space. Of course it doesn’t hurt to hear other people calling out some bullshit though hehe. 

Musically who is new but making all the right moves? Who are your current OnesToWatch? 

Zeina, Sylo, Isaiah Huron, Kei, Sadboi, and Estevie. All these artists are a huge inspiration for me.