Coucou Chloe’s music often sounds like it's being played through speakers at a party that have already partly blown, destroyed by sub-bass. It creates a feeling of things being pushed to their limits. Her music demands to be played loud. You must obey, listen, become dominated, dominate as its energy channels through you, characteristic in its simultaneously restless and assertive full-throttle movement. This is to all be expected by an artist who is a founding member of Nuxxe collective alongside Sega Bodega and Shygirl.
Yet in her most recent EP One, it feels there is a descent into new places which had previously been un-occupied. In the final track Blink, a haunting piano extends its hand and leads you twisting and turning into eerie spaces where voices from a past relationship echo and reverberate around you full of past promises. There is an ambiguity here surrounding who is speaking, as well as what to take at face value. What's for sure is that it is hard to feel like someone hasn’t been let down here; heartbreak hangs heavy in the air. This track elevates the EP ironically for a track that steps downwards. It moves One away from what could for some feel like an EP that rests too comfortably on the laurels of a now well routed impactful club banger formula. Instead, the whole project ascends to another level.

Here we delved into and discuss the meaning behind the visual identity and symbols surrounding the EP, the philosophy around lyrical repetition in club music and new year's resolutions.
Do you believe in the power of affirmations?
It’s definitely easier to point out negative things and forget about the achievements. Being aware of your power, acknowledging your worth, what you’ve overcome, achieved so far and that your goals aren’t unreachable is definitely necessary. I believe in positive talk, as long as it doesn’t become some toxic positivity speech that puts you in a vegetative space filled by micro satisfactions. I like to remind myself that everything is possible and that what you’ve experienced shapes who you are but doesn’t define who you can be.
The lead single for this EP is industrial bass banger Wizz. Here you repeat the phrase “let it go.” What exactly are you trying to let go of in this track?
I want to talk about the party, the feeling of release, letting go of everything. That internal voice that tells you to let it go like there’s no tomorrow, the pleasure of getting lost for a minute and feel free. It’s like this big limo is that space you’re in, stuck, out of your head, on for the big ride. It’s a sort of an internal discussion with yourself; the little angel on the right shoulder and the little demon on the left, you chose to let it go and you’re telling yourself that it’s fine, just let it go.
This song made me wonder: do you find that the repetition of lines in your music morphs the meaning of what you are saying with each iteration of the phrase?
Definitely, I can see it in every track in a different way. I try to convince myself or I try to convince you. Sometimes it traps both of us in the track like you’d be trapped in a box. And in some moments, like in Blink, I sing until I can’t anymore, then you’re just left alone.
In the music video for Wizz different characters or personas of Coucou Chloe appear, what does the woman in all white represent? Was that you hidden underneath?
I am hidden underneath but I like to pretend I’m not. This character is just here, static, pouring me champagne endlessly, it never stops; it really never stops.
The driver looking back in annoyance at their passenger reminded me a bit of the meme from the film Parasite; decadence versus the working individual. What story are you trying to tell with this character?
I like the idea of me driving myself through the night in that party box. I chose to be here and I’ll go wherever I go. The ‘driver me’ is a bit desperate witnessing the ‘party me,’ but wouldn’t be here to judge. Talking about memes I’d think about the GTA one that goes: “ah shit, here we go again.”
Although I said “decadence,” there seems to be more of a faux luxury going on with pink limousines and playboy bunny ceilings, which I love. What is it about the contrast held within this kitsch aesthetic that appeals to you?
Party time! I liked the idea of a very flashy kitsch aesthetic that kind of reminds me of some clubs I used to go to in the south of France. A little loud pink flashy box, not very pretty but there’s pink neon lights, palm trees around and some cheap comfy sofa... It really does the job. I think that kitsch adds another lecture to the scene, somehow kind of grotesque. I have a weird relationship with the party.
The final track Blink offers a change of pace and is such a beautiful end to the EP. In this song who is the statement “I will never let you down” directed at and if so why?
I’m talking about relationships, how you’d never ever let them down, how they’d never ever let you down, this feeling of powerful and endless forever love, but things come to an end. I’ll say it over and over until I lose my breath: it’s over. You’re still here and they’re not. It’s just life, you know.
The ending lyrics of this track really hit me and made me wonder, where have you found beauty in life since writing this song?
Beauty could be everywhere.
I chatted to Giant Swan last year about vocal manipulation and they suggested that maybe warping vocals and lyrics can sometimes be about hiding a vulnerability. How do vocal effects inform your creative expression and do you see an element of what Giant Swan are talking about in your use of them?
I agree with what Giant Swan is saying. For me, I used to dislike my ‘real voice.’ I didn’t think it was very interesting sonically or was fitting what I wanted to create, it just sounded wrong. I believe that, at first, sometimes I tried to hide myself underneath the effects, but I see my music changing slowly and sometimes I surprise myself preferring to use my voice with no effects because it sounds more intimate and real, depending on what I want to express. Whatever that means, I’ll probably know more about this in the future.
Now you have a fair few EPs under your belt, is now the time for an album or is that format unappealing to you?
I’m definitely working on a lot of things so I believe there are definitely some new things to expect from me.
Finally, do you have any new year’s resolutions for 2022?
Be the better version of myself? I don’t really do new resolutions.