CHLOE FOY, the Gloucestershire singer-songwriter with a knack for a soul-baring lyric all wrapped in a sweet melodic glide, has announced that her debut album, Where Shall We Begin, will be with us just before midsummer; and in celebration of which bottle smashing against the hull, she’s dropped a new single, the hushed depths of “Shining Star”.
Arriving on June 11th, Where Shall We Begin closes a decade-long chapter in aural catharsis for the Manchester-based singer, during which time she followed her muse while dealing with the tragic early loss of her father to depression.
And on “Shining Star” she recounts her regrets that that key figure in her life didn’t follow his passion – and how that made her determined to not make the same mistake.
“My dad was a talented artist and potter,” she says, “but instead of following that path, he worked an office job in the pursuit of money, which ultimately made him very unhappy.
“It gave me an early life lesson to follow a creative path if it presents itself and to ignore the pressures of society to conform to a certain life. Because it won’t necessarily make you happy.”
Chloe first caused a stir back in 2013 when her debut single, the campfire confessional of “In The Middle of the Night” was picked up by 6 Music; the following “Flaws” and “Asylum” swelled interest, with the latter having had nearing eight and a half million streams on Spotify. She then took her inimitable brand of alt.folk out on to the festival stage, with appearances at SXSW, Green Man and Cambridge Folk Festival under her belt before … you know, this descended.
Chloe says of Where Shall We Begin: “For me, this album has come out of a decade of hard graft, trying to balance my craft with making a living, whilst taking my time to get it right; all whilst dealing with the fallout of a huge bereavement in my most formative years.
“I was finding it hard to work out who I was within this new, alien context of losing a parent,” she explains.
She says she was inspired by songwriters such as Gillian Welch and Edith Piaf while wriitng material the album, which was recorded at Manchester’s Pinhole Studios and which features harp, viola and strings in steadfast accompaniment of Chloe’s gorgeous voice and open, honest and brittle lyrics.
“These songs are my most inner and deepest secrets. The kind of things I only express to those closest to me, but for some reason in song, I can be open with the world,” she concludes.
Chloe Foy’s Where Shall We Begin will be released on June 11th digitally, on CD and on vinyl and is available for pre-order now, here.
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