{"id":26375,"date":"2021-06-11T00:49:59","date_gmt":"2021-06-11T00:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=26375"},"modified":"2021-06-11T12:39:22","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T12:39:22","slug":"chloe-flower-pianist-bohemia","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/chloe-flower-pianist-bohemia\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Popsical\u2019 Pianist Chloe Flower Isn\u2019t Scared Of Standing Out"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chloe Flower behind the scenes filming her latest single ‘Bohemia’ (Photo: Harold Julian)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chloe Flower isn\u2019t afraid to be the outlier. If anything, she embraces it. At just two years old she began her journey as a pianist<\/a>, falling quickly into classical music<\/a> \u2014 but she wanted more. \u201cI went to all these different conservatories, but I didn’t really fit in,\u201d she tells <\/span>GRAZIA<\/span><\/i><\/a>. Bach and Fat Joe aren\u2019t two artists you\u2019d normally hear together, and yet, Flower \u2014 while bored in a practice room at the Royal Academy of Music in London \u2014 was playing a rendition that would soon become her niche. \u201cI remember listening to “Lean Back”by Fat Joe<\/a> and sort of playing my Bach piece with it and it just worked. I mean, it didn’t work perfectly but it worked enough for me to have this lightbulb moment like \u2018this could be something.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Classical music dates back to the 19th century with names like Bach and Beethoven at the helm. Although the 35-year-old’s foundation was classical music, an inclination to mix her first love with intricate pop, hip-hop, and trap beats is what led her to create her very own category, \u201c<\/span>popsical<\/span><\/i>.\u201d The adoration of Flower\u2019s popsical genre \u2014 a term she coined herself \u2014 helped her gain a following of over 365,000 on Instagram. But before she was performing on Grammy stages, Flower was being kicked out of chamber groups and categorized as a \u201csell-out\u201d by her colleagues.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was supposed to do a series of concerts in New York City<\/a>. One of the girls that was in my chamber group actually wouldn’t let me play in it anymore,” she says. “She said \u2018you’re doing too much hip-hop stuff, you’re a sellout.\u2019 She kicked me out of this chamber group and I remember thinking: first of all, I could find another chamber group with no problem. But, I also remember thinking that whenever people feel strongly against something different, it doesn’t scare me. I leaned into [popsical] more because I felt like it was just sad to me that you would look at me and say \u2018you can’t be in a chamber group just because you like playing hip-hop.\u2019 I remember thinking right away that I wanted to continue doing this and do it the right way so that people like her would eventually come back and buy my album.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a really funny way of describing somebody who’s trying something new,\u201d Flower says of being called a sell-out. In her younger years, she felt more malleable and susceptible to criticism because she was leading a path no one in her community dared to do. \u201cWhenever you’re doing something new and different you don’t have someone to look up to for validation,\u201d she says. \u201cYou’re on your own in that way and I think that was the perfect timing for Babyface to come in.\u201d Kenneth Brian Edmonds, better known by his stage name Babyface, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He has written and produced over 26 number-one R&B hits throughout his career and has won 12 Grammy Awards.<\/span><\/p>\n

Flower and Babyface joined forces over a decade ago. He gave the needed support for Chloe to chase her dreams unapologetically. \u201cHe took a chance on me because it was something he hadn’t seen before.\u201d In the last eleven years, Flower has recorded more than 300 songs. Her debut album is set to release July 16 and her latest single \u201cBohemia<\/a>\u201d is out today, June 11. \u201cI titled [this song] Bohemia<\/a> because it’s about the love and passion I have for the arts,\u201d she says. \u201cI am an Asian woman and I was born here in the United States, but I never really fit into the Asian community in conservatory because I was too <\/span>Americanized<\/span><\/i>.\u201d Flowers recalled even being booted from the Korean club because she was \u201ctoo Americanized.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI didn’t really fit into the white community perfectly because I was Asian. I was used to this idea and the feeling of not fitting in. So “Bohemia” is a perfect representation of how I feel. Flower allows her emotions to carry her music creation. Although she\u2019d been working on her freshman album for over a decade, she wrote the majority of it right before quarantine began. \u201cI write how I feel at the time and Bohemia was something that I had started working on years ago and just finished right before the quarantine. It’s a real medley of pop, hip hop, and trap with a classical instrumental sound.<\/span><\/p>\n