Chloe O'Brien
Chloe O’Brien is an alternative rock/pop singer, songwriter, producer, and educator from Queenstown New Zealand. She spent her childhood among the Mountains before moving to Olympia, Washington as a teen. As a descendant of the riot grrrl movement, she threw herself into the alt-rock scene of the Pacific Northwest, playing in several bands and discovering her
love for writing songs.
At 18, Chloe moved to Boston, MA to attend Berklee College of Music. Out of the context of her hometown, she began to explore musically, dipping her toes in several genres including indie-folk and electronic pop. With a strong focus on songwriting, she has an ever evolving sound. Rooted in alt-rock, infused with influences from all over the place. She released her debut EP “Chloe Jane” in 2016, featuring the indie-folk “Photographs.”
In 2018, Chloe introduced her alias Neia Jane with the debut single “Not Romantic,” followed by her debut full length album, “Magic & Honey.” In the years that have followed, her sound has continued to develop, with the 90’s grunge inspired single “Lady In Red,” the synth-driven and self-produced “Break Ur Heart,” the edgy and ethereal track “Missing You Tomorrow,” and her most recent single, the anthemic “I’ll Survive.”
Now based in Los Angeles, Chloe works as an independent artist, a songwriter, and an educator, teaching songwriting workshops with organizations such as Berklee College of Music. Chloe tells her stories with a unique sonic blend of distorted guitars, dreamy synthesizers, and soaring vocal melodies. With grit and grace, she showcases both her intense vulnerability and the edgy grunge-girl that is undeniably present in her music.
You can find her bold new single “I’ll Survive” under the name Neia Jane in all digital stores.
My advice for songwriters who are just getting started is to fall in love with the process of writing and making music, and to try your best to detach from the outcomes. This is a crazy business, and you never know what lies around the
corner. Sometimes, it can feel like you are putting in tons of work with little reward, but then out of nowhere a big opportunity can come up that you never could have planned or expected. If you love the process and you create from
the heart, you will enjoy the journey each step of the way, no matter the outcomes.
I started writing songs as a way to express my deepest inner emotions, as a way to get what was inside of me out, and to process life. For me, songwriting has always been an intimate thing, and I usually prefer to write on my own, secluded and safe to explore my most vulnerable ideas without judgement. As I have grown as a writer, I have learned to love co-writing more and more. I love how multiple people can come together and create something that is both personal and universally true, and you always come up with something that none of the individual writers would have done on their own, which is really exciting. My favorite part of the creative process is being in the studio and producing the track. I love taking a song from an just idea to a fully realized artistic vision. In the production process, collaboration has been essential for me. I love to work with other producers and to get their ears and ideas onto the
track. Ultimately, writing the song is just the first step, and you really get to bring it to life with the production.
I also have a passion for education and the empowerment of young female and gender non-conforming writers. I love to work with young artists to develop their voice and express themselves, especially those who are underrepresented. When I was a teenage writer, music was really the thing I leaned on in my life to help me get through tough times. I know how powerful music can be in people’s lives, and how transformative it can be to have tools to express and create at a young age. It is an honor to pass knowledge on to future generations of women and non-binary creators, and to encourage them to be fully themselves no matter what society has to say.
To me, the best writing is the stuff that is honest, raw, and real. The things that you may have been nervous to say, the lyrics that help you understand yourself and your life a little bit better, the melodies that make sense of it all, and
also rip your heart out