Speaker 1: Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2: When I was twelve years old, one of my best
Speaker 2: friends was coming to visit me for my birthday, and
Speaker 2: she and her boyfriend were her like, not her boyfriend
Speaker 2: but because we were like twelve, but like, you know,
Speaker 2: her little boyfriend friend. They were hit by a train
Speaker 2: and killed, and I remember her sister called me and
Speaker 2: was like, Melissa, can't come to your birthday. She died
Speaker 2: in a train accident, and it was so traumatizing, like
Speaker 2: for me, and I immediately went to the piano and
Speaker 2: just played Chopin for like five days straight.
Speaker 3: Welcome to the Taken a Walk Podcast, where Buzz Night
Speaker 3: speaks with musicians of all types that are making their mark.
Speaker 3: Buzz is thrilled to be joined by a true musical trailblazer,
Speaker 3: Chloe Flower. Chloe is a world renowned pianist, composer, and
Speaker 3: producer who's redefining what it means to be a classical
Speaker 3: musician in the modern era. Known for her electrifying performances
Speaker 3: and her signature popsicles sound a seamless blend of classical
Speaker 3: and pop, Chloe's captivated audiences everywhere from the Grammy stage
Speaker 3: to viral social media clips. Chloe is here to discuss
Speaker 3: your brand new album I Love Me More, and we
Speaker 3: welcome her right now to the Taking a Walk Podcast
Speaker 3: with buzz Night.
Speaker 4: Hi Chloe, thanks for being on Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: It's so special.
Speaker 4: So since we call this podcast taking a Walk, I
Speaker 4: have to ask you if you could take a walk
Speaker 4: with someone living or dead. They don't have to be
Speaker 4: involved in the world of music, but they could be.
Speaker 4: But it could be someone also important to you in
Speaker 4: different ways. Who would you like to take a walk
Speaker 4: with and where would you take that walk?
Speaker 2: You know, it's funny because some of my best ideas
Speaker 2: and my best thinking happens when I walk. And so
Speaker 2: I recently sprained both of my ankles. Oh yeah, it's
Speaker 2: been a struggle for me and I really didn't know
Speaker 2: how much I missed taking those walks. So this is
Speaker 2: a great question for me. I think if I could
Speaker 2: walk with anybody, it would be Rock mon and Off.
Speaker 2: And the reason I say that, like it's really hard
Speaker 2: for me. I would always I would choose a musician,
Speaker 2: but it's like between mozart Sister and rock monon Off,
Speaker 2: like I can't decide. Basically, I would ask Mozart's sister, like,
Speaker 2: tell me everything, what did you write, what did you
Speaker 2: really write? What did you not get credit for? But
Speaker 2: you know, Rock Mononoff, really his story really interests me.
Speaker 2: You know, he almost didn't write the Second Piano Concerto,
Speaker 2: which is like one of the most the love pieces
Speaker 2: in the world in the classical space. And actually the
Speaker 2: love for that piece extends so far beyond you hear
Speaker 2: it in All by Myself, and you hear that theme
Speaker 2: in so many pop songs in that I even took
Speaker 2: that little theme and recreated it for my first album.
Speaker 2: But he almost didn't write that piece because he went
Speaker 2: through like a severe depression after his first symphony he wrote.
Speaker 2: I think it was in the late eighteen hundreds. He
Speaker 2: wrote a symphony in D minor and it was a disaster,
Speaker 2: like everybody hated it, and he went into a severe
Speaker 2: depression and almost never composed again. But he saw therapy.
Speaker 2: He went to this doctor, I think it was doctor
Speaker 2: dol And I want to know what they talked about,
Speaker 2: because they don't ever tell you what was said. You
Speaker 2: just have these letters written by him that you know
Speaker 2: he was so depressed and he never was going to
Speaker 2: compose again. And then oh, I sought help, went to
Speaker 2: a hypnotist, which I think we call a therapist today,
Speaker 2: and now you know, I feel re energized and reinspired,
Speaker 2: and he wrote the most beautiful piece in the world.
Speaker 2: And so I think for me, as an artist, I
Speaker 2: would love to know how he coped with that, because
Speaker 2: as an artist, especially in the classical space, we're so
Speaker 2: subject to criticism and I would just like to know
Speaker 2: how he dealt with that on such a large scale.
Speaker 2: And I feel like that would take up the whole walk.
Speaker 4: And I believe I've only spent a couple of minutes
Speaker 4: with you. I believe you would uncover the secret in
Speaker 4: the story.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't take you very very.
Speaker 2: Long, I hope. Well maybe one day in another world,
Speaker 2: an there you go.
Speaker 4: Maybe that's right. So what's the earliest memory for you
Speaker 4: of playing music? I mean, I know you started at
Speaker 4: an incredibly young age, but beyond the age of three,
Speaker 4: which is I believe when you started. Do you have
Speaker 4: an earlier memory than that in terms of you playing.
Speaker 2: I started at two and my mother said that she
Speaker 2: actually corrected I did during the pandemic. I did this
Speaker 2: zoom performance and she joined because it was my sister's
Speaker 2: company and I was speaking and this was kind of
Speaker 2: when people didn't understand zoom as well as they do
Speaker 2: now it's like new. And she interrupted my talk cause
Speaker 2: I was talking about my first childhood, my first performance
Speaker 2: ever at three years but I thought I was six
Speaker 2: at a nursing home and my mother was like, no,
Speaker 2: you were three. Like she didn't mute herself, she just
Speaker 2: started talking, and so it was funny, but it was news, right,
Speaker 2: So I was like, oh, I thought I was six,
Speaker 2: but I was three actually, And I do remember being
Speaker 2: in this nursing home in my hometown and sitting on
Speaker 2: a telephone book because we had telephone books back then,
Speaker 2: and a little pillow and playing. I remember looking at
Speaker 2: at the audience and seeing everybody was asleep and nobody
Speaker 2: was really listening to me play. But I remember afterwards
Speaker 2: like they clapped and I was such a baby. But
Speaker 2: I remember feeling like, oh, this music is and this
Speaker 2: music is healing. I remember thinking like, I don't sorry,
Speaker 2: my dog is here. I remember thinking like I don't
Speaker 2: I kind of at a very early age, them even
Speaker 2: having me there made me understand and appreciate the power
Speaker 2: of music therapy and live performance for people and how
Speaker 2: special that was, even though I was three and I
Speaker 2: probably didn't play very well. But yeah, so that's kind
Speaker 2: of an early I mean even earlier than that, the
Speaker 2: very first memory I have. I remember stickers on the piano,
Speaker 2: but oh, she hears her.
Speaker 4: We welcome We welcome dogs to the Taking a Walk podcast.
Speaker 1: What is your dog's name?
Speaker 2: This is Wolfy her her her full name is Wolfguardea Dang,
Speaker 2: but Wolfguard the female version.
Speaker 1: What kind of dog is Wolfy?
Speaker 2: She's a she's a Chihuahua. She's a rescue. She's my
Speaker 2: ninth foster that kind of turned into I kept her.
Speaker 2: But she's such a good girl, and oh she's beautiful.
Speaker 2: She's beautiful. So I got her at a very young age,
Speaker 2: so she has no trauma, unlike a lot of my
Speaker 2: other fosters, so I really I'm grateful. But she just
Speaker 2: saw her boyfriend, so she's freaking out.
Speaker 1: You can tell, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we're going to get into your masterpiece new release.
Speaker 4: I Love me More, which is just incredible. But I
Speaker 4: do want to talk a little bit more about you
Speaker 4: and your career. I have a question for you, though,
Speaker 4: from a fellow musician who admires you.
Speaker 1: His name is Black Bok.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 2: I love Black Bok.
Speaker 1: He's a New Yorker, he is, he's a big fan.
Speaker 1: And so here's his question.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 4: He said, classical music is known for its structure and tradition.
Speaker 4: So what inspired you, as a trained pianist to take
Speaker 4: a different creative path instead of following the traditional concert
Speaker 4: pianist root and how has that sort of shaped your
Speaker 4: art as a whole.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's a really great question. I think you know,
Speaker 2: when you've spent your whole life studying classical music, it's
Speaker 2: very rigorous, the discipline, the training, the sacrifice that you
Speaker 2: make to be a classical musician as a profession. It
Speaker 2: is a lot of structure, not just within the music,
Speaker 2: but within the career space. And for me, I loved
Speaker 2: the structure of classical music. You know, I love I
Speaker 2: love classical music, but I also grew up loving pop music,
Speaker 2: and I always compartmentalize those two genres like this is
Speaker 2: my pop life and this is you know, when I'm listening,
Speaker 2: when I'm listening in my room, I can listen to
Speaker 2: this when I'm not practicing. And often when I was practicing,
Speaker 2: I would practice two hours at a time and then
Speaker 2: I would take a fifteen minute break and then practice
Speaker 2: another hour or two hours, And during those fifteen minutes,
Speaker 2: I spent the entire time listening to pop music, like
Speaker 2: you know, like top forty music. What was available to me,
Speaker 2: you know, And we didn't have like Spotify and things
Speaker 2: like that. We had YouTube, but we didn't have like
Speaker 2: streaming services like Amazon Music and Apple Music. And I
Speaker 2: think like having done that like every day for my
Speaker 2: whole life, it just naturally gave me this sensitivity and
Speaker 2: feeling for pop music as well, not just not just
Speaker 2: not just the aesthetic, but like the structure, Like pop
Speaker 2: structure is very different, but it still has a structure.
Speaker 2: And so I think for me, it was all about
Speaker 2: not being stuck in this box. Like I loved music
Speaker 2: from the Beatles, I loved music from you know, pop artists,
Speaker 2: and I just always thought that I was going to
Speaker 2: be a classical musician and I couldn't do both. And
Speaker 2: so as I got older, I was like, well, why
Speaker 2: can't I do both? And I think part of the
Speaker 2: beautiful thing about music is being able to not live
Speaker 2: in a box. I think that's the glory of music,
Speaker 2: is to experiment. And it was hard for me, because
Speaker 2: you know, it was looked down upon. I was kicked
Speaker 2: out of a chamber group. I did a hip hop
Speaker 2: concert in New York, and I remember my chamber group
Speaker 2: was like, that's selling out. We don't want you in
Speaker 2: our group anymore. And so that, you know, I struggled
Speaker 2: with a lot of that, but that actually fired me
Speaker 2: up because I was like, that is not fair, and
Speaker 2: I don't think it's the right approach. I think if
Speaker 2: you really love music, you can love all styles of music.
Speaker 2: So for me, it was more it was almost like
Speaker 2: a bellion breaking out of that classical structure and doing
Speaker 2: experimenting and doing doing things that I hadn't heard before.
Speaker 2: And with that comes confusion, but also it's very exciting,
Speaker 2: and so I think I kind of fed off of
Speaker 2: that excitement.
Speaker 4: And you created a new path called popsicle.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: If I try to explain to you what popsicle is,
Speaker 2: it would be so long and hard. So it just
Speaker 2: found that word popsicle to be very like easy pop.
Speaker 1: But I think you just did.
Speaker 4: You just did explain it without me even asking you did.
Speaker 4: You did just explain it. There is a furthermore, by
Speaker 4: the way, I can't forget that black Bawk said, he said,
Speaker 4: and and furthermore, when can we collaborate?
Speaker 2: That was his other Furthermore, as I love what he does.
Speaker 2: He does great tiktoks, he does really cool things. He's
Speaker 2: such a swag. I love him. He's so he did
Speaker 2: a show over at Joe's Pub that sadly I missed,
Speaker 2: But I can't wait to collaborate. I love collaborating. You know,
Speaker 2: as a pianist, he would understand how solitary it can be.
Speaker 2: We don't have an orchestra that we go to. You know,
Speaker 2: I serve on the board of the Manhattan School of
Speaker 2: Music and I just came literally just walked in the
Speaker 2: door from that meeting, and there we were talking about
Speaker 2: Aspen Summer Music Festival, and I was laughing that like,
Speaker 2: as a pianist, I was much less busier than the
Speaker 2: violinists because I was always alone practicing in my practice
Speaker 2: room as opposed to doing different, you know, orchestral sessions
Speaker 2: and stuff. So it's always nice to collaborate.
Speaker 4: Well, speaking of collaborating, your performance with Cardi b was
Speaker 4: a pretty amazing moment there at the Grammys.
Speaker 1: How did that come about?
Speaker 4: And as you reflect on it now, how did that
Speaker 4: really impact your career?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that obviously, you know, happened to twenty nineteen,
Speaker 2: and you know people are still talking about that and
Speaker 2: wanting to talk about that, So I know how much
Speaker 2: of an impact culturally and musically that performance had. But
Speaker 2: had I not stepped outside of that structure, and had
Speaker 2: I not gone to another level musically experimentally, I wouldn't
Speaker 2: have had that opportunity. I was actually on social media
Speaker 2: just playing around with pop songs and just playing over
Speaker 2: top of them. That particular performance. Her team had seen
Speaker 2: me perform Humble by Kendrick Lamar over his playing some
Speaker 2: piano over his song, and when they heard that, that's
Speaker 2: when they reached out to me. They just called me.
Speaker 2: They got my number from my friend who's also a publicist,
Speaker 2: Lauren Chardini, and they reached out to her through They
Speaker 2: reached out to me through her, and yeah, and they
Speaker 2: were like, we saw this Humble cover and we want
Speaker 2: you to come play with Cardi and it's amazing. I
Speaker 2: think had I not really openly stepped out of the
Speaker 2: box on socials and shown people and social media is
Speaker 2: great because it gives you that platform to experiment and
Speaker 2: I wouldn't have had that, and I probably wouldn't be
Speaker 2: talking to you today. Maybe maybe I would be, but
Speaker 2: you know, maybe not.
Speaker 4: There's always a reason, right that things happen, for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 4: so let's talk about this fantastic project. You must be
Speaker 4: so excited about it. The world is excited about I
Speaker 4: love me More. There's so many elements that I want
Speaker 4: to talk about. First of all, how when you're embarking
Speaker 4: on such a project like that do you first consider
Speaker 4: the specific songs and then how do you then like
Speaker 4: work through who the collaborators are going to be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Actually, for a pianist, picking the music is probably
Speaker 2: the hardest part, I think. I think there's so much
Speaker 2: amazing repersoire it's really hard to narrow it down to
Speaker 2: like fourteen to eighteen songs. Like if I could, I
Speaker 2: would record a thousand song album probably, But what I
Speaker 2: have to do is first pick songs that I love
Speaker 2: because it's going to be a lot of time orchestrating
Speaker 2: and arranging and writing around these themes. But also they
Speaker 2: have to work on piano. So when you transcribe something
Speaker 2: that was original like Flowers for instance, Flowers was written
Speaker 2: for a vocal and when I was arranging it for
Speaker 2: solo piano. I wasn't sure if it was going to
Speaker 2: work because without you know, piano doesn't have the ability
Speaker 2: to do like portamento or any kind of slides or
Speaker 2: vibrato like a string instrument. So first I have to
Speaker 2: figure out while choosing songs if it's gonna work sonically,
Speaker 2: and then you know, it's a matter of just narrowing.
Speaker 2: It's always like fifty sixty songs I start with and
Speaker 2: then narrowing them down to tell a story. I think
Speaker 2: instrumental music is so amazing because there are no words,
Speaker 2: so you can really craft a story and you can
Speaker 2: really be creative when when picking repertoire. Yeah, and I
Speaker 2: always I always want to I for this album in
Speaker 2: particular and my last Christmas album, I wanted to include
Speaker 2: different genres. So we have you know, modern pop songs,
Speaker 2: we have rama, which was you know, from the seventeen hundreds,
Speaker 2: and then we have original music. So all of that
Speaker 2: was really important to me to include all of the
Speaker 2: genres that matter to me. But the song was the
Speaker 2: album was actually supposed to be a Valentine's Day album,
Speaker 2: and as I was going through the songs, I realized
Speaker 2: I was like thinking about Oh, I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: I listened to this song when I was going through
Speaker 2: a breakup, or oh, I would listen to this song,
Speaker 2: you know, when I was feeling really down. And then
Speaker 2: I thought, what would be so much cooler and just
Speaker 2: more impactful for me is to make the album about
Speaker 2: loving yourself self love, because you really can't love somebody
Speaker 2: until you love yourself right, and the most important love
Speaker 2: you have is the love you have with yourself. So
Speaker 2: I chose songs that were empowering, but also songs that
Speaker 2: I listened to when I was feeling down, and then
Speaker 2: a couple songs I wrote when I was feeling really down.
Speaker 2: So that was how I created the track list for
Speaker 2: this particular album.
Speaker 3: We'll be right back with more of the Taken a
Speaker 3: Walk podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 4: The folks that you end up collaborating with, is that
Speaker 4: sort of a bit of a trial and error as well,
Speaker 4: that you're going to bring them on board with the
Speaker 4: project or does that just happen organically?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: I think for features, I was very intentional about my features.
Speaker 2: The features on my album. They are such pros of
Speaker 2: pro so we have Babyface, we have Jojo, we have
Speaker 2: Nicol Schers and request Love. They all brought something very
Speaker 2: specific to the song that they worked on with me
Speaker 2: and performed with me. And as I was choosing songs
Speaker 2: and writing the arrangements, I didn't necessarily think I was
Speaker 2: going to be able to have features because these are
Speaker 2: huge names. There's huge stars like I don't know if
Speaker 2: they have time to come record with me. So it
Speaker 2: had to work both without the vocal and with as
Speaker 2: I was writing the arrangement. But then, you know, when
Speaker 2: I when I was listening, I would think who would
Speaker 2: be good for this song and who would be you know, Babyface,
Speaker 2: And yesterday was like perfect, you know perfect?
Speaker 4: And I know that you have a history with with
Speaker 4: him obviously, right he he he helped start things for you,
Speaker 4: didn't he absolutely?
Speaker 2: And yeah, yeah, having that history with him allowed me
Speaker 2: to really understand his vocals, his range, how he what
Speaker 2: kind of songs mean me mean something to him, how
Speaker 2: his how he sings. And I was like, oh gosh,
Speaker 2: if he did yesterday like with that falsetto, you know,
Speaker 2: it will be so angelic and and my version is
Speaker 2: much slower than the original. And Jojo, you know. I
Speaker 2: was actually with her at the opening of Sunset Boulevard.
Speaker 2: We were there to see Nicole Scherzinger for her opening
Speaker 2: night and we were talking during intermission and I was like,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm doing the very thought of you and
Speaker 2: you could kill that. I was like, you could kill it.
Speaker 2: Even though it's an f I'm so sorry, it's two
Speaker 2: whole steps above your vocal range, but I still feel
Speaker 2: like you can kill this song. And so basically I
Speaker 2: had recorded the whole album as is, without any vocal features,
Speaker 2: without any without any confirmation that these features were going
Speaker 2: to happen. Except Babyface. Babyface I knew was going to happen.
Speaker 2: He came to London with me. But the rest I
Speaker 2: really had to be very intentional about asking and sending
Speaker 2: the piece and making sure that I felt authentically that
Speaker 2: it was a perfect match.
Speaker 4: I mean, yesterday is just the beauty of it just
Speaker 4: you know, brings you to tears and it's just it's
Speaker 4: just marvelous. How about being in Abbey Roads Studios and
Speaker 4: working there, What did that mean to you?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, it was just such a dream come true.
Speaker 2: I'm a huge Beatles fan. I think the Beatles are
Speaker 2: like the You know, not only are they one of
Speaker 2: the best groups in the world, a lot of their
Speaker 2: music has been inspired by classical music, and I think
Speaker 2: that is so beautiful, Like Hey Jude, is the same
Speaker 2: theme as a Bach harpsichord concerto, the Arioso, I think
Speaker 2: it's called. And I really respect musicians who appreciate classical
Speaker 2: music and incorporate that into their music, because when you're
Speaker 2: that big of a star, you're bringing classical music to
Speaker 2: so many other people. So Yesterday is actually also a
Speaker 2: little bit of its theme is based off of a
Speaker 2: piano sonata of brockmaninoff very obscure one that people don't
Speaker 2: really know. But still it's very very beautiful. And yeah,
Speaker 2: so I was a huge fan, like from the from
Speaker 2: the Womb, and Yesterday was on my bucket list to
Speaker 2: write and arrange because my mother and I listened to
Speaker 2: that song all the time when I was little. She
Speaker 2: actually used to have this VHS tape of a TV
Speaker 2: shown Korea called Yesterday shipped to us by her friend,
Speaker 2: and it played the theme song like all the whole
Speaker 2: way through the every episode, like in Korea, like Korean
Speaker 2: soap operas are like forty episodes per season, like maybe fifties,
Speaker 2: you have to hear it. I like listened to a
Speaker 2: lot of yesterday and it like, it was so cool
Speaker 2: to see this song in a Korean drama coming here
Speaker 2: on like you know, on a VHS tape and me
Speaker 2: listening it to with my mother, who is you know,
Speaker 2: an immigrant. It was this connection. So for me to
Speaker 2: record it at Abbey Road with the Royal Philharmonic in
Speaker 2: a place where Ringo star, in the same room where
Speaker 2: Ringo star did all his drums was just like it
Speaker 2: was just such an incredible experience. I feel so grateful.
Speaker 4: Do you ever just stop and think and go, okay,
Speaker 4: going from mechanics Burg, Pennsylvania to Abbey Roads Studios, How
Speaker 4: did this happen?
Speaker 2: You know? I think maybe my Like you know, I
Speaker 2: always joke that my superpower isn't my talent, but it's luck, right,
Speaker 2: I think, And I'm very aware of the opportunity I've
Speaker 2: been given and the luck that I've been given by
Speaker 2: the universe or God or whoever you want to call it.
Speaker 2: If I had not had access, I had parents who
Speaker 2: really supported the arts and made it a very conscious
Speaker 2: effort to give me Violin lessons and piano lessons and cello.
Speaker 2: I played cello for ten years as well, and I
Speaker 2: understand how lucky I am to have that, but luck
Speaker 2: to you know, my piano teacher always said uck is
Speaker 2: when preparation meets opportunity. So I think being lucky and
Speaker 2: then also working hard and just never you know, never
Speaker 2: having a dream too small. You know, it was a
Speaker 2: crazy dream. Are there lots of mechanics and mechanics Burg.
Speaker 2: Everyone in New York would ask me that, And you know,
Speaker 2: going from mechanics Burg to New York and then and
Speaker 2: then going to London. I mean, it's just such a
Speaker 2: it's such a wh when I look back, I almost
Speaker 2: can't believe it, like I never expected it. But also
Speaker 2: I had big dreams and I didn't want to stay
Speaker 2: in the Mechanicsburg. I wanted to expose people to classical music.
Speaker 2: I wanted to have a career in music, and I
Speaker 2: told myself, like, I'm going to be open minded whatever
Speaker 2: it takes to have a career in classical music. I'm
Speaker 2: going to make sure that I work hard for that
Speaker 2: and seize every opportunity. So that was kind of my focus.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I could have never I didn't even think
Speaker 2: I was gonna be at Abbey Road like three years ago.
Speaker 2: Three years ago, I was like, like, couldn't have imagined
Speaker 2: me going to abby Road and recording with the Royal Philharmonic.
Speaker 2: It was amazing.
Speaker 4: So is it the sense of incredible gratitude that you
Speaker 4: have that ultimately influences you and led you to being
Speaker 4: such an advocate for you know the issue of human
Speaker 4: trafficking being recognized and also you know music.
Speaker 1: Education as well.
Speaker 4: Is it that at its core that has driven you
Speaker 4: to have this purpose?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I think that is the core. You nailed it.
Speaker 2: When I got involved in anti human trafficking, it was
Speaker 2: two thousand and six. I was in Cambodia kind of
Speaker 2: on a vacation, and I considered myself well traveled. I
Speaker 2: considered myself, you know, reasonably intelligent. I watched the news
Speaker 2: and I knew nothing about human trafficking. I had no idea.
Speaker 2: Back then, it was only a one point five billion
Speaker 2: dollar industry. Now it's like four hundred and fifty billion
Speaker 2: dollar year industry. But I had no idea, and I
Speaker 2: thought that was just horrible. And what I realized was
Speaker 2: that access to music education, like human trafficking, is largely
Speaker 2: based on geography, and justice can never be based on geography.
Speaker 2: And if I had been born in cm Reape who
Speaker 2: I probably wouldn't be performing with Cardi B at the Grammys.
Speaker 2: I probably wouldn't have the same opportunity and education to music.
Speaker 2: But also I would be much more vulnerable to human trafficking. Right, So,
Speaker 2: I think having been given so much opportunity, having understanding
Speaker 2: how lucky I am has definitely made me feel like
Speaker 2: I had. My purpose is to advocate for music education
Speaker 2: so that everybody has access, because I really do believe
Speaker 2: that music education is a tool of prevention against human
Speaker 2: trafficking because when you look at human trafficking as a whole,
Speaker 2: what are the root causes of human trafficking Poverty, lack
Speaker 2: of identity, lack of self worth and self esteem, lack
Speaker 2: of community. And then when you look at what music
Speaker 2: education programs can do for a community, they provide self worth, identity,
Speaker 2: connection to your community, and they kind of overcome material
Speaker 2: poverty in a way because all of a sudden you
Speaker 2: have this worth is self worth. And so I made
Speaker 2: that discovery back in twenty ten, and when I was
Speaker 2: writing a speech at the un it just occurred to
Speaker 2: me at this like light bulb moment when I was like,
Speaker 2: how am I going to talk about music education and
Speaker 2: human trafficking in one speech? And so then that really
Speaker 2: was I was able to really hone in on this
Speaker 2: music education and show people like, really, this is very important.
Speaker 2: Even though it's not a tangible thing that you can touch,
Speaker 2: the benefits of having a music program in a school
Speaker 2: and a community are one of them powerful tools we
Speaker 2: have to create a better society. So that became my purpose,
Speaker 2: and I think the only way for me to enjoy
Speaker 2: life and live a long, happy life is to have purpose.
Speaker 2: Though that was important to me, and.
Speaker 4: But I also bringing you know, back to the beginning,
Speaker 4: bringing classical music more upfront to people, and you know,
Speaker 4: intertwining it brilliantly with pop music and all other genres,
Speaker 4: making it more accessible to people.
Speaker 2: The goal is to show people who don't necessarily have
Speaker 2: access that this art form is valuable and it's relevant
Speaker 2: and all of us can benefit from it. It's like
Speaker 2: push ups for your brain, you know. I say to
Speaker 2: adults all the time who are telling me, oh I
Speaker 2: wish I never quit piano, or oh I wish I
Speaker 2: learned piano I'm like, it's not really like too late
Speaker 2: at all.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: It's like, would you tell an athlete like, oh I
Speaker 2: wish you know, I don't exercise because I'm not going
Speaker 2: to become a professional athlete. It's a why exercise, right,
Speaker 2: It's the same thing. It's like, it's exercise for your brain,
Speaker 2: it's exercise for your soul. It's something that I think
Speaker 2: we should all be participating in at least once a week.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 4: Enclosing, I think I know the answer to this question
Speaker 4: because you touched on this earlier, but I do have
Speaker 4: to ask you. I produce this other podcast and it's
Speaker 4: called Music Save Me, and it's about the healing power
Speaker 4: of music on so many different levels. So do you believe,
Speaker 4: Chloe that music has healing power?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Absolutely. I mean if you're feeling really down and you
Speaker 2: listen to your favorite song ever, like, you're not going
Speaker 2: to feel worse after, right, You're probably going to feel better.
Speaker 2: If you know, you might even have goosebumps, you might
Speaker 2: even feel happier. And that's why they do all these
Speaker 2: studies about listening to music while you exercise can be motivating.
Speaker 2: So definitely, I think I think music has this amazing
Speaker 2: ability to to heal, whether you're playing or just listening.
Speaker 2: And I when I was I don't think anybody knows
Speaker 2: this story. In fact, you're probably going to be the
Speaker 2: first person to hear the story. But when I was
Speaker 2: twelve years old, one of my best friends was coming
Speaker 2: to visit me for my birthday and she and her
Speaker 2: boyfriend were her like not her boyfriend, but like because
Speaker 2: we were like twelve, but like, you know, her little
Speaker 2: boyfriend friend. They were hit by a train and killed.
Speaker 2: And I remember her sister called me and was like, Melissa,
Speaker 2: can't come to your birthday. She died in a train accident.
Speaker 2: And it was so traumatizing, like for me, and I
Speaker 2: immediately went to the piano and just played chopin for
Speaker 2: like five days straight, very emotional chopin pieces right, and
Speaker 2: that really got me through like a very traumatic experience
Speaker 2: instead of like doing something negative, you know, I put
Speaker 2: all of that emotion into music. And I always wished
Speaker 2: that other people could have that opportunity to be able
Speaker 2: to channel their emotions, whether they're good or bad, into music.
Speaker 2: And that's why I think music therapy is so important,
Speaker 2: especially especially in healing and in hospitals, in therapy centers
Speaker 2: and just in your home. So yes, sorry that was
Speaker 2: a long answer.
Speaker 1: No, sorry whatsoever. Chloe.
Speaker 4: I feel like, even though you've been at it for decades,
Speaker 4: that you're just beginning. I know this, This this incredible adventure,
Speaker 4: and I'm so grateful that you took the time to
Speaker 4: be on Taking a Walk. Congratulations on the new album
Speaker 4: I Love Me More and.
Speaker 1: It's it's sensational. Your work is amazing.
Speaker 4: I can't wait to continue to see your your star
Speaker 4: rise even more. And I hope someday you'll come back
Speaker 4: and say hi and we can we can catch.
Speaker 2: Up wise and hopefully in person next time.
Speaker 1: That would be That would be wonderful.
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you so much for having me, and thank
Speaker 2: you for all of the work that you do on
Speaker 2: your podcast and the other one. It's really amazing. So
Speaker 2: thank you for having.
Speaker 1: Me, Chloe Flower. Thanks for being on Taking a Walk.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Speaker 3: Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
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Speaker 3: a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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