In the summer of 2020, sister R&B duo Chloe x Halle offered a pandemic-weary world reprieve. Their GRAMMY-nominated album, Ungodly Hour, and singles "Do It" and "Forgive Me" melted away worry; their melodies induced passionate head nods, sing-alongs and solo dance breaks in front of bedroom mirrors. Yet as audiences clamored for Chloe x Halle during lockdown, the sisters found themselves apart from each other for the first time.
For Chlöe, the newfound solitude presented a daunting amount of time; she was forced to reflect on who she was on her own, and who she wanted to become. This period of introspection gave way to the creation of her debut solo album, In Pieces, which arrives March 31.
"No matter how small or big the cracks are, if you think about it, all of us are in pieces," Chlöe Bailey tells GRAMMY.com, "but it's how well we choose to let the world see us holding it together, or not."
Yet Bailey did not fall to pieces apart from her sister, nor is she a stranger to the entertainment industry. An actress and singer, Bailey has been a performer since age four — her more recent television credits include "Let It Shine," "Grown-ish" and "Swarm" — and formed Chloe x Halle with her sister at age 13. They have since been nominated for five GRAMMY Awards. The duo’s self-produced 2018 debut album, The Kids Are Alright, welcomed the world to their fresh vocals and harmonies showcasing the beauty of a homegrown synergy. Ungodly Hour solidified both their name and their artistry in a sonically untapped realm of R&B.
On In Pieces, Bailey dares to trust her total creative prowess and aims to wrap her head around the past three years of tumult. Bailey penned and co-produced her 14-track album, inviting listeners into a more vulnerable side sans her sister.
Ahead of its release, GRAMMY.com caught up with Chlöe to break down In Pieces' three-year production process. The 24-year-old Los Angeles resident unpacked how she learned when to bear it all, when to listen to herself, and how to trust in her ability to pick herself up after falling apart.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
You mentioned that this solo project, a derivation from Chloe x Halle, started off as a little secret. What spurred the initial thought to begin creating as Chlöe?
Well, I never really had the confidence to pursue the idea until I was kind of left in L.A. Halle was overseas — it was the longest we’d ever been apart from each other — and I was missing her. I was missing music and being on stage and performing, and she was filming for like one to three years as well.
I didn't feel like myself anymore or who I was with my sister. So I slowly started racking up the courage somewhere, and that's when the idea was formed and birthed.
You’ve been working on In Pieces for three years now. Can you walk me through that?
I think three is a lucky number because even with The Kids Are Alright, it took us three years to create that. So it doesn't ever feel like that amount of time at the moment.
I use music and therapy in the best way possible. [I've had] a huge range of emotions for these past three years, so I think that's why [In Pieces] feels well-rounded when it comes to the storytelling and my feelings. It puts all of the times where I was feeling my lowest, puts all the times I was feeling my highest, all the times I was feeling insecure. And [creating the album] helped me reflect from all of these different perspectives and time periods of when I felt these things.
Within those three years, were there any pivotal moments or total scraps that changed the trajectory of the project?
Absolutely. These past two years were the most difficult and mentally challenging years for me. But through that, I have found a lot of strength and so much about myself, and I put that through the music.
I was able to speak on things in my own way through this process; whether it just touches on surface level or gets down to the nitty gritty, I know what it means. The other day, I was driving while playing the album, and I just broke down crying, and then I started laughing. It just did such a great job of reminding me what I was going through.
What kept you going during those difficult times?
I leaned on my godmom a lot of times. I leaned on music. That was pretty much it.
And if I didn't have God guiding me through it all, I probably wouldn't be here right now.
Are those highs and lows through the years where the title In Pieces comes from?
Yeah, it's definitely been a journey. I think about how many times we get broken down in life and how we have to put ourselves back together again. No matter how small or big the cracks are, if you think about it, all of us are in pieces, but it's how well we choose to let the world see us holding it together or not.
How do you decide what to share with the world and what to hold in when it comes to songwriting?
Nothing's off limits. If I didn’t go into the studio with that mindset, then I wouldn't properly be able to create because I'd already be putting barriers on my mind. I leave it all out and bear my complete soul. After the fact, when everything's done, and when it comes to sequencing and stuff, that's when I kind of decide what I want to bear or not.
Okay, so it’s almost like what diary entries do I want to publish?
Exactly, it’s like your diary being put on display.
As a woman in music, you’ve dealt with some criticism from those who say you should cover up and just let the music speak for itself. How do you feel about these comments?
I think of all of the greats, and they became great because they were different doing something that people weren't used to. When it comes to me being a woman and hoping to be accepted, that's hard. Especially in this generation, with social media and people expecting you to be this one thing that’s perfect all the time. Society has a huge platform where all of us are up for judgment.
But I think we just have to stick to our guns and be ourselves, and know that’s what will make the mark on people’s lives and what we'll leave when we leave this earth.
With so many opinions, it can be tough to know when to listen to others and when to listen to yourself. How do you discern when to listen to who?
For me, I'm learning. I just have to kind of follow my gut and my instinct and what makes me happy. When I begin to create based off of what I think other people will appreciate from me, I get stuck in a creative block. Even when I was creating In Pieces, there was a time I was like, people say they don't want pop music from me, so I started going back to my experimental slow jam roots. Then people were like, "So where's the pop songs? Where's the upbeat stuff?" You definitely can’t please everybody. You just kind of got to do what makes you happy in that moment.
We’ve touched on songwriting, but you’re also known as a producer. What was your production process for this album?
The first six months to a year when I was creating this, I was in my bedroom just making a bunch of beats and doing weird experimental stuff. Not too many people knew that I wanted to create an album, so it was really almost like my little secret.
Then as I started branching out and started sessions again, I began working with engineers in the studio instead of me engineering by myself. I felt so free because doing that took the pressure off of me in a way. I no longer had to take on every role and feel like I had to make everything perfect by myself. I worked with some incredible people on this record, and I got used to that freedom.
How did that freedom change your process?
For a while it was just me writing and I kind of put my production side of things away for a little bit. After doing that for a few months, I almost was scared to pick it back up because I was like, What if I can't make music anymore? Is that part of me gone? So the more time I procrastinated, the more that fear grew.
What broke you out of that fear?
I think it was realizing that …it wouldn't really feel like me if I wasn't putting my all into it, like I usually would when it came to my production. I needed to feel the Chlöe side to the demos. Yes, I could write songs with other incredible songwriters and have the producers make the beat, but I think what was missing was me.
It was probably in the last six to eight months of this project’s creation [that] I found freedom again within production. I found my voice again and that block kind of went away. That's when everything started falling into place.
The visuals for the singles so intricately break down the story and emotions of these songs; it's as if they're in the middle of that relationship-ending fight and crying away a breakup with you right before a newfound confidence blossoms. Can you explain the concept design behind the music videos?
Well, for "Pray It Away" it was my concept, and with all the other visual little pieces, I have a really great creative team. We were all discussing things like, what does In Pieces really mean? All that I really was building upon was this porcelain doll image that I saved four years ago. And I said, "This is going to be my album cover."
Before I started creating the music, my godmom was like,"I see you in this glass box and breaking out of it." It's telling the side of being left in pieces and heartbroken and not knowing what will come, but also of putting yourself back together through it all.
It's also looking at the box that I have put on myself, that people have put on me. Everyone who told me I couldn't do something, everyone who told me that nobody would listen to my music. And I'm not talking about people online — it’s people I know personally. So it's like, breaking all of that.
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