We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chloe Vaught. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chloe below.

Hi Chloe , thanks for joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

At the end of the day, I am in my happy place as an artist. I think when things are really overwhelming is when I stop and ask myself, “Why am I doing all this? Should I just have a normie job?” When you’re 100% freelance, sometimes you can wind up in these scenarios where you’re doing so many different gigs and shows all at the same time, and it can feel like there’s nothing left in the creative reserves at the end of the day! From February to June, I was deep in the hustle and I felt myself starting to lose the love for the craft. I didn’t leave time for other hobbies or social relationships. I took a month off from working (which is a privilege to be able to do so!) and focused on nurturing all the other areas of my life. You need life experiences to fill the well of creativity! Burnout and imbalance is when I wonder if it is worth the pressure. But once I get a few days to breathe, I come to a more regulated space and realize I love my work, I was just really overbooked!

Chloe , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a vocal artist in Los Angeles, California and am really a jack of all trades vocalist. I sing in opera choruses, symphony choruses, on movie scores, in experimental operas, a Christmas jazz band; if it sounds fun, I do it! Sometimes, I feel like I randomly ended up doing this work. Although I have been a singer my entire life, I didn’t grow up exposed to classical music. I applied to study music in school mostly because I thought, ” my GPA won’t get me into a top school like UCLA, but surely an audition and interview will!” From there I found that I really enjoyed what opportunities arose from the deep study of music. I was big on singing in choir most of my life, and had that pristine ethereal synthesizer sound that so many people go bananas for in LA. As I got a bit older, I found a love for many other corners of my voice and particularly got into exploring new classical works, both staged and unstaged. I love transporting people to other worlds through live performance. I always say, “the veil is thin!” The best kind of gig to me is getting to collaborate with a composer on something they are preparing to birth into the world. It’s rewarding to bring music to life for the first time from the page and workshop it. I am most proud of my ability to walk in the room and bring excellent musicianship to the table paired with a calm and friendly energy. You don’t always get both on the gig!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is being a magician. Yes! I possess a power to transport people to other time periods, other emotions, other realms. I love being able to set a scene and invite people in. I think that is one of the reasons why people like to experience art because they like to be taken along on a journey. It ignites creativity and new thought patterns within them. It brings them closer to their humanity.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I feel like I am in the middle of a pivot right now! When I first started pursuing a career as a vocalist, I was a fierce “yes woman”. I took everything and anything thrown my way. I think at that time in your career, it’s actually a great choice to do that because it gets you to hit the ground running, connect with people and figure out what type of things you actually like doing. I also think it can set you up for burnout after a while, which has definitely happened to me! I am currently inviting more space into my life. More space to explore hobbies, spend time with loved ones, and create. I think in the past I let my gigs eat up all of me and my time. My new approach is to just do what I want to do. I feel confident that everything will fall into place, and that space allows for more of the opportunities you want to be doing to flow in!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.chloemaliavaught.com
• Instagram: @mrsclausreindeer, @chloemaliav
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@chloevaught1253
• Other: Christmas jazz band:
  https://www.youtube.com/@MrsClausSwinginReindeer

Image Credits

Jesse Wilson, Pete Agraan, Argel Rojo, Derek Cornell, Jamie Pham