For Michigan-born singer-songwriter Chloe Kimes, making a living in music has always been about more than chasing fame. It’s about building a life around the songs, the stage and the freedom to find her own way.
Raised in Mason County, Kimes began performing as a teenager in downtown Ludington before eventually making her way to Middle Tennessee State University and, ultimately, Nashville. Along the way, she found inspiration in Michigan’s close-knit music community, developed a distinctive songwriting voice and forged an independent career on her own terms.
Now, Kimes is celebrating the release of Daredevil, her sophomore full-length album, an entirely independent, 12-song record that captures her willingness to embrace vulnerability, take creative risks and say the things that might otherwise go unsaid. The album arrives Friday, Oct. 16, with a release show tonight, Thursday, Oct. 15, at Skinny Dennis Nashville.
Grand Rapids Magazine caught up with Kimes following her August performance at Stix in Ludington to talk about growing up in West Michigan, finding her footing in Nashville, the artists who shaped her and the ideas behind Daredevil—a record that reflects both the risks and rewards of making a life in music.
Grand Rapids Magazine: Where were you born, and where did you grow up in West Michigan?
Chloe Kimes: I was born in Ludington, Michigan. Grew up in the woods of Riverton, pretty nearby Lake Michigan. I also say “Mason County” because it encompasses Ludington and Scottville, where I went to school.
GR Mag: Where did you attend school from kindergarten through 12th grade? Did you attend college?
CK: Mason County Central for grade school. Go spartans! I went to Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
GR Mag: What year did you graduate from high school and, if applicable, college?
CK: Graduated HS in 2016. I moved to Tennessee that fall and attended Middle Tennessee State University where I graduated with a Recording Industry/Songwriting B.S. degree in 2019.
GR Mag: When did you first realize you wanted to pursue songwriting and performing seriously?
CK: I think when I was about 13/14 years old. My dad took me to an NSAI Songwriting convention in Nashville the summer after my freshman year of high school and I had started playing coffee shop “gigs” (basically just busking on the sidewalks in downtown Ludington) around that time too. I remember the first time I saw Lindsay Lou and Billy Strings perform live at the Lowell Bluegrass festival that same summer (2012) and this was a time when a lot of stuff clicked into place for me. I was starting to discover the local scene and also learned about the accessibility of being a working musician. This time really opened my eyes to different paths of success beyond the very boilerplate: “get lucky, get a record deal, get famous” sort of thing that is ingrained in a lot of people’s ideas about the entertainment industry, mine included until I started meeting the working musicians around the MI scene.
GR Mag: How old were you when you first picked up a guitar?
CK: My dad taught me a few chords when I was 9 or 10. Really just G, C and D, like very simple stuff. I would have him print out chord sheets for me so I could teach myself my favorite songs and ended up learning how to be a rhythm guitar player that way. Gotta give my dad credit for putting the guitar in my hands but I’m pretty self taught.
GR Mag: Do you remember your first-ever gig? Where was it, and how old were you?
CK: There used to be a coffee shop in downtown Ludington called Redolencia (RIP, with a big heart) and they would let me play outside with a speaker and tip jar. I had some buddies I would do this with too. I think that was probably the first time I ever made any money playing music. I would’ve been 13 going on 14 that spring when I started doing it. I absolutely loved Redolencia and miss it dearly.
GR Mag: When did you move to Nashville, and what prompted you to take that leap?
CK: I went to school at Middle Tennessee State University thanks to some coaxing from my mom. I knew I wanted to be in Nashville at some point, but I had been gigging really consistently and making money through high school so I didn’t really want to stop that to go to college. I wasn’t super interested in college, especially not a traditional school of music, but when we found MTSU and I realized I could study music business and songwriting and move to Nashville at the same time, it felt like a double whammy. It was also an excellent way to build a whole network of community in the city. MTSU was a great choice for me and I loved it.
GR Mag: What has building a career in Nashville taught you—not just about the music business, but about yourself as an artist?
CK: That I’m tough as nails! You really have to be relentlessly passionate about what you’re doing to find your way in a city that has so much music. Something I have learned living here is that there is definitely not one certain way to have a career in music––there are very, very, very many––but whatever way you choose, you gotta be really steadfast and aware of what your actual goals are. I am discovering success in my path because my goal has never been to be rich and famous, but has always just been about finding sustainability in a career onstage, behind a mic, in as many places as I can travel to. And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing for years now so by that definition, I’m making it here and really fulfilled by the work I’m doing.
GR Mag: At your Stix show, you performed one of my favorite Michigan songs, the Accidentals’ “Michigan and Again.” What’s your connection to the band, and what made you choose that song for the show?
CK: Fun! I love that song too. I actually had never covered it prior to that show you saw at Stix. Yes, the Accidentals are dear buddies of mine and we have been friends for years coming up in the Michigan scene before all of us eventually moved to Tennessee. Katie and Sav often come out to my house parties in Nashville if we’re all in town at the same time! Katie Larson was playing cello in my band that weekend we came home to Ludington for the show at Stix. It was her first time in the Chloe Kimes band and I thought it would be super fun to cover an Accidentals song to honor both of our musical upbringings being so intertwined and all. So that was the first and only time I’ve ever performed “Michigan and Again” and it was so fun getting to do it with Katie herself.
GR Mag: Your songwriting is clever without feeling forced, and your lyrics often take genuinely surprising turns. Where do your songs typically begin, and how do you develop an initial idea, phrase or experience into a finished song?
CK: I like being surprising or saying the “surprising” thing––I think there’s a lot of untapped sentiments of the human experience that get missed in a song when the writer is trying to stay in the lane of what a listener might want or expect. I also like focusing on trying to find new ways to say old familiar things. I try to capture visuals and moments that show and build a story without actually telling you what the story is, and I think that helps keep lyrics feeling energized and in your words not “forced.” Most of my songs begin from a line or two that usually comes to me as lyric and melody at the same time. I have a massive note in my phone of single lines that I pull from and sometimes weave together later. I do a lot of songwriting without an instrument in my hands, too. I get a lot of ideas when I’m out walking or doing the dishes and especially when I’m driving. My voice and command of melody feels like my main instrument and I like writing without the limitations of my own technical skills on guitar or piano. So I often work a melody in my head and figure out the accompaniment later. I wrote the entirety of He Still Listens to the Radio on a solo drive from San Diego to Nashville last year.
GR Mag: Do you play any instruments besides guitar?
CK: Not well these days, hah. I used to play piano and mandolin pretty frequently but I’m out of practice with the amount of time I spend as a front woman with a guitar in her hands.
GR Mag: Your sophomore album, Daredevil, arrives Oct. 16. What inspired the record, and is there a central theme or thread connecting the songs?
CK: My new album is called “Daredevil.” It’s my sophomore full length and I’m releasing it completely independently, as in no record label support. As far as a theme goes, there’s not really a thematic through line in its stories but there is a strong concept here for me personally as a writer and an artist. All of these songs came after a deliberate shift in my own songwriting process where I started implementing this practice of writing things that I, or maybe someone around me, was afraid to say. So while the songs aren’t about fear specifically, there is a great deal of consideration of fear, be it personal or collective, throughout the entire record. I think this practice is a big part of what has come to define that “clever without feeling forced” quality you mentioned earlier. I feel like I have accessed this leveled up version of “my voice” in the process of digging into the thing that “shouldn’t be said” and now it’s just sort of becoming my voice. That’s also where the real super power of songwriting sits for me too; the ability to tell a story and preserve its truth without ever having to actually define what’s true or make believe is my favorite part of the whole bag. So as far as the actual songs go, they are mostly just stories of my real life as I really feel it. But songwriting offers me this protective curtain that shields my own gnarly truths and fibs from ever having to actually reveal themselves and that lets me be highly vulnerable and exposed. The older I get, the more I like that feeling of being exposed. It’s like the rawest most visceral feeling I have ever found in my own humanity and I find myself chasing it. It’s thrill seeking, like a Daredevil tends to be.
The title for this record came to me the moment I woke up on the morning of the last studio session. I rolled over and opened my eyes to “Daredevil” and all that it meant to me, perfectly packaged in this beautiful little thought bubble. It was this moment of clarity about my exhaustion and passion and work towards getting this album made in the midst of touring and hustling and figuring out how to afford that finally gave my work a name that made sense. In addition to the thrill seeking I attribute to songwriting, being a self-releasing independent touring artist is like insane daredevil behavior. I mention this in my liner notes, but having been an indie artist for the last decade, working and now somehow making a living on my own as a touring musician who does everything self-funded and self-managed literally feels like I’m just shooting myself out of a cannon every day and hoping for a landing, for an applause. It’s all very high risk, high reward without the safety net of a day job or a record label advance or a backup plan. So naming the album Daredevil just made perfect sense for encapsulating my relationship with these songs and my work as an artist these days at large.
GR Mag: Which artists have had the biggest influence on you, both musically and in the way you’ve approached building your career?
CK: Those Michigan legends I mentioned are real heroes of mine. The musical influence of Billy and Lindsay are large, sure, but I feel like their careers are what mentored me as a teenager and helped me discover my own ability to find success and work doing what I love. That feels like the most invaluable influence I’ve found my whole career. Musically, I am mothered by voices like Joni Mitchell and Loretta Lynn and Fiona Apple. I never took any voice lessons so their records taught me how to sing. Writers like Lucinda Williams, Todd Snider, Jim Croce, The Avett Brothers, John Prine; they are all massively influential to me too.
Chloe Kimes brings ‘Daredevil’ tour to Grand Rapids
Michigan-born singer-songwriter Chloe Kimes will bring her Daredevil tour to Grand Rapids on Friday, Oct. 23, with a performance alongside Red Thyme Duo at Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill, 760 Butterworth St. SW. The show begins at 8 p.m.
