The Countrytown & KIX Country Centre Stage Artist Is Chloe Styler

Countrytown, in partnership with KIX Country, is proud to announce Gold Coast singer-songwriter Chloe Styler as the latest ‘Centre Stage’ artist. Every fortnight we'll be shining a light on a single artist across all platforms including online features, airplay, and social support.

Born and raised on the Gold Coast with music all around her, Styler first started writing her own tunes at the age of 15. She was inspired mostly by the country classics she inherited a love for, but having grown up with a beach in reach at all times, it was inevitable that she’d draw some key influence from the coastal sounds of the Aussie indie-pop scene circa 2010.

Her first proper shows started happening in 2016, and two years later, in November 2018, she issues her first official single: the melodic and resonant, banjo-flecked heart-warmer When Your Light Burns. She sings soulfully on the chorus, perfectly primed for singalongs: “Stay a while / Escape my child / Although I feel so far from home / When your light burns, I’m not alone.” Channeling the early works of Taylor Swift, the song painted a striking picture of what we could expect from Styler on future offerings.

The follow-up arrived just shy of a year later, when in October 2019, she released Patient Heart. Despite a gap of just 11 months, the sophomore single introduced us to a much more mature version of Styler, the melancholy palpable in her voice as she sings wistfully: “It’s all so complicated / The way we kept high / But if the dam’s all broke and there was no hope / Would your heart reach for mine?” Heightened by stacked vocal melodies and tasteful strings, Patient Heart made it clear as day in our minds: Chloe Styler had what it took to be a star.

We weren’t the only ones to think as much: in 2019, Styler earned nods at both the Gold Coast Music Awards and the Queensland Music Awards. The accolades would only grow from there, with another GCMA nomination in 2021 – the same year she made it to the finals in the Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition. That November, she launched the campaign for her debut longform effort, Side A, releasing lead single Consider Me Gone.

The five-track Side A record finally arrived a year later on November 18, 2022. Filling out the tracklist are the singles Loving You, Where We Stand, Girlfriend and Vaguer Than Vegas, as well as acoustic versions of Girlfriend and Consider Me Gone. She told Countrytown upon its release: “These songs played such a special role in my growth as a human navigating life in my early twenties and the only way I could do them justice was to wrap them up nice and pretty in an EP for you.”

Critical acclaim and career-defining live shows (like a set at the most recent Falls Festival) followed – but Styler wasn’t keen to rest on her laurels. In March of this year, she returned with guns blazing to drop her cinematic single Meant To Be, which balances energy and emotion with impeccable impact. January Love followed in May, a month before Styler performed what easily became the biggest show of her life (thus far, at least): the iconic CMA Fest in Nashville.

“I played the same stage as James Johnston and American artists such as Laci Kaye Booth,” she gushed in a press statement. “While in Nashville, I was invited to visit the Apple Music office and play a few songs, I performed at the Sounds Australia ‘A Taste Of Australia’ event, participated in four co-writes with incredible songwriters including fellow Australian Phil Barton, saw shows at The Bluebird Café and fully immersed myself in Music City while doing all the ‘touristy’ things I could think of! I can’t wait to go back!”

Just last week, Styler released the instantly infectious Hometownless (and of course, we premiered the music video right here on Countrytown). Opening up about it, she said the new tune “captures the feeling of going through a breakup and realising you're left searching for a new place to call home once more. I co-wrote this song with my long-time friend and collaborator, Jason Resch (Darlinghurst), and we decided to liken a person to a hometown in a relationship.”

Ever keen to keep blazing trails, Styler will release the second half of the project she debuted with Side A – take a wild guess what it’s called – on August 4. It’ll feature all three of the singles she’s dropped this year, with a launch show to follow at Brisbane hideaway It’s Still A Secret on Thursday August 10. If you’re keen to head along (and you definitely should be), you can grab tickets here.

Keep up to date with Chloe Styler on her Facebook page here.