For those of us who’ve matched with a producer on Hinge and later found ourselves sipping a lukewarm beer beside them in a club green room, you’ll know that often the folks who make our fave beats sadly don’t have too much else going on in their heads. But this couldn’t be further from the case when it comes to Chloé Caillet.
Not only is she (to paraphrase Chappell Roan) your favourite DJ’s favourite DJ, but Caillet’s also got plenty to talk about outside of her work. Whether it’s growing up in NYC and, later, Paris, or sharing memories of her early experiences in the club underground, she’s as bright and sunny as the sounds she gravitates towards.
And this upbeat personality feeds into her work: favouring vibey, full-bodied house and disco, she can fill a club with warmth and ease. Put it this way: catching one of her sets is like stepping onto the sun-bleached tarmac of an airport runway after touching down in your holiday destination.
Understandably, she rarely spends a weekend at home and can instead be found behind the decks in an array of venues and festivals across Europe and beyond, as well as spinning at after-show parties during fashion week. But Caillet isn’t just a selector, far from it. She’s also a producer (check out her polyphonic, high-energy EP Intro), remixer, label head, multi-instrumentalist, and the creator of party series SMIILE, which celebrates the raw, unfiltered a rave and queer liberation.
In a rare moment of respire during her hectic schedule, GAY TIMES caught up with Caillet to discuss her diverse creative practice, the gayest Olympics opening ceremony of all time (in our opinion), and bringing self-expression back to the rave.
Hi, how are you? Tell us how your day is going so far!
My day’s going good. I’m at home in Ibiza. I’m getting ready to get back out on tour this weekend.
Paris is in the spotlight at the minute, what do you love most about the city?
Paris is just one of the most romantic and beautiful cities in the world. Every time I get to go home, I feel like it’s just such an incredibly… I don’t know, I would say it’s such an incredible city that just makes you want to fall in love and also makes you want to make music and go back in time to the early 60s and walk around the city listening to what’s going on in the street.
You’ve recently launched SMIILE Records alongside an LGBTQIA+ SMIILE club night concept. What makes club nights and DJing so significant to you and your connection to queerness?
It’s everything. I grew up in quite a queer environment in New York, in which I just was able to feel so free, and so I was able to feel free and feel free to be who I am. I was very lucky to grow up in an environment that allowed me to be who I wanted to be from a young age. As I’ve been getting older and deeper into the nightlife industry, there’s been such a divide between safe spaces and non-safe spaces. It really made me believe that I needed to start my own night in order to ensure that I could create my own environment to bring out the things that I wanted the most in the nightlife community. The music scene started in the queer community. Without the queer community, I don’t think we would be where we’re at today with the electronic music scene. It’s so important to make sure that we can keep bringing this today, and that we can keep building safe spaces and keep bringing queer identity [alive in] nightclubs.
How did SMIILE come about?
It was a concept that I started just under a year ago, where I wanted to bring together the people that I love the most in the world; from musicians, to creatives to different communities worldwide, and to create an environment for people to feel safe, to feel free, and to truly be where they want to be on the dance floor. I also wanted to create a real community around club culture globally and to unite people in different cities through the idea of a dance floor, as well as through the pre-parties that we do that we call the SMIILE Summer Clubs. I also wanted to create a record label to showcase different artists that we love and to generally share music with the world. I feel like we’re doing a pretty good job of getting there.
You dabble in a few different creative areas — DJing, production and you’re a multi-instrumentalist. How do you navigate each of those paths?
I would actually say that it’s one of the hardest things to manage, especially with the amount of touring that I’m doing at the moment. Finding the work balance between the touring and the studio time and the production time is really challenging. I have to constantly make a conscious effort to ensure that I schedule time for myself, where I’m not only just recovering from touring, because that also takes a moment, but to also be able to spend time in the studio and to be creative. You know, by the time I get back on tour on Monday, I’m exhausted, and the last thing I want to do is get in the studio. So it’s all about the balance and all about creating the time.
Who are the DJs and producers on your radar right now?
One of my favourite DJs at the moment would be Octo Octa. We were so lucky to have her at our party in Ibiza at Pikes. She’s just such an incredible DJ and producer, and I’ve really been following her stuff for a while now. I’m also a big fan of Jennifer Loveless and ISAbella. Their production is really, really good, and they’re also such talented DJs. I’m obviously a huge fan of what Romy is doing with her solo project and her last album that came out. I also love what HAAi’s been doing. I think she’s doing such an amazing job at touring really, really incredible places, but also producing incredible music. Additionally, I love what The Blessed Madonna’s been doing. Her recent collaboration with Kylie is honestly one of the most iconic things. I’m actually dropping a remix for her in the summer, which I’m super, super excited about.
Do you have a favourite music-related memory?
My parents divorced when I was really young, so I used to spend weekends with my dad. And music was really what brought us together. When I went over to his apartment, we would just sit there listening to music. He would take me in his arms, especially to ‘School’ by Supertramp. Whenever it came on, he would take me in his arms. We’d run around the room just singing and dancing along to that song.
How has queer community and the LGBTQIA+ club scene shaped your experiences as a musician?
It’s been a big part of who I am today. If I hadn’t grown up in the queer community in New York City, things would be very different today for me. The queer community took me in when I was a young raver, and made me feel so safe, like I had a place in this world. The music that we were hearing in clubs was so inspiring.
What’s a favourite project or track you’ve worked on and why?
I think my EP Intro was definitely one of my favourite but also most challenging projects that I’ve worked on to date. It was at the very beginning when I was trying to create my musical identity, most of it was created during the pandemic, which was a very weird time for me. There was a lot of uncertainty, and on top of that, there were a lot of moments when I didn’t know what I wanted to put out there.
Who would be your dream artist to remix?
I’ve always dreamed of collaborating with a pop icon. I feel like making a track with Rosalía or even Madonna would be so iconic. I’m definitely not over my mission of getting there one day.
Finally, we have to ask, are the Olympics giving Brat summer?
The opening ceremony was definitely giving Brat Summer, definitely with the Celine Dion performance and all of the queer performances that they incorporated. I can’t wait to see what the closing ceremony has in store, I might even have a special surprise for you.
