Chloe x Halle will guide us through 2020's Ungodly Hour (2024)

Just before the release of their second studio album, Ungodly Hour, sisters Chloe x Halle took to social media to explain that they would be postponing it out of respect to the Black Lives Matter movement that was gaining global traction after George Floyd's death. “Over these past few days, we've just been really angry and we've been hurting and physically shaken up by everything that's going on,” Chloe told the camera, echoing the sentiments of people all over the world. “My sister and I thought it was only right to postpone this album.”

It was worth the wait. When Chloe x Halle's album eventually arrived a week later, it was the breath of fresh air that the world was gasping for in the wake of so much trauma – uplifting black excellence personified by two strong, fearless young women, at just 22 and 20 years old respectively. From the album's lead single, “Do It”, to the soulful “Don't Make It Harder On Me”, Ungodly Hour is drenched in Chloe's 1990s R&B influences and Halle's penchant for jazz melodies, as the pair tightened and refined their sound, using their angelic vocals to sing more mature, not-so-angelic lyrics.

The album's brilliance was only to be expected when one looks at the career they've already had. Chloe x Halle, like many modern artists, first made their mark online with a YouTube channel of cover songs. Chloe was 13 at the time and Halle was eleven. Viral fame came after they posted a cover of Beyoncé's “Pretty Hurts”; IRL fame came when Queen Bey herself saw the video and signed them to her management company, Parkwood Entertainment. They then spent the best part of a decade fine-tuning their craft, releasing critically acclaimed projects such as their 2017 mixtape, The Two Of Us, and their debut album, 2018's Grammy-nominated The Kids Are Alright. But music isn't their only talent. Both sisters also landed recurring roles on Black-ish spin-off Grown-ish in 2018 and, soon, Halle will make cinematic history as Princess Ariel in Disney's live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, while Chloe will flex her own acting muscles alongside Russell Crowe in upcoming horror film The Georgetown Project.

They've not stopped working during lockdown either. In an era when artists have had to find innovative ways to bring live performances to their fans, Chloe x Halle have consistently gifted audiences with high-production concepts from their back garden, lighting up their tennis court for YouTube's “Dear Class Of 2020” online graduation event and pulling what looks like a full music video out of the bag for their BET Awards performance. Somehow, they still also found the time to hop on a Zoom call with GQ to chat about their album, lockdown life and growing up in the spotlight.

GQ: First things first, how have you guys been finding lockdown?

Halle: We've been finding lockdown pretty good. We've been doing everything we can to stay in the house and find new fun things to do, such as swimming, just centring ourselves in nature and bingeing all the shows.

Chloe: I feel like we've been watching a bunch of reality shows, such as Married At First Sight Australia, Love Island UK. We actually just started Love Island, the UK version, but we started on series five and it was so funny.

There's been so much going on this year, from coronavirus to Black Lives Matter. What has it been like releasing Ungodly Hour against that backdrop?

C: It's been interesting, but we're so grateful that, through this chaotic time, we can still try to find the beauty in it. I hope that that's what we did with our album, that we brought some light into people's lives. I feel like everything happens for a reason and this truly is the “ungodly hour”. In an odd way, the time when we put it out, it's exactly when it was supposed to come.

H: Normally when we release an album or a project, we do the press tour in New York, then we go back home and do the press tour in LA. Then we normally travel all over and go to all the radio stations and do interviews there. Doing it from home has been interesting, but it's been really positive actually too. It's amazing what you can do from home, with the performances and interviews. It's wild. Maybe we've never even needed to actually meet up and stuff. We can just do it through our computer.

Your lockdown performances have been some of the best we've seen. How has it been putting those together?

H: They're so much fun to do. We've been doing it with our creative director, Andrew Makadsi, who's like a mastermind when it comes to figuring out what we want to do from home. We feel like this album deserves quality content and especially quality performances. Sometimes the concepts are really easy to see, because the songs are so visual already, so when it comes to performing or coming up with music video ideas we just kind of follow along the story that's already been told in the song.

C: For the “Dear Class Of 2020” performance, YouTube and their crew came the day before we filmed it. It took them maybe five hours to set up all the lights and stuff on our tennis court, then we shot it the next day. It was really cool walking out and seeing how much it looked like a concert. We just got really, really excited and I feel like that moment was when we realised the possibilities were endless. I'm honestly grateful for that tennis court.

You've spoken before about how Ungodly Hour is a reflection of you growing up and transitioning into strong women. A lot of people who grow up in the spotlight really struggle with this transition. How have you both managed this?

C: I think it's been easy, because with anything we do we're just being ourselves. It's not a gimmick for us. It's not like some made-up story we're creating. We're literally just going through life, experiencing it, learning new things, getting our hearts broken, falling in love and telling these stories through our music. I just turned 22 and my sister's 20, so I feel like a lot of people don't realise that we are adults and we're no longer teenagers. It was really fun unveiling more of a personal side through our music with this album, because The Kids Are Alright and Two Of Us didn't have much to do with love. We really weren't experiencing it then and we just wanted to make a really positive change in the world. For Ungodly Hour, we wanted people to feel and understand that you don't have to be perfect. It's OK to love all your flaws and who you are during the “ungodly hour”.

You have also always had so much creative control over your work. Entering the industry at such a young age, was it ever a struggle for you to get that freedom?

H: What I think we got really lucky and blessed with is our parents, who have always instilled in us that we can do anything we put our minds to. We've always had a hand in our creativity because we feel like it's our story to tell. We write and produce everything that we touch, because it's so important. I feel like that's never been something that we've had to fight for, because we've just been like, “No, this is it. This is what we're doing.” When we were ten and eight years old, our dad sat us down and taught us the basics of how to write a song. Just knowing that we have the power within has been a theme and lesson that our parents have always instilled in our brains. Collaboration has also always been exciting and interesting for us, because we're used to working with one another. That's our safe space. With my sister, I can be truthful and honest. When you're working with somebody new, you're scared to step on their toes. That's why creativity for us has always been like, “Yes, we're going to do it.”

You do collaborate with a lot of cool people on the album, though, such as Scott Storch, Victoria Monét and Disclosure. What was that experience like?

C: All of the collaborations we did on this album were really fun. I loved it because we were able to still make our voices heard and not have it overshadowed by these big collaborators and big names. I think that we managed to keep that because after we would finish writing in the session with these amazing producers and songwriters, we would take the project back home and add more of our weird elements to it, like the ethereal backgrounds and all that stuff, so you could still hear Chloe x Halle as part of the music. We're always hidden and working by ourselves in our garage at home, so doing this was also very empowering for us, because we realised that we have the power too. These amazing, award-winning creators had processes that were like ours and it was pretty cool to see how we are just as capable, as two young black women coming up in this business.

H: For “Do It” [which Storch and Monét worked on], it was really fun because it's like you get a goodie bag. Once you're done with the session, you take the rough song home and you're like, “Ooh, so much to do with it!” After that session with Vic and Scott, we took it home and we just loaded thousands of background vocals all over the bridge and we made sure that the vocals were tight. My sister always takes it home for production, since she's such a genius in that world, and she will beef it up even bigger.

Is there anyone else that you'd like to collaborate with in the future?

H: Oh my goodness, we love so many artists right now! I'm really enjoying art that young women are putting out, such as Summer Walker and Snoh Aalegra. I also love Frank Ocean – Chloe and I are obsessed with him – and Andre 3000 would be a dream collaboration, but I don't know if he's wanting to still make music. And, of course, our mentor, Beyoncé. That's always a dream.

C: We love BTS too, as we just think they're outstanding performers. I feel like they could really hop on something with us that's pretty soulful and R&B. I love it when they do those type of songs.

Do you have any favourite memories from working on the album?

H: Mine would be writing the song “Baby Girl”. It was one of the first songs we wrote for Ungodly Hour and it was the day after Christmas. We decided to rent an Airbnb in Malibu right by the beach – the house was literally in the water. It was no parents allowed, just Chloe and I and our brother. We made 15 to 20 songs in that weekend, because we were just really inspired being by the water. “Baby Girl" was a really beautiful message that was really healing to me and my sister. Sometimes when you're feeling down, you need those empowering, encouraging words and that was like a conversation with ourselves throughout the whole album. After making it, I remember we just both felt like it instantly made us feel calmer and better.

C: I just feel like the whole project really embodies strength in a sonic form. I love how the themes, whether we're coming from a pretty vulnerable state, like we do in “Lonely” and “Forgive Me”, it still comes from a place of power. I'm happy that the music represents strong women in showing all of our layers in every way. It's pretty cool how my sister and I have two completely different lives and two different perspectives, because I feel like that's helped layer it not only musically, but lyrically.

How would you say your perspectives differ?

C: I love really alternative music and experimental sounds. I'm a huge fan of Imogen Heap, Grimes and Tune-Yards. Right now, I'm really loving Donna Summer and, when we were creating this, I was listening to a bunch of 1990s production such as Timbaland and Missy Elliott. That has kind of been my influence and my beautiful sister's melodies and crazy tone is inspired by jazz. You hear that even through her writing and through her storytelling. It feels so timeless. When our two styles come together, it creates us.

Obviously the world has had to put so much on pause this year. What are the projects that you can't wait to get back to when things return to normal?

H: Thankfully, we did not have to put this album on pause, because this was like the huge baby – we've been finished with this since October or November last year. That's the big one out of the way. But for me, personally, I'm excited to go back to London and finish what we started out there with the production of The Little Mermaid. I'm a little nervous, but excited.

C: I feel I'm just a go-with-the-flow-type person. Honestly, I've been learning that every time I try to plan something, it doesn't work out. I just gotta trust divine timing. Whatever happens, happens.

That's definitely the best attitude to have in 2020. Looking even further forward, what are the ultimate goals you'd like to achieve in your careers, since you've already done so much?

H: There's so much I feel like I want do and want my sister and I to do, but number one is to just spread the love, spread happiness and positivity. If I can just make somebody feel good or get goosebumps from one of our songs, then I feel like my life is complete. I hope when I leave this earth, people are just like, “They made us happy,” you know?

How does it feel looking back at how far you've come?

C: I think because we're in it, we don't really realise how fast everything happens. About a year and a half ago, our team made a reel that was around ten minutes long, showing all the things we've done. I was like, “Whoa!” It was pretty cool looking from the outside and stepping away from it for a minute. We're just two girls who really love to make music and to be able to have a career where we could do this and make money from it, it's literally a dream come true. This isn't overnight for us, we've been doing this since we were five and seven years old. We've always known that our dreams will come true, we just never knew how and when. To actually see it happen before our eyes is such an overwhelming feeling and we are filled with immense gratitude. I just hope that we can continue to grow and next year look back and be like, “Whoa, this happened too!”

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