Chloe Slater has announced her debut album ‘Riot Youth’ with new single ‘Southern Youth’ and news of a UK tour. Check it out below as the rising indie star tells NME about the political messages on the record and backing up her music with tangible action.
The Bournemouth-born, Manchester-raised musician is set to release her first full-length album on October 9 via Stolen Juice (AWAL). It follows a string of singles, last year’s ‘Love Me Please’ EP, and her 2024 debut EP ‘You Can’t Put A Price On Fun’.
Produced by long-term collaborator Jack Shuter, alongside Ash Workman (Metronomy, Stealing Sheep), ‘Riot Youth’ continues Slater’s politically charged writing, tackling topics ranging from the climate crisis to late-stage capitalism and the billionaire class. Its title, she explained to NME, refers to “a spirit or feeling found not exclusively, but most often, in young minds and young hearts due to the absence of learned helplessness. Symptoms include a lack of apathy and an abundance of passion and belief that things can and will change”.
“I really think young people who have only lived through a couple of election cycles and haven’t been bogged down or disappointed by a major loss in the past are more likely to have that fire and that passion to keep fighting for what they want to see,” Slater said of the community the album title refers to.
“Whereas if you’ve been through 10 election cycles and every time the government gets worse and becomes more right-wing and more fascist, then you’re eventually going to think, ‘What’s the point? Nothing ever changes.’
She continued: “There’s just a certain lovely aspect to being young and not being knocked down in the way the world can knock people down that means you’re more likely to go out and fight for change. I wanted this album to encapsulate that feeling of when you’re younger, and it feels like anything could change.”
While ‘Riot Youth’ dissects societal and political issues and touches on our fear of the future (and tendency to escape into nostalgia as a response), the 23-year-old sees some reasons to stay hopeful in her generation. “While there are some negatives to the extreme nostalgia epidemic that we’re in at the moment, I think some nice parts of it are that people are switching off of their screens and trying to live more in the moment, and we’re becoming more aware of what our phones and technology are doing to us,” she shared.
“There’s a lot of things to be scared of, but there are so many people who are so passionate about making a change, and I do believe that change can be made. I think Zack Polanski and the Green Party are a great example of a party that wants real change, so I find them inspiring.”
Slater’s songwriting has always approached the subjects she writes about from the perspective of someone navigating the complexities and pitfalls of growing up in modern society, rather than pointing a finger at others as they try to figure things out. She continues that approach on ‘Riot Youth’, like on recent single ‘Ugly’, where she admits: “I’m a sucker for the capitalist machine / I wanna buy the next fad every other week”.
“I’ve never wanted to feel like a preacher, and I’m not a politician or a mega activist,” she said. “I am a normal person in my early twenties who has grown up in a system and will find it very difficult not to fall for some of its traps. I don’t think it’s working people’s fault that the world is the way it is, so I don’t think it should be put on them to change it all the time.
“At the end of the day, it’s the one per cent of billionaires in this world that are causing everyone else to have a shit time and the planet to die, so I wanted to make sure that, if the song is pointing a finger at anyone, it’s those billionaires and corporations.”
An anthem about overconsumption and the trap of modern consumerism, ’Ugly’ details being constantly bombarded with messages to buy products we don’t need, and the pressure to snap up the items at the centre of viral trends as a way to distract ourselves from the real issues we’re facing. “Buy now, now / We’re all gonna die / But you don’t wanna look too close at it,” Slater sings in the chorus. “So don’t miss out, out / Save your life with a click in a next-day delivery”.
“My TikTok [algorithm], every other video is an ad for something that, you know what, I kind of do want!” she said. “Growing up in this world, we’re programmed from such a young age to want things. It’s almost like religion has been replaced with consumerism and capitalism. If you get all of the best stuff, then you’ve done the best – like [reaching] heaven. The commandments you live by are ‘Buy now’ and all these catchy slogans that companies are marketing to you.”
Slater’s new single ‘Southern Youth’ highlights another side of her lyricism, delving into her personal story. The fizzing, longing song narrates her homesickness for her hometown of Bournemouth and how her perspective on the seaside town has changed since leaving home. “I’ve been quite a hyper-independent person my whole life, but I always wanted to move away and live in a city and make my own life, but even people with that mindset sometimes miss their mum,” she laughed.
“I moved to the city and made this new, more confident and outgoing version of myself, but the true version of myself was that person in Bournemouth who was maybe a little bit shy, but a nice and good person.”
Earlier this year, the musician returned home as part of a run of dates visiting some of the UK’s lesser-toured towns, performing in the Southbourne suburb of Bournemouth that she’d grown up in. “It was cool selling out a show on the high street I walked down as a kid hundreds of times, and to have a queue of people outside a venue. It was a really full-circle moment for me.”
In November, Slater will head back out on another headline tour of the UK, Ireland and Europe, kicking off at Southampton’s Papillon on November 3. The new string of shows includes her biggest headline gig to date, at London’s Scala on November 10.
“I’m so excited [for Scala],” Slater said. “My last London headline, which is my biggest one so far, was at the Garage, and that was an amazing experience. It just blew me away. I just get this feeling of, ‘I can’t believe that everyone is there for me’… I don’t know if I’ll ever believe it. I’m so excited to play these new songs live – I think we’re really going to take it up a notch, and I’m really excited to start planning the shows.”
Asked what she plans to take from recent support slots with the likes of Role Model and Alessi Rose into her new headline gigs, Slater replied: “When I was touring with Role Model, just watching his fans sing every single word back to him every night, and seeing him give it his all, was just really inspiring. I think that kind of connection with the fans [is something] I definitely want to bring.”
The ‘Riot Youth’ tour will partner with Music Declares Emergency’s Plus 1 initiative, which will see £1 from every ticket sold being donated in support of the campaign’s climate action measures. The move follows Slater hosting a beach sweep with fans before a recent Brighton gig – both evidence of the artist backing up the messages in her music with tangible, meaningful collective action.
“I want everything to be about the music, but the message of the music is pretty political,” she reasoned. “I don’t feel obligated to do these things, but I think it’s nice that I’m in the position to have the opportunity to do them – to do a beach clean before I do a beach gig and have loads of people come, and it is such a nice way to build community, which is needed now more than ever. To have a positive impact on the environment is great – it’s a cause that I really care about and I think is one of the most important things to care about. Everything is impacted by the environment and if we don’t work towards limiting climate change, then the impact on all humans and animals and ecosystems is awful.”
Chloe Slater’s ‘Riot Youth’ will be released on October 9 via Stolen Juice (AWAL). Check out the full tracklist below and visit here to pre-order.
‘Mother Nature’s Killing Spree’
‘Can I Finish Please’
‘The Underground’
‘I’ve Never Felt So Hated’
‘Southern Youth’
‘Go Outside’
‘Get Me Out’
‘Helpless’
‘Ugly’
‘Let It Happen’
Tickets for the ‘Riot Youth’ headline tour go on pre-sale at 10am BST on June 17, with a general sale to follow at 10am BST on June 19. Visit here for tickets and more information.
NOVEMBER
3 – Southampton, Papillon
4 – Portsmouth, KOLA
5 – Cambridge, The Portland Arms
7 – Norwich, The Waterfront Studio
9 – Bristol, The Lanes
10 – London, Scala
11 – Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
12 – Birmingham, O2 Institute 3
14 – Manchester, Club Academy
15 – Leeds, The Wardrobe
17 – Newcastle, Cluny 2
18 – Glasgow, King Tut’s
19 – Dublin, Academy Green Room
20 – Belfast, Voodoo
23 – Paris, Badaboum
24 – Amsterdam, Bitterzoet
25 – Brussels, Botanique (Museum)
27 – Cologne, Yard Club at Kantine
28 – Hamburg, Hebebühne
29 – Copenhagen, Ideal Bar
DECEMBER
1 – Berlin, Maschinenhaus
2 – Prague, Café v Lese
3 – Vienna, B72
5 – Munich, Rote Sonne
6 – Zurich, Exil
7 – Milan, Circolo Arci Bellezza