Clairo

Claire E. Cottrill[9] was born in Atlanta, Georgia.[10] She is the daughter of Geoff Cottrill, a marketing executive who formerly held top positions at Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Converse,[11] and MusiCares (a philanthropic organization associated with the Grammy Awards).[12] Between 2015 and 2017, he was president of American operations at MullenLowe Lintas Group.[11]

Claire grew up in Carlisle, Massachusetts. She began recording covers at the age of 13 and taught herself guitar from Internet tutorials. She often performed covers at local businesses including Blue Dry Goods. During this time, MTV contacted her to record a song to be used as background music for one of their shows, but the song was never used.[13] She recalled that the Shins' Wincing the Night Away was "the first album I really completely geeked out over" crediting it as her inspiration to make music.[14] Based on the fact that many around her told her that a career in music was unlikely she did not consider it a likely prospect and musically "kind of did whatever I wanted".[14] Under the names Clairo and DJ Baby Benz, she began posting music to Bandcamp while attending Concord-Carlisle High School before beginning to post covers and songs in addition to DJ mixes of rap music on SoundCloud.[13][15] She also maintained a YouTube channel where she would post covers and short films.[2] In 2017, she began attending Syracuse University.[13]

In October 2017, an article about Clairo was published by Fader, in which she stated that she was most inspired by Brockhampton, and cited their "do-it-yourself 'attitude'" as her ethos.[16] Some online communities criticized her comments as disingenuous, arguing that her professional career was born from nepotism, and thus she should not be considered a true DIY musician.[4][6] They accused her of being an "industry plant", an artist who has backing from the music industry to advance or kick-start their career, but are deceptively presented as an independent start-up.[4][6] Such discussion appeared mostly on Reddit.[6] One of the widely shared posts lamented that, although the user enjoyed her music and thought she was an "inspiring" songwriter, they could not fathom why none of her articles and interviews acknowledged her father's significant industry connections.[5]

Clairo described the "industry plant" accusation as sexist and denied that there was "a man behind my success".[4] Of the "bedroom pop" tag, Clairo stated that she had "a love-hate relationship" with the term, as it was not her intention to make that style of music. She also surmised that "what makes this wave of artists different or special is the fact we've created a community among ourselves."[31]

Writing for The Guardian, Kitty Empire opined that while it is true that her father's connections facilitated her record contract signing, it could not explain "the raw digital sharing that powered her initial rise".[32] The Ringer contributor Lindsay Zoladz concurred that the connections helped her enter the music industry, and added that the situation "would have likely raised more eyebrows had she been a Gen X–er … but also it is impossible to imagine Clairo's success in a Gen X world, so vital is the internet to her appeal."[5]

Cottrill was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 17.[6] Cottrill came out as bisexual to her fans via Twitter in May 2018.[33][34] In an interview, she explained that making friends in college is what helped her to come out as they were openly gay and she was inspired by "their confidence and their willingness to be exposed."[35]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Clairo.

• Official website