Clairo Clairo
Cottrill was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the daughter of Geoff Cottrill, a marketing executive who formerly held top positions at Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Converse, and MusiCares (a philanthropic organization associated with the Grammy Awards). Between 2015 and 2017, he was president of American operations at MullenLowe Lintas Group. Clair grew up in Carlisle, Massachusetts. She began recording covers at the age of 13 and taught herself guitar from Internet tutorials. 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. Under the names Clairo and DJ Baby Benz, she began posting music to Bandcamp while in high school before beginning to post covers and songs in addition to DJ mixes of rap music on SoundCloud. She also maintained a YouTube channel where she would post covers and short films. In 2017, she began attending Syracuse University.
Clairo first drew wide attention in late 2017 when the video for her song "Pretty Girl" went viral on YouTube. The song was recorded for an indie rock compilation benefiting the Transgender Law Center. According to her, she recorded the track "using the resources around me which were pretty shitty. I used like a little keyboard that I had and I was really into '80s pop music — my mom is obsessed with it — so it kind of inspired me to do something like that." She attributed the interest in the video to YouTube's algorithm system. The video also became popular on vaporwave-centric Facebook groups. Another video that was uploaded to YouTube a month earlier, "Flamin Hot Cheetos", garnered 3 million views by July 2018.
The success of "Pretty Girl" led to interest from major labels such as Capitol, RCA, and Columbia. Clairo signed a 12-song record contract with Fader Label. According to The New York Times, this was made possible by her father's connection to Jon Cohen, co-founder of The Fader and an executive at the publication's marketing agency, Cornerstone. He signed Clairo to the magazine's associated record label and introduced her to Pat Corcoran, manager of Chance the Rapper. Corcoran's talent agency Haight Brand enlisted her as a client near the end of 2017.
Cottrill was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the daughter of Geoff Cottrill, a marketing executive who formerly held top positions at Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Converse, and MusiCares (a philanthropic organization associated with the Grammy Awards). Between 2015 and 2017, he was president of American operations at MullenLowe Lintas Group. Clair grew up in Carlisle, Massachusetts. She began recording covers at the age of 13 and taught herself guitar from Internet tutorials. 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. Under the names Clairo and DJ Baby Benz, she began posting music to Bandcamp while in high school before beginning to post covers and songs in addition to DJ mixes of rap music on SoundCloud. She also maintained a YouTube channel where she would post covers and short films. In 2017, she began attending Syracuse University.
Clairo first drew wide attention in late 2017 when the video for her song "Pretty Girl" went viral on YouTube. The song was recorded for an indie rock compilation benefiting the Transgender Law Center. According to her, she recorded the track "using the resources around me which were pretty shitty. I used like a little keyboard that I had and I was really into '80s pop music — my mom is obsessed with it — so it kind of inspired me to do something like that." She attributed the interest in the video to YouTube's algorithm system. The video also became popular on vaporwave-centric Facebook groups. Another video that was uploaded to YouTube a month earlier, "Flamin Hot Cheetos", garnered 3 million views by July 2018.
The success of "Pretty Girl" led to interest from major labels such as Capitol, RCA, and Columbia. Clairo signed a 12-song record contract with Fader Label. According to The New York Times, this was made possible by her father's connection to Jon Cohen, co-founder of The Fader and an executive at the publication's marketing agency, Cornerstone. He signed Clairo to the magazine's associated record label and introduced her to Pat Corcoran, manager of Chance the Rapper. Corcoran's talent agency Haight Brand enlisted her as a client near the end of 2017.
