Submitted Photo Chloe Raye performs in March at Wynot Saloon, operated by former Minot residents in the Nashville area, in March.

After eight years spent making a name for herself in the music business, Chloe Watterud is freshening her brand with a new name and deeper dive into country music.

Long known as Chloe Marie, the new Chloe Raye aims to reach a wider audience as she perfects a musical style that defines who she is.

“I think it’s time. It’s time for a new start, new image, new brand,” Watterud said. “Definitely more country flair than even that I have right now. I hope just more professional sound, more professional look.”

Launching her music career at age 15, Watterud, 22, is preparing to release her first Nashville-produced single under her new name.

Watterud said she and her Nashville team brainstormed ideas for a name that was unique and tied to her music journey when deciding to replace Marie, her middle name. Raye is a combination of the names of some of the women who have been important in her life, Watterud said. Rae is the middle name of her mother, sister and niece. May is her grandmother’s middle name. Rae and May were combined to form Raye.

Watterud said her music also has changed significantly since her teen years, when she wanted to be a pop singer. She produced her first single in 2016 and first short album in 2018 while in high school and won Prairie Public TV’s Celebration of Music Talent Search Competition.

Watterud said her music has increasingly shifted to country. As a college freshman in 2020-2021, she released her first two country originals.

“It’s definitely who I am. It’s how I grew up and it’s definitely 100 percent me,” she said.

She’s also kept a busy schedule performing about 100 engagements a year across six states in the past two years, totalling more than 300 paid shows over the years. In Minot, she’s performed with Minot State Summer Theatre, on the Dakota Talent Stage at the North Dakota State Fair, the Why Not music festival and Minot Food Truck Festival, along with numerous other engagements.

As she’s adjusted her musical style, she’s also improved her song writing.

“Gaining life experience is very important for just becoming a better writer. I definitely have noticed a huge change in how I write songs from when I was 16 to now. Even in the last two years, it’s really grown,” Watterud said.

She has been working with her Nashville team on growing her social media presence to share her music with the public more quickly.

Although her music reaches a wide demographic, Watterud said she knows she holds a place as a role model for young girls. Her own admiration centers on her favorite country artists – Carly Pearce, Kelsea Ballerini and Ashley McBryde.

“Those three are really my top that I take my influence from and try to emulate what they’re doing in their songwriting,” Watterud said.

Currently living in Minot, Watterud said she expects to eventually move to Fargo, where she has some concerts scheduled this fall and will finish her online degree at North Dakota State University in business administration with a minor in entrepreneurship. Her goal is to eventually move to Nashville.

She’s been to Nashville four times to play shows or write and record music.

For nearly three years, she’s been working with music professionals in Nashville. She said her artistry has been a work in progress during that time, honing in on a more country sound.

She said breaking into country music on a national scale can be an up and down process, but success isn’t measured by degree of fame. Many musicians, based in North Dakota and elsewhere, have successful careers without being superstars, she said.

“There is, for sure, a middle ground and different levels of middle ground,” she said. Her goal is to broaden her performance schedule to include venues around the country and just see where that takes her.

She won’t forget her roots, though, Watterud said.

“I was born in Fargo, raised in Minot, so I’ve been in North Dakota my whole life. I loved growing up here, especially in Minot. The amount of support for music actually blows my mind with the size that Minot is. I feel like there’s such a musical presence here, of all kinds really,” she said. “It really impresses me all the time.”

Chloe Raye will appear at Community Rocks! in Minot Aug. 24. She will perform an original song called “Old Enough,” which talks about her musical journey.

“How I’m old enough to know but I’m not old enough to know better because I still chase this music dream and just take it day by day,” she said. “They wrote a symphony orchestra score for it, and that’s a pretty high honor, just because I never thought that would happen at my age, or even at a local level.”

Vanity Plate also will be performing an original song with an orchestral arrangement, which is special to Watterud because Jazmine Schultz from Vanity Plate was instrumental in helping her get started as Chloe Marie.

Watterud said Chloe Marie had a run that was better than she thought it could ever go, but she looks forward to the opportunities ahead as Chloe Raye.

“I’m at a point where I can’t stop. So, I’ve just got to keep doing it,” she said of making music. “And I still love it, of course, and I feel like I was meant to do it.”