THE AGE OF STARLIGHT by CHROMA: An Interview with the Texas-Based Rap Group

CHROMA sheds light on their journey while creating their new mixtape “The Age of Starlight” – the Good, the Bad and the Human Experience.

CHROMA is a chicano hip-hop collective from Dallas, Texas composed of musicians Kalid Abdul, POLITO, and Bleu Santana, alongside their visual artist FITO. I got the chance to ask the musical trio a few questions regarding their sophomore album “The Age of Starlight” which was released on September 15th, 2023. 

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ORB: Can you walk us through the overall theme or concept of this new album/mixtape?

Bleu: We wanted to encompass everything we’ve been through – the good and the bad, and our human experience. I remember watching a YouTube video that explained the different eras throughout the course of history, and this being the age of starlight. We kind of put it into the scale of our lives – the good and the bad, the heartbreak, the happiness, and all the things we’ve learned over the past couple of years just being in this group and making the most beautiful music that we can. We’ve put everything into this one, and we’ve communicated everything that we can through it. Ever since we released the first mixtape, it’s been a growing process, and we’ve really encompassed that into this one.

Polo: True. When I think back to when we watched that video mentioned above, it was like the entire history of the universe, from the Big Bang all the way to the end of the universe. There was one part where all the stars die because all the starlight runs out, and all the energy just dissipates. Then it was like, ‘Okay, the age of starlight is over,’ and we were like, ‘Oh, damn, this really isn’t infinite.’ Like, at one point, one day, the last star is going to die, and there will be nothing left in the universe; it will just be heat death. So that’s where we got the title from just a random video that showed all the eras from the Big Bang to the heat death of the universe. But it also ties back to what Alex (Bleu) was saying; the reason it also connects to starlight is the idea that starlight powers everything, from the little cup of coffee you make in the morning to the hug you give to your friend. When you think about those things, everything started with the energy from starlight.

Kalid: Going back to what Polo said about how the video showed the life of the universe from the Big Bang to the end, the age of starlight is just a small portion in the lifespan of the universe so us being here is like a miracle, and I think that’s also what we wanted to show – we’re here in this super small moment, and everything that exists and every story that ever existed, exists within this small moment. So the songs are a part of a collage of things that happened during this lifetime or this small portion of the lifespan of the age of starlight.

Polo: I think the last layer to it is that, as CHROMA, we’re in a place in our careers. We did our first project, then we did the one with A-WALL, which did pretty well. This is our reformation as CHROMA, we’re stepping into the starlight and stepping into our own again, reinventing our sound without A-WALL.

ORB: Could you share some details about the collaborative process within the group when creating this album?

Bleu: Yeah, with this one, we started on ‘Volare’ in 2021. I remember on that one, Kalid had sent me the beat that Pretty Boy Aaron and Zebra Troop had produced. I was listening to it on my own and laid down the hook for it, I sent it over to them, and we realized we had something special with that one. I remember I was excited about that one. We slowly built it up from there. It can be one piece of the groundwork that is laid, like just the beat, hook, or song idea. Sometimes we listen to a really good beat, and Kalid might ask, ‘What does this make you feel? What should we talk about on this one? Do you all have a flow?’ Things like that. It’s very free, and it’s not always one person who starts it. But going back to the growth of it, I think it’s really important to expand our horizons. Also, something really cool we did on this one was renting a house in Nevada, Texas, out in the country. We invited a bunch of our producer friends, people we were friends with outside of music but met through music. We were in that house for less than a week just producing and recording and a lot of the songs made it onto this project. Some may be released in the future. But I think that whole week gave us a good idea of what we wanted to do with the project. Every morning and every night, we were just cranking out the best music we could.

ORB: Are there any specific tracks or lyrics on the album that hold personal significance to each member of the group?

Polo: I think ‘Where2go’ is super special for all of us because that song represents our personal journeys of becoming artists and looking into the future with hope. It’s about bringing everything from our past into our future. I know that when we perform that song live, it’s always an emotional moment for all three of us. So to me, that one stands out, and it’s also the last track on the album, so it’s one of my favorites.”

Bleu: Yeah, that’s a good one. Another one for me is ‘Volare’ because it was my first time singing in Spanish. What I was going for on that one is, ever since I was younger, I always had these recurring dreams of flying. I would look at birds and think, ‘Damn, I wish I could fly,’ and I made that a whole theme throughout the song – just flying and wondering what it would be like. I feel like I’m living a childhood dream through that song, so it’s really special to me.

Kalid: For me, it’s also ‘Where2go,’ which is the last track of the album. I think it’s like my most personal verse on this album. I don’t think I’m usually this vulnerable, but I think I lay everything out in that verse. It’s just like telling my truth and expressing what we’ve been through and being hopeful for the future.

ORB: How has your sound evolved or experimented with in this new project compared to your previous work?

Kalid: I think this one took us a while to find the sound because we started in 2021. We took a trip to New Orleans to try and make this project, and it turned out we made some singles like ‘Slyde,’ ‘Rooftop Freestyle,’ and ‘Verdad.’ We had set out to start this album, but we really didn’t find the sound of it until a year later in the summer of 2022. It went through a lot of changes; we would try to meet to make music, but we didn’t really know what we were going for until we had that week in Nevada. That week really shaped the outcome of this project. Originally, we were going to do a project that could live in a FIFA soundtrack, but as we went on, we let go of that idea. We had just watched the ‘Age of Starlight’ video and thought we should go for that instead. So yeah, it went through a lot of trial and error.

Bleu: Yeah, on this one, we’re doing things we’ve never done before. I’m singing a lot more, we’re trading verses, incorporating beat switches, and exploring various elements that we felt were really necessary to express our message clearly and to be the best we can be on this project. 

Polo: True. I agree. 

ORB: Were there any unexpected challenges or breakthrough moments while working on the album?

Bleu: Something that Kalid had touched on earlier when we were trying to find the sound for this one was originally, it was a whole different idea; we wanted to create tracks that would fit in the realm of FIFA soundtracks, something we really admired when we were younger. I think it started evolving as we listened to tracks that had more of a house influence or a boom-bap influence. The thing with CHROMA is that we aren’t too tied down to one idea; we like to incorporate a variety of emotions and a range of colors into each track. I think this comes with its own challenge, like wondering if we’re doing too much or if we feel like we’re not doing enough. We sometimes have a mental barrier, questioning whether we should stick to one lane. But I feel like we ended up embracing this diversity really well – where everything is so varied, and each track expresses a certain emotion very effectively.

Polo: Something that happens every time is when we make a song on a YouTube beat, someone buys the beat exclusively so we can’t use the song, but we really like the song, the verses, or the hook, or whatever it is. That happened with ‘Where2go’ on this one. It had a completely different beat but somebody bought it exclusively, so we had to send it to our friend Bruno, and we were like, ‘Hey, can you make a new beat that matches the vibe and has a similar drum pattern’ We had to do that for one song on ‘PRIMAVERA’ and one song on ‘THE YEAR OF THE PUMA.’ So that’s always a road bump.

ORB: Can you tell us about any featured artists or collaborations on the album and how they contributed to the project?

Bleu: I think someone we always work really well with is our friend Bruno. He’s all over this project, and he was at that Nevada house. He might do a little synth intro on one track or produce the whole beat on another. I think he’s someone we’ll always want to work with, someone who really brings his own unique perspective to the table, and someone who is not afraid to express his opinion. I feel like that’s really important to have on a team.

Polo: I think all the collaborations we have are with our friends. For example, we have Jason (Ariel & the Culture) on there, A-WALL  is on a couple of the tracks. We also have ZEBRA TROOP, who helped produce ‘Volare.’ Additionally, we have PAT RON, who’s been a staple in the Dallas indie rap scene basically since we started. I’ve been listening to his music for a while, and we got the idea to ask him for a verse, and he was down for it. That was a uniquely cool collaboration because he’s somebody from Dallas who’s doing pretty well, and they have cool music. It was definitely inspiring, so it was cool to do a full circle and get a verse from him on this album.

Listen to Age of Starlight by CHROMA available on all streaming platforms.