Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss

I used to do a comedic monologue about balancing my interest in the 49ers or Stanford football with the fact that I was at Gunn high school when Jim Harbaugh was at Paly and never liked the guy. The difference between stand-up comedy and a comedic monologue is that with stand-up comedy you tell a joke and people laugh or not, you tell another joke and people laugh or not, and you tell a third joke and people laugh or not. With a comedic monologue you talk talk talk talk talk talk for 15 minutes and at the end they go “huh”. 

I think the one time it worked there was a woman named Shelley in the audience who shot this photo but she also shot a video of this amazing singer or duo. The singer, you can see here, is Remi Wolf who was just on the Tonight Show earlier this month and is signed to Island Records. 
Here is the press release Mrs. Wolf sent out a few months later:

Local Teenage Duo Getting Noticed on the Peninsula

Palo Alto High School Juniors, Remi Wolf and Chloe Day Zilliac — known onstage as Remi & Chloe — grabbed their guitars on a Sunday morning one year ago, headed for Castro Street in Mountain View. They had never done anything quite like this, and they were both scared. But they opened their guitar cases, grabbed their guitars, and launched into, appropriately, a cover of Sunday Morning by Maroon 5. To their delight, people responded enthusiastically, tossing money into their open guitar case. Quite a lot of money! Good crowds! The magic was there, and they were hooked.

Within a couple of months, they had written an original, “Carousel,” and had begun playing open mics around the area. After their first open mic performance at Red Rock Cafe in Mountain View, they were scheduled to perform as the featured act at a future Red Rock open mic. Immediately following that first feature performance, Brandon Walker invited them to sit in with his band at the Blue Rock Shoot in Los Gatos.

Afternoons at the Zilliac household in the Evergreen Park neighborhood of Palo Alto were now stuffed over-full with singing and guitar playing pushed in between the Trigonometry, Chemistry, and AP Spanish homework. Outside of school and music, the girls became inseparable.  

While they’ve only been performing as Remi & Chloe for one year, they go way back, first meeting as kindergartners in the Spanish Immersion program at Escondido. While students at Jordan, they had their first experience singing harmonies together as a trio with a mutual friend, eventually performing at the 8th grade graduation ceremony.   

Now Juniors at Palo Alto High School, they have written more original songs. Carousel is being featured in a short film, Washing Away, by Castilleja junior, Frances Hughes. The short by Hughes has been submitted for screening at the 2013 Sundance Film festival.

In September, they were selected to perform at Teens on the Green at Mitchell Park, which led to performances at campaign events for Palo Alto School Board Candidates Melissa Baten Caswell and Camille Townsend. State Senator Joe Simitian stopped to listen at Caswell’s campaign event and coined himself their new biggest fan. The girls have been performing at the Parents Nursery Benefit for several years.

Asked what was the most influential source for their development as musicians, Zilliac said “Working and taking lessons at the Riekes Center in Menlo Park has helped us expand and develop our skills as musicians. The Riekes center has also allowed us meet other talented musicians who we have collaborated with to create amazing music. Remi and I both volunteer our time at the Riekes Center because it is a great place to spend time and we believe in what they do.”

Remi and Chloe are now performing weekly at open mics around the Bay Area and never fail to be recognized for their creativity and complex harmonies. Remi’s soulful voice complemented by Chloe’s sweet harmonies create a unique sound that is all their own. Asked about her favorite performing experience, Remi said, “I love the energy when we are performing at the Riekes Center because of the enthusiasm of the crowd and the support we get.One of my most memorable experiences performing was when Chloe and I performed on Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz, and a local beat boxer asked if he could join us. Being able to play a couple of songs with him gave us experience collaborating with other artists and was really fun.”

Coming up for the duo on Thursday November 8th is their first paid gig. They will be performing at Angelica’s Bell Theatre in Redwood city. In the first of their two forty-five minute sets, they will perform as a duo. In the second, they will invite several talented performers from the Riekes Center to join them, bringing together a full band.