Charli XCX: ‘I’d rather people had an opinion on me than be completely forgettable’
British pop star Charli XCX talks about surviving fan backlashes, writing global No.1 smash hits for other people and why she’ll never be a beige pop star because she doesn’t have a filter.
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In a world of increasingly-beige pop stars, Charli XCX is so colourful, she practically sweats rainbows.
“I know a lot of people say they don’t have a filter, but they really do,” the British singer/songwriter says. “That’s a talent I wish I had. I really don’t. I am very impulsive, whether that’s on record, on stage or in an interview. I don’t second-guess myself, so I end up saying s--t I shouldn’t. But I’d rather be someone who people had an opinion on, whether it’s good or bad, rather than be someone completely forgettable.”
Charli got a taste of crossing a formidable fanbase this year. She toured globally with Taylor Swift on her Reputation tour in 2018, playing her own club shows to over 18s in most cities after Swift’s shows.
In a recent US interview, a Charli quote about the dichotomy between playing to Swift’s young fanbase then her own adult fans blew up into an online war — ironically Swift’s fans acting like the children they felt they had been labelled as.
Charli had to clarify on her social media she respected Swift and how much she learned from playing to a new audience.
“Having been around artists who do have that mega success, whether it’s Taylor (Swift) or Halsey or Camila (Cabello), they are extremely professional and smart people and talented,” Charli says.
“That level of megafame is something that is difficult to navigate, it takes a lot of skill and intelligence. Especially to be genuine and real and connect with so many people and still have something to say. It’s a lot to balance. It’s hard to put yourself out there on that scale. I don’t know how I’d be. Everyone’s human. Everyone has their moments of breakdown, I certainly do. That’s important to remember as a fan, everyone is human, nobody is perfect. That’s endearing, but you also have to have a level of forgiveness.”
It’s a territory Charli tackled in August on her Instagram page — pointing out how she was feeling “vulnerable and low” and that she sometimes wished she could just be a songwriter, not an artist, and just have other people sing her songs because then more people might hear them.
She was pleasantly surprised at how many fellow artists supported her post.
“It made me realise everybody is human. There’s an insecurity that comes with being a creative person, you’re being judged on your brain. I’m happy to put that thought on the internet. People don’t talk about it enough. We’re all supposed to be just so grateful to be creatives. Which we are and which I am. I’m so lucky I get to do what I do, I know there’s a million people trying to do something creative and haven’t found the right channel or haven’t been supported. I’m really appreciative for the world I get to live in. But everybody has struggles.”
Born Charlotte Aitchison in 1992, she began her musical career posting songs on MySpace in 2008. By 2013 a collaboration with Swedish band Icona Pop, I Love It, became an international hit. The next year Charli sang (and wrote) the chorus of Australian rapper Iggy Azalea’s US No. 1 Fancy and scored her own US Top 10 with Boom Clap.
After two back to back albums — 2013’s True Romance and 2014’s Sucker and hits Boys, After the Afterparty and Break the Rules by 2017 Charli was bored with the concept of albums, instead releasing singles and two mixtapes — Number 1 Angel and Pop 2 — catering to her diehard fans who preferred her more underground sound.
“After throwing out any kind of thought of commercial success from my brain, and really doing what I love on the two mixtapes, I feel that was the thing that really connected me with the people who listen to my music and made them understand who I am and care about what I have to say. It made me feel confident to make an album, now more than ever people actually want to hear it.”
Her third album Charli is her first in five years and is dominated by collaborations — including Troye Sivan, Lizzo, Haim and Christine and the Queens.
“This album is the closest to the pop Charli and the underground Charli colliding. I’m seeing them as more and more similar. Gone (with Christine and the Queens) is a good example of both coming into play. That’s a place I’m really happy.”
The album swings from the “ultra personal” I Don’t Wanna Know (written during an exercise two years ago when Charli made an album in day), to Shake It, with four collaborators, where she’s barely on her own song: “Having a song you’re not really on is funny to me. I don’t feel the need to be the centre of attention of all the time. Although sometimes I do...”
White Mercedes is about her on/off “current” boyfriend (“it’s about treating someone who’s so brilliant so badly”) while Thoughts, recorded at Flume’s studio in LA, came out of a period of self-reflection.
“When I get in my own head and really depressed I think about how I work with all my friends. Are my friends my real friends? Is this all a lie I’m living in? Are all my friends on the payroll? That only happens once a year but that was one of those times, making that song. It really captured that feeling.”
Charli says she enjoys making subversive pop hits, but it’s not always intentional.
“I admit I do some things to deliberately wind people up. I love pop music, I love a lot of pop music on the radio now, I love ‘90s pop. I think pop music is amazing. I enjoy it. I’m not always trying to deconstruct it, that gets too exhausting. I make what I make because I like it. Christine’s and my personality types are antagonistic towards more stereotypical pop star type, but I think that is getting more and more common in today’s world. That tension between a brilliant pop song and a contrasting personality or visual aesthetic is really exciting and interesting. That’s how I feel about Billie Eilish. She has this ethereal, beautiful voice but I see her as aggressive and hard and I love that. It’s so cool that she’s the biggest pop artist in the world.”
In the last 12 months Charli sang a remixed version of the Spice Girls’ Wannabe with Diplo which Mel C approved of (“Lost my mind, very cool”), worked with Korean boy band BTS and duetted with Miley Cyrus at a UK radio festival. “We don’t know each other super-well, she tweeted me. What a baller move. She’s a rock star. She has rock star energy. She’s the real deal.”
And her songwriting talents remain in demand away from her own career — one of the eight co-writers on US No. 1 Señorita by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello.
“It’s quite big isn’t it?,” she says. “I’m really bad at spotting ‘This is a big hit song’. But the people I worked with on the song knew it was a good one. And when two of the biggest artists in the world jump on it you think ‘OK, this could be a thing.’
Charli (Warner) out Friday
BONUS XCX QNA
Ed Sheeran says any artist that doesn’t check their streaming figures constantly is a liar.
Charli: “I don’t! I don’t know how! You could check on my phone right now! I don’t have a streaming platform on my phone! Twiggy my manager and my best friend since I was 11 will tell you. My other manager Sam, who I’ve also known since I was 11, we all grew up together. He is stat obsessed. He’ll be like ‘Did you know 1999 has this amount of streams, the percentage of Gone is this much better than that song?’ He gets so excited to tell me this stuff and I’m dead behind the eyes. I just don’t care. The sales thing, I am interested in that. I have asked from time to time how much something has sold, but I don’t really know who to ask. So I’ll send an email to someone at the email, but I never check. If you asked me how many copies of Sucker sold, I don’t know. Probably not a lot. I never knew how many copies my first album sold. I’m not expecting massive numbers, again, but I just don’t know. I think it’s dangerous. If there was a way to check I’d probably check it all the time. There probably is, I just have no idea how to do it.”
What’s happening with this new song you’ve made with The 1975?
Charli: “Matt (Healy) just started tweeting about it! So I was like ‘OK, here we go’. He sent me a beat with no context. Do you like this? Yeah. Want to finish it? OK. So I did. Next thing you know he’s tweeting ‘I’ve written a song with Charli’. So he’s into it. Which is cool, I love the song, I love him, I love his band. I think they’re really smart and great. I don’t know what the plan for it is. It feels like he’s in control of this one. Is it a duet? We’re both singing. I don’t know what I can reveal.
Your tea segment on Sunrise in Australia has cause some attention...
Charli: “I’ve been seeing that. Have I had a viral moment?”
It’s not up with your ‘I thought this was a f----- hit in Germany’ when you played I Love It for some very passive Germans back in the day.
Charli: “OK, so geographically it’s the ‘I thought this was a f---ing hit in Germany’ equivalent for Australia? That’s great. I was due a new viral moment. Sorry I’ve been a bit slow recently on the meme-able content.”
Do you watch that Germany festival footage...
Charli: “I do put it on if I’m having a bad day and laugh at myself. It is really good. And that song was f---ing massive in Germany, No. 1 for weeks! That’s why I was saying ‘What’s happening? This is the only song of mine you actually know’. It was made worse by my crazy make up and the way I’m so aggressive. I don’t think it was that bad, it’s just a brilliantly edited video.”
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