We’re three minutes into the interview and Charli XCX is making me inspect her insides. “Look at my tonsils!” she croaks, flipping her head back. Christ, wow. They are possibly the biggest tonsils I’ve ever seen.

A few years back, a typical Charli XCX interview might include a rolling backdrop of karaoke bars, cab rides and backstage parties, a few buckets of champagne and a splash of drunk-dialling. Today, in a windowless studio on a north London industrial estate, pop’s patron saint of the sesh – a woman who sings After the Afterparty with autobiographical conviction – is steaming herself over a herbal tea. “I don’t look after my voice at all,” she tries to whisper. “People tell me that I’ll be fucked by the time I’m 30…”

It’s been a long afternoon under hot studio lights and, honestly, I’m disappointed not to be boarding Charli’s party bus and knocking back Moët until dawn. But what our scene lacks in glamour it makes up for in realism. Behind the high-shine, emoji-strewn exterior of Charli XCX: Pop Juggernaut is a fuckload of toil happening on our behalf, as one woman digs her heels in and hauls us all towards the future of pop. It’s a heavy load to bear.