Whether she's penning her own mega-hits or collaborating with the A-list, the "Fancy" star is the sound of pop's future

Text Owen Myers

The first time I saw you play was at Koko in 2012. You were supporting The Maccabees, and you walked on holding a massive boom box. In recent performances, you seem much more aware of your body and the way you’re moving. Did you ever have lessons? Charli XCX: Never, I’ve just toured a lot – I’ve done so many support tours with Sleigh Bells, Coldplay, Ellie Goulding, Marina and the Diamonds, Paramore... Also, it’s just growing up and figuring out what I think is sexy. When I was younger I didn’t care about singing – I cared more about the ‘warehouse-crazy’ impact and was less worried about the songs because at the time they weren’t so tight. Looking back, does it feel like that was armour? Charli XCX: It definitely was. Now I just feel so much more confident in the music, and I want to be able to access it live, rather than just being this ball of fire screaming at (the audience) for half an hour. The videos you made for your first album (True Romance) were quite gloomy and conceptual – “Fancy” and “Break the Rules” feel so different. Why did you switch up your aesthetic? Charli XCX: With “Break the Rules” the lyric is “I don’t wanna go school…” so the (high school theme) fit perfectly. As well as Jawbreaker (1999), that video was based on my favourite photo of Marilyn Manson – the David LaChapelle one of him as the bus driver. There are a lot of videos to come from this record, but what I’ve discovered about myself is that I’m quite blunt as a person – and that’s the way I write songs. All my favourite pop songs are the most stupid ones, the ones that are the most obvious. Like “Mickey” by Toni Basil? Charli XCX: I love that song – I think songs like that are the most difficult to write. So I guess I’ve realised that’s the reason why (my music has) moved on from a darker sound, although on the record there are still emotional and vulnerable moments. “Need Ur Luv” is a great example of that. It has the darkness of 60s girl-group ballads. Charli XCX: Yeah. When I began writing the album I was influenced by French pop, yé-yé… I still see this record as dark because of the title and the way the whole music industry is. I feel like I’ve changed into someone more cynical than I was on the first record.

“I can’t do the same thing twice. I’m not a machine and I think that’s what people wanted me to be” – Charli XCX Do you feel jaded from doing more commercial things? Charli XCX: No… I mean, that’s where my heart lies. When I was making my first record (True Romance), I wasn’t trying to make a cool and weird album that only 10,000 people would buy. That’s what pop music sounded like in my head at the time. I’ve always wanted to make a pop album. I think the process of “I Love It” becoming such a big song opened my eyes to sides of the industry that I’d never been aware of, which I wasn’t so into… A more exploitative side? Charli XCX: It was less exploitative, but more about how I saw people change. I saw people change around a hit, how money affects people and how egos can just appear. It was just a weird time for me. There are instances when I’ve shocked people after achieving something because I’m a woman. With “I Love It”, people are like, ‘You wrote it with Patrik (Berger).’ But that was 100 per cent me, sitting in a hotel room in Stockholm and yelling into my laptop for half an hour. After that song it was like, ‘Can you write that again for our artist?’ I can’t just do the same thing twice. That’s not how it works. I’m not a machine and I think that’s what people wanted me to be. From doing more stuff in America, have you become aware that your voice is quite different from the majority of pop writers? Charli XCX: My voice is different, but I don’t think I’m the only one with a different take on pop music. I've met a lot of people in the past few weeks who have a really interesting angle on pop. Like who? Charli XCX: Obviously, Lorde has that interesting perspective on pop, and this girl Ryn Weaver who I’ve been working with, she’s an amazing artist. We did “OctaHate” together. I met her through Benny Blanco and Cashmere Cat and Michael from Passion Pit, we were just writing songs at their place and we did some songs together in Jim Morrison’s old house. Did you always envision you’d be a pop star? Charli XCX: I think when I was younger I really wanted to: I was obsessed with Britney Spears. But I don’t care as much about it as I did when I was making True Romance, and feeling more insecure. I don’t really feel like a pop star now, even though I do pop-star things. Like, the other day I went on a private jet for the first time. It was amazing. You grew up in Bishop’s Stortford. What were you like at school? Charli XCX: I had best friends called Millie, Twiggy and Grace and we’d just go to the art department all the time. I made video art for quite a long time, and I made this video covering myself in burgers and dancing to Major Lazer and doing covers of Britney Spears songs… I can’t remember how I got there, but my teacher said he’d have to fail me because it had mild nudity.