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FollowingthereleaseofherUKTop10hit ‘BoomClap’ and
recentwinatthisyear’sTeenChoiceAwards,CharliXCXis
verypleasedtoannouncedetailsofherhighly-anticipated
sophomorealbumSucker,whichwasreleasedinOctober
throughAsylumRecords.
all my aggression, and got me to where
I could write pop music again such as
Sucker, Gold Coins and Breaking Up,
which aren’t even the most sneering
songs on the album. My punk may
sound pop, but my pop is plenty punk.
How do you feel looking back to the
earlier music that you have done?
To me, it’s not this amazing music I
made when I was 14. A lot of people
found the early stuff really annoying,
which I now kind of completely agree
with. But eventually, the exposure from
those songs got me a record deal and I
began tomake slightlymore streamlined,
slightly less kooky music.
How are you doing in school before you
left?
Even though I had gained some notice
of my work, I still went off to art school
as a backup plan. There, I favoured
performance art and video art. In one
piece, I built a shrine to Justin Bieber,
topped it with some Britney Spears-
themed spray paint, and then performed
Ms. Spear’s “… Baby One More Time”
with a robot dog. Then I left after a year.
Howdoyoufeelwritingforotherartists?
Writing sessions for other artists is a
break for me. I was a writer of Icona
Pop’s bionic, intense I Love It (and
screamed on the hook), and wrote and
performed the chorus on Iggy Azalea’s
feisty pop-rap thumper Fancy. But for
all the fun they’ve given me, I don’t
really feel like either of those songs
are my songs. Why wouldn’t you take
advantage of that opportunity?
Young Blood
O
ver
the last 18months,
Charli XCX’s rise to
international pop star-
domhas been nothing
short of meteoric.
From releasing her
dark-pop record True
Romance in 2013 to a wealth of critical
acclaim, 22-year-old Charlotte Aitchison
from Hertfordshire has toured the globe
with the likes of Coldplay and Ellie Gould-
ing, written and featured on one of 2013’s
biggest hits ‘I Love It’ with Swedish duo
Icona Pop, co-written and featured on the
global, four million-selling hit ‘Fancy’ with
Iggy Azalea, scored a UK and US Top 10
hit with ‘Boom Clap’ + more. Here’s an
inside-scoop of her journey so far.
Youbeganwritingandproducingmusic at
the age of fourteen. How did you let your
music be heard?
Yeah. Like many teens of the digital
generation, I posted my songs online
and was spotted by a music promoter. He
was like, “Hey, I like your music, I run
parties and this Sunday do you want to
come and play at one?” I told my parents,
they freaked out. They were like, “This
is not good; you want to go to an illegal
warehouse rave and hackney wick, this
doesn’t sound appropriate.” And I was
like, “Well just come!” and they were
like, “Okay! Cool!” And yeah, that’s
how it started.
Your past hits ‘Fancy’ and latest song
‘Break the rules’ were l ike some
rebellious attitude. Are you setting
your own rules?
I don’t see myself as a pop star, I
actually see myself as an anti-popstar.
But I guess now there seems to be a lot
of rules like things you can say, things
you can’t say and the lies you were
meant to tell. I just don’t really have
time for that.
Why do you describe yourself as anti-
pop star?
Last year, I went to Sweden to work on
new music, and ended up recording
an album’s worth of what were more
or less punk songs. That was me
being angry at the world. People were
trying to get me to replicate ‘I Love It,’
and I feel like I can’t write songs in
a contrived way. I had been going to
songwriting sessions with people that
I’ve not worked with before, and I was
expected to come up with hits on the
spot. That’s not something I’m really
used to and it was really depressing.
So, I banged out some noise, it got out