Charli XCX has opened up about how Julian Casablancas, Daft Punk and the New York City dance scene have influenced her.
The pop singer recently sat down with Zane Lowe on Apple 1 to discuss the success of her sixth album ‘Brat‘ and the upcoming release of the remix album ‘Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat’ which is set for release this Friday (October 11). visit here to pre-save.
The singer announced a reimagined version of the album that became a cultural phenomenon this summer last month and recently at one of her shows in Orlando, Florida as part of her ‘Sweat’ tour with Troye Sivan, XCX shared the full official tracklist for the remix LP and asked her fans to share it far and wide.
One of the more unexpected features on the tracklist was The Strokes frontman on the song ‘Mean Girls’. Speaking about both ‘Brat’ and the upcoming remix album with Lowe, XCX explained that the albums are both “very much rooted within club culture” and shared that “it was fun on the remix album to bring all of these people in, some of whom aren’t particularly connected to the club world when you would think about it on the surface, but actually, Julian Casablancas, for example.”
She continued: “When I think about Julian, it’s like, ‘Okay, has this sort of history with Daft Punk and also-‘,” with Lowe adding: “And The Strokes are a dance [band].”
“Yeah, exactly. It’s like you talk about New York downtown, it’s like people were partying then and really in a hardcore way, and so I think he of all people understands how to capture that kind of an energy in a room and on the songs. It was definitely crazy pulling that all together,” XCX shared.
Elsewhere in the interview, the ‘360’ singer opened up about her appreciation for ‘Brat’ and said: “I feel so much love for this project that I don’t feel like I’m doing anything against my will. Everything that I’m doing relating to the music, it’s because I want to do it because I love the music so much. And I also, I know that I won’t have this moment again in this exact same way.”
She continued: “I think the success of ‘Brat’ and the success of the marketing of ‘Brat’ is also in ways a curse. I am not going to be able to market my next album in the same way. I’ll pivot, but whatever I do next will be compared, even if the music is completely different, the scale, the way it’s rolled out, the level of conversation. I’m aware that whatever comes next, this is kind of the albatross, so to speak.”
Since the release of the original album in June, Charli’s sixth studio record has gone on to make some huge waves across the music industry and become a pop culture phenomenon – gaining fans in Vice President Kamala Harris, former POTUS Barack Obama, NATO and more.
It was also given a four-star review from NME, which read: “On the self-described “club record”, XCX offers pure party girl hedonism. Percolating beats, brash synths, left-field production and vocal lines that flit between bratty quips or honest one-liners. With ‘Brat’, XCX demonstrates that going her own way will always sound pretty good.”
The live shows with Troye Sivan were also given a five-star review by NME, which labelled the two as “former pop underdogs cement[ing] their status as arena-slaying icons”.
