Billboard cover star Charli xcx made a statement this summer with ‘BRAT.’ She takes us through a day in her life in London, showing us her favorite spots and reflecting on how her previous records contributed to her current success. She explains how her ‘BRAT’ inspiration transpired and why the ‘BRAT’ green is uncool, her “Sweat” Tour with Troye Sivan, why she doesn’t think about for Billboard and more!
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00:00Hi Billboard, I'm Charli XCX, let's spend 24 hours together.
00:19This is Artwords, this is a bookshop that I sometimes come into, it's on a very cute
00:25street by London Fields, and I just like to come here on the weekends when I'm in London.
00:32To be honest, I don't read loads, I won't lie, I'm more of a movie watcher, but I definitely
00:40go through phases where I'm really like on a book, you know.
00:44The book I'm reading at the moment is David Bailey's Autobiography, he is an amazing British
00:52photographer.
00:53I really like reading David Sedaris' books, I love reading Natasha Stagg's books, but
00:59I'm not a big fiction reader to be honest, I like reading about people who exist in the
01:06real world and their stories and how they've, you know, ended up where they are.
01:12I've definitely been on a journey with my, you know, creative process and the music that
01:18I make, and I think, you know, my first record, True Romance, which I think literally like
01:2411 people heard, is one that's really dear to me and I really love it, and I think it's,
01:29in my opinion, stood the test of time, but you know, obviously everyone else will have
01:33their own opinions on that, but after that record I made a much more kind of, I don't
01:38know, like commercial sounding record, which is what I wanted to do at the time.
01:43I think what I was actually going for with Sucker was kind of like what Olivia did with
01:49Sour, like I think that's such a great record, and I wish I'd kind of been able to make it
01:54more like that, but I didn't.
01:56As a woman in the music industry, when you start really young and you're not really like
02:00shown the way, it can be very intimidating and it can be hard to ask for help, it can
02:06be scary to kind of like make a statement or ask what might be deemed as a silly question
02:13out of fear of being ridiculed and laughed at and told that you don't know anything,
02:17when really the only way you learn is by asking and making mistakes, and I think I was able
02:22to sort of learn throughout the process of my first two records how to really kind of
02:27communicate and pull the best out of people, understand different producers and their strengths
02:33and weaknesses, understand my strengths and weaknesses, and I think that set me on the
02:37path to, over the next records that I wrote, be able to really kind of hone my sound and
02:44understand truly what I liked and why it was important to make things that I liked and
02:50how that would only kind of make me a kind of more cohesive artist, I suppose.
02:58So yeah, I think that process from like Vroom Vroom, Number One Angel, Pop 2 onwards, definitely
03:04was able to get me to this place now where I feel more confident than ever in, you know,
03:12the creative decisions that I make.
03:25This is my local cinema in London, it's called The Castle Cinema, they play great movies,
03:32they have really good taste, the bar up here is really cute and really nice.
03:37I watch a lot of movies, like that is kind of where I find a lot of inspiration and where
03:44I kind of get my creative juices flowing, I suppose.
03:49One film that was really, I wouldn't say it was like, you know, super, super, super inspirational
03:55but it did like really light a spark in my mind was Greg Araki's Smiley Face and I remember
04:02feeling super engaged with the credits, the font, the colours and at that point in time
04:10I already knew that the record was called Brat and I had already kind of like done this
04:15draft mock-up of the Disgusting Green album cover, but I kind of knew when I saw the opening
04:23sequence of that film, I was like, okay, this feels like something I really need to
04:28pursue and seeing that movie really kind of like solidified the kind of font, text, bold
04:35album cover in my mind.
04:37So yeah, and then I actually really want to come back to The Castle Cinema on Sunday and
04:41see Maxine because I think that trilogy of the Thai West, Mia Goth movies is pretty brat,
04:49I mean, I want to be a star, that's very bratcore.
04:59When my record came out, that was June 7th, I was in London, there was just so much going
05:05on I almost sort of forgot that the record came out in a way.
05:09Then my whole internet started going green, which was really cool and overwhelming and
05:14all the fans started making these memes and I got pretty locked into that the first week
05:19just the internet, like really internetting and being crazy and fun and silly and that
05:24was pretty cool.
05:25The brat green, what does it represent?
05:27I think there's this kind of idea of making something quite disgusting and turning it
05:33into this thing that people are going to look at quite a lot and think about and ask why
05:39that green, why the pixelated font, why is it so crap?
05:44I think those questions spark a really interesting conversation about why people are annoyed
05:51about certain elements of the artwork.
05:54I really enjoyed that some people absolutely hated it and some people were writing these
06:00kind of essays on why it was good and obviously that was the point of the whole thing and
06:07kind of taking this pop art angle of yeah, you might think it's bad but you didn't do
06:11it kind of a thing, but yeah it had to be like really untrendy and uncool because there's
06:17nothing worse than vibes, you know, boo to cool vibes, I hate that.
06:29Okay, I'm going to take some popcorn for the road and then we're going to go to the next
06:36location.
06:39Okay.
06:42It's really honestly so cool to have this be the record that seems to be speaking to
06:56the most people because I made this record with no sacrifices.
07:01I still had to argue my case for certain things on this record.
07:07Not being on the album cover was something that a lot of people were uncertain about.
07:13There's always fear when it comes to kind of like sticking your neck out and like doing
07:19something that maybe isn't super conventional or something that hasn't been, you know, tried
07:25and tested before.
07:27My suspicions about how to kind of like roll out this record and the way to present it,
07:33even the songs that are on it, it's been really awesome that my suspicions about what
07:38might work were right.
07:42I think basically I'll go back to LA in a week or so, do some more kind of writing and
07:51things, and then I'll start rehearsing for the Sweat Tour with Troy, which is going to
07:58be really fun.
07:59And we've kind of just began to sort of nail down exactly what we want production-wise,
08:08you know, for how the room is going to look.
08:11At the moment, we're definitely in fantasy world of like all the things possible, you
08:15know, can we put a cage through the middle of the arena and have the audience be right
08:21up at the bars of the cage and us be able to walk through it?
08:25Can we put lights throughout the arena rather than just on the stage?
08:29You know, all these things about kind of like transforming the space, you know, I really
08:34hate when shows are sort of contained to like the stage and like a catwalk.
08:41I just, I feel like there's so much possibility, you know, within any space to really kind
08:48of like transform it into something completely unexpected.
08:52Obviously, you know, it costs a lot of money to do that.
08:55So I guess it just depends, you know, how much money we want to lose.
09:01Being on the cover of Billboard for the Brat Campaign is pretty fun because Billboard does
09:07get a shout out in the album on Rewind about how I never used to think about you guys.
09:15Sorry.
09:15I used to never think about Billboard, but now I've started thinking again.
09:21Now I'm thinking about you guys because, you know, I'm on the cover of your magazine
09:26and the album did kind of well, but I'm not going to think about you guys for that long
09:30because it like drives me a little crazy and it's not the kind of artist I want to be.
09:34But like, love you guys.
09:35Thanks for having me.
09:36And now we're going to go to my photo shoot, which is going to be really fun.
09:43So let's ride.
09:45Vroom, vroom.
09:51Vroom, vroom.