Charli XCX is our Music section cover for FAULT Issue 16
At the bright young age of 21, Charli XCX has already released a top-selling album, had a number-one single, played stadium gigs around the globe and written a song
for Britney Spears. The self-confessed Essex Girl has an exciting year ahead of her: She’ll be touring with Paramore and finishing up her new album, among many other things. Charli spoke to FAULT about her ambitious career, the philosophy behind her music and why she’s all for people getting her music for free!
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FAULT: Tell us a bit about the album you’re currently working on. How is it different from your first album?
Charli XCX: I see this whole second record as being the colour red. I always see my music in colours. True Romance, my first record, was purple, whereas this album is going to be red. I’m inspired visually by red lips, Chanel blazers and things that blow up!…It’s going to be much more alive than True Romance. I want to record it all in a really short space of time, because I took so long to record the first one. I just want to push this one out and really work on it fast and catch this moment in time.
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What’s an average day like in the life of Charli XCX?
Write some music. I have to colour-code everything when I write stuff, so there’s lots of colouring in. Also, I don’t know why—I’ve always been obsessed with the movie Clueless— but I feel like, recently, maybe it’s because it’s outfits and dressing up in my room. That’s become a frequent thing in my life. It’s like one of those awful wardrobe scenes from every chick flick! That’s what my bedroom is like at the moment: an explosion of ’90s wonderfashion! I feel like Cher Horowitz.
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What would your advice to young people starting out in the industry be?
I’d say don’t listen to my advice and just do your own thing. That’s how the best music and artists are created: when they don’t have all of this weird insider knowledge about everything and are just naïvely making something beautiful and amazing.
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I apologise for everything. Maybe it’s a really British thing to do, because I feel like I get told off for it a lot whenever I’m in America.
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