The XX Interview

Interview with The XX at the Cluny

03.10.09

Louise Morris interviews Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim



Louise: How’s the tour been going so far?

Oliver: It’s been really good, it hasn’t been too much yet, but we’ve got another year left so...

L: A full year’s tour!

O: Uhuh yeah- I’ll get back to you in a year and let you know.

L: I saw you had some dates coming up in America- how are you feeling about that?
Romy: We spent ten days in New York this summer, it was really weird being over there, people would actually come to the gig- it was really exciting.

L: How have you found audience reactions differing across different cities on the tour?

O: Yeah, I think in places like Germany they’re really intense, they’re there to listen, whereas I think in London- keep it short keep it sweet, in Germany we play longer sets and people are willing to listen for an hour, which is strange, it’s amazing.

R: I think over there they expect you to play for longer but in London it’s just “get in and get off”.

L: I’ve spoken to other bands about London gigs, who aren’t from London, and they’ve always dreaded it and say it’s the scariest show, obviously for you, coming from London, it must feel quite different?

R: I think it’s an attention span, I don’t know!

L: So having seen people’s reactions to your music what kind of a reaction would you hope to provoke from an audience?

R: We’ve been supporting for so long now that we’ve kind of been used to the idea that people aren’t there to see us and they’ve talked through our sets, but now we’re headlining for the past few shows, especially yesterday, it’s been really silent, which has been really nice.

O: We were here last week with Florence [and the Machine] for two days, it was a really good show, really fun, the audience were great but a lot of people were there just to see Florence so it kind of didn’t really work to listen to us...

L: Her music is very different...

O: Yeah, but there were a lot of people listening, and then headlining now, we’re not used to it I suppose. We’re going to do another support for Friendly Fires, again they’re like quite high energy which is maybe not where we’re at, kind of tempo wise, but it should be really interesting.

L: You’ve created quite a minimal evocative sound; how do you work together to create this? Do the lyrics or the music come first?

R: The lyrics usually come first, we work quite separately, we usually share them via the internet over ichat and work from them and build up a song like that, then we meet together and play guitar and bass and sort of link it together to make a song and then get Aria and Jamie along to make a rehearsal and it becomes a song.

O: It’s quite interesting ‘cos what Romy’s written she sings and what I’ve written I sing, and they’re love songs but Romy is my oldest friend, I’ve known her since I was 3 years old so it’s not a kind of Sonny and Cher relationship, I’m not really good at singing the songs to her and her to me and it’s just a case of coming together and sharing what we have.

L: I was going to ask, your songs all seem very personal –how much do you draw on daily life and experiences of friends and how much is imaginary?

O: I dunno, a lot of the songs we wrote when we were about 16 and then some only 8 months ago so time changes. Seeing as they are mostly love songs, when I was 16 I hadn’t had so much experience in [laughs] love! So a lot of it was writing from observation and what was going on around me, friends’ relationships and how I saw them to be, and recently it’s been much more personal and kind of from what I’ve experienced and they’ve gone darker from that, which is probably a really bad thing, but yeah.

L: You’ve got a lot of dialogue within your songs and I wondered whether you’ve ever been inspired by plays or whether it’s just musical inspiration you’ve drawn on?

R: I’ve never thought of that actually, I can’t say directly, maybe subconsciously! We’re never really addressing each other in the songs because we do work separately and it’s more of a reaction to each other, [when we write] we don’t explain what we mean, I take from what Ollie says what I think it means, so it’s like a conversation that never meets because it’s not actually to each other

L: I’ve read that you guys have quite a range of influences, how do you think that’s helped you form a more original, distinctive sound?

O: I think all four of us appreciate all different kinds of music; we’re the ipod shuffle generation, so, not being so attached to genre, and treating music song by song. I think it’s a case of trying to find a middle ground between all four of our tastes, I don’t want to say compromise, but yeah compromise and fusing a bit of everything we love I suppose

L: If you could play a gig absolutely anywhere, with no limits what would you do and where?

O: I recently saw pictures of Vampire Weekend playing in the foyer of the Natural History museum, with that massive dinosaur, I think it would be amazing to play there; they had fairy lights up and everything. I just imagine there being amazing acoustics...and yeah, I love dinosaurs!...I used to love going there.

L: I wanted to ask how you felt about being so lauded by the musical press, Rough Trade named your album “album of the month” and you’ve been named the “next big thing”- how does that affect you? Do you feel pigeon-holed at all?

O: I dunno, since the albums come out we haven’t had too much time to stop

R: Yep!

O: So we haven’t take in all that’s happening, like I’m still overwhelmed that we were on Jools Holland 3 days ago, we met Shakira, let me say that back to myself: we met Shakira! So haven’t taken it all in, I think if we did it might freak us all out a bit more. And hype can be really scary ‘cos it seems that the British press seems to love building bands up just to knock them down and er also I know I can react badly to hype, when I feel like a band’s being forced on me I can not want to like them, if anything just to prove that I can think for myself, it’s terrible, I wish I wasn’t like that but I can be like that. But on the other hand, the stuff that’s happened has been so nice- I’m excited.

L: So on the back of that, what’s been the funniest thing you’ve heard or read about yourselves in the press?

R: There’s a Pitchfork review of us that says that all our songs are about sex, and that’s led to a lot of European interviewers asking about it, so we’ve had a like 50 year old guy telling us how our song reminded him of his first experience...and I think all the interviewers had based their interviews around that review, and it’s not something that’s talked about generally as a whole, so that was quite annoying

L: So how would you rather the word of your band spread- through the press or word of mouth?

O: I always try to find music for myself, I mean the press can be dodgy at times and can build up false expectations, so I always feel really proud of myself when I’ve found a band I really like by myself. I haven’t really thought about it, maybe walking into a record store and hearing it

L: Your band seems to have developed more organically than a lot of bands, in terms of your relationship with the music press and especially with help from Young Turks, how do you feel that’s given you an edge over other bands who’ve been more moulded?

R: We’ve been given a lot time, a lot of time to grow up in and in ourselves, I mean we were 18 when we started working with Young Turks (well I’ve just turned 18), we only had 5 songs and they gave us a rehearsal space, and they just said we’ll give you a place to rehearse and get you some gigs and that was it there was no money or anything, and they left us with those tools- and I think if it had been more serious at the time then we wouldn’t sound anything like we do now so I’m really grateful for the time and the patience they had for us. Also I think at that age I would’ve been terrified to deal with all of this stuff. I’m aware that other bands haven’t had that, they just want to put it out as soon as possible, so it’s been really great.

L: How important was it for you to produce your own album, rather than anyone else do it?

O: We’ve worked with some producers before, we’ve worked with some amazing producers we’ve had some great opportunities, we went into the projects not necessarily wanting to do anything for an album, we just wanted to try out stuff and learn from these people and because we went in there wanting to learn we weren’t asking them to change stuff, we didn’t say “how about we do this?” we just wanted to take on any ideas they had. So, naturally the recordings came out sounding a bit more like them than us. Which was great ‘cos if we hadn’t have worked with them then the album wouldn’t have sounded like it does. But, Jamie who did produce it, who’s in the band and knows how every sound should sound and it was an honest relationship because he has no problem saying to us, “sing that better” or “play that better”, or “how about changing this”. So although he very much did produce himself, he made it more like a group activity/project producing it.

L: I’ve noticed that you’ve done some really interesting cover versions, and if other bands were to cover you in the future, who would you like to do this and why?

O: We’ve always said, well someone suggested it in an interview once...Sugababes, but Keisha’s left now so...

R: I think Girls Aloud- that would be hilarious; I’d really enjoy that. Oh- Beyoncé

O: Ah, I’m a hardcore Beyoncé fan! I went to see her concert in May and if you’re not a Beyoncé fan, I suggest you go, it was such a good concert...there was one part in the performance, when she comes out into the middle of the crowd and starts dancing with a mask on, takes it off, and you realise it’s not her- the lights go out, but she’s flying above you and starts singing, it’s amazing!

L: So can we expect those types of stunts in your gigs in the future?!

O: I think that’s why I love it, ‘cos I realise that I’m never going to be able to do that in my career, which I’m cool with but it’s amazing to see.

L: And finally, do you have any advice for students who are getting bands together?

R: Don’t rush, take your time to make sure you’re ready and just keep writing, play lots of gigs...we’ve played lots of gigs and I’m still scared!