Charli XCX – Life is Beautiful Interview

Las Vegas – In a discount music bin in her hometown of Stevenage, a town and borough of Hertfordshire, England, a young Charlotte Aitchison nabs a punk rock mixtape. A Vibrators song, “Feel Alright,” immediately grabs a hold of her. It was the energy. Peppy and raw. The compilation was played obsessively, but before long her tastes gravitated elsewhere. She’d outgrown the genre. Its punkish spirit, though, left an imprint.

Now, better known as Charli XCX, the 21 year-old dark pop songstress has been on more planes than she’d like to admit lately. She is the epitome of well traveled. Earlier this week she was in Budapest for a performance. Then Madrid followed by a stop in Stockholm to work on her album. Shortly thereafter, she was on her way to New York for a one-off show. The next day she was L.A. bound. It’s there she traded a commercial plane for a car. She would traverse the desert on four wheels before finally arriving to Vegas for her festival performance. She’s a bit tired.

In a striped black and white top with matching black skirt and torn leggings Charli talks about the Waitresses and Bow Wow Wow. She’s been listening to a lot of New Wave lately. It’s proved inspiring. The follow up to her major label debut, True Romance, will reap the benefits of her newfound inspiration. Even though she is set to make her way across the U.S. for a headlining tour in support of her debut, Charli always has her new record on the forefront of her mind.

“With this [new] record I am really wanting to just bang it out.” She says. “I don’t want to spend time on it, I don’t want to re-work songs…I just want to do it really fast.” Her urgency is likely related to the five years it took for True Romance to drop. Admittedly, she was finding out who she was as a person while forging her musical identity, but, still, it took too long.

Her most recent single, “SuperLove,” has the sugary glam of a commercial pop song right down to the lyrics describing the intoxicating buzz of new love. She describes her upcoming album as having a bit of a different vibe. “I feel like the new record is very shouty.” She says. “It’s still pop, but much more live and raw compared to my first record.”

Perhaps it’s the newfound live-ness that has made Charli enlist a backing band for her upcoming dates. The all girl trio complimented her nicely during her LIB set as she transitioned her heavily electronic material to the live stage. The recently added guitarist has Charli excited. “We added a lot of new guitar parts to the songs.” She says. “It’s dreamy and ethereal, but in a different way from the record. Everything sounds just better.”

She’s right. Her afternoon set was richly complimented by the live arrangements. The drums and synth from “Nuclear Seasons” had this booming sound that had she gone out there with a drum machine and DJ it wouldn’t have been the same or as rewarding. “I love to sweat when I play live.” Charli says. “I don’t like just standing still, I want it to be punk. I want it to be sweaty and fucking aggressive and that’s what it is with this new band.“

With the massive success of Icona Pop’s “I Love It,” a song which Charli co-wrote, she has been flooded with requests to pen songs for other artists. “After the whole ‘I Love It’ thing, I feel I’m definitely considered as a serious player in the songwriting world.” She says. Having recently composed tracks for Britney Spears and Rita Ora, Charli is eager to write, but, for now, her main focus is her own music.

The plan is to have the new album out by March, but plans are made to be broken. Even though she’s written about “10 to 15 songs” she admits she has a tendency to overwrite. Charli has a very specific aesthetic and style in mind that she promises will be different than the first record. She says themes of sex, passion, fighting and aggression will be featured prominently throughout. It’s hard for her to contain her excitement. “I feel like it’s the best music I’ve ever made. I’m really excited.”

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Ian Joulain

Somewhere between Sublime’s 40oz. to Freedom and Dr. Dre’s The Chronic something clicked inside a young Ian Joulain’s mind. His love for music had taken root and the only way to satiate this newfound passion was mass consumption of any and all genres. While gravitating toward punk rock, hip-hop, and jazz he discovered his distaste for pop-country, but blames that mostly on the excess of tractor and NASCAR mentions in the genre’s lyrics. That said, Joulain has never met a drink that was too stiff or a beach that he didn't like. He hopes to one day hug a koala and would love to ask Greg Ginn why he’s such a dick.