On the latest episode of the Spout Podcast, Charlie XCX discussed how her relationship with The 1975 drummer and producer George Daniel has changed her, and her music, for the better.
LISTEN NOW: Charli XCX - Spout Podcast
Between her features on Sam Smith’s “In The City” and the Barbie movie’s “Speed Drive,” Charli XCX has been meticulously crafting an album of her own. Her last two albums, How I’m Feeling Now of 2020 and Crash of 2022, were huge within the hyper-pop scene, though their individual singles didn’t make any waves on the charts. As for this upcoming album, Charli is focusing less on collaborations and popularity, and more so on herself. “I’m very in the creative process right now” the musician told the Spout Podcast, before admitting that the album would have “no collaborations” on it.
“I think I want to just do this one like, totally on my own. And, it’s probably like my most gossipy album, I’m very club-orientated,” Charlie hinted. And despite swearing off collaborations, she is having some input from the musicians around her, including her fiancé, George Daniel. “We’ve done a couple of things together, but he’s not really, like, all over it,” she explained. “But we’ve got a few ideas together in the works… There’ll be a couple songs, probably, that he’s worked on with me.”
Charli XCX and producer and The 1975 drummer George Daniel have been dating since May 2022 and became engaged just last month. The two remain quite a private couple and make few public appearances together, with only the occasional Instagram post. That being said, they have been musically collaborating for years: they first met to work together on no rome’s song “Spinning.”
“It’s funny, I’ve never, sort of, been in a relationship with someone I’ve worked with,” Charli said in the podcast. “So it’s a whole new dynamic, it’s cool.” Being so close with another musician has even changed her creative process, from the songwriting stage to being in the studio. “As a band, their process is totally different from mine,” Charli said of The 1975. “I think they take a lot of time when they're making a record, and generally in the past, I have been very fast. And that used to be a part of my process, that kind of, spontaneous, instinctual thing.”
And while Charli still maintains full rein over her own work, she believes that this new found patience is an asset to her music. She continued, “Being around them, I’ve definitely adapted to this idea of like, sitting on songs, reworking things, playing them with different rounds and going back and forth. And just kind of living with the songs more. So, I think that’s one way that my process has been affected.”
To hear more about the upcoming album, and Charli’s take on her Barbie soundtrack feature, you can stream the whole podcast conversation on the free Audacy app above.