Fresh off her hit album 'Brat' and her Sweat tour with Troye Sivan, Charli XCX sits down to guess lyrics from some of her most well-known songs. Along the way she talks about Julia Fox's influence on '360', her collaboration with Lorde on 'Girl So Confusing' and why touring for her is a 'hellhole'
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00:00I'm not a role model.
00:01You're supposed to annoy some people,
00:03otherwise what's the point of doing it,
00:04do you know what I mean?
00:05I'm a good girl now, I don't do that anymore.
00:14Uh-oh.
00:17I don't know if you like me sometimes,
00:18I think you might hate me sometimes,
00:20I think I might hate you.
00:22This is from Girls So Confusing.
00:30From the beginning of the album,
00:33I knew I wanted to do this kind of
00:36remixed version of the album.
00:38And this was the first song I wrote for the album.
00:41I just remember the second I wrote it,
00:43I was like, I need Ella to be on a remix of this song.
00:48But I didn't know how to approach it,
00:50because obviously it's a tricky situation.
00:52And when I finally did, she actually suggested
00:55maybe I should do a verse without me
00:58kind of saying that.
00:59So I think, you know, we were on the same page about it.
01:02And she actually did it in,
01:05I think it was literally like 24 or 48 hours.
01:09She like, came back with this really incredible verse
01:13that made me like really, really emotional.
01:17And I think what she said was beautiful
01:21and really cool and honest.
01:23And I'm so happy that we have that song together.
01:26And as cheesy as this sounds,
01:29our relationship is in a really different place
01:30and it's really cool.
01:33Okay.
01:34In every city, I've got one with different ringtones
01:36flying from LA all the way to Puerto Rico.
01:39Boyz.
01:40♪ In every city, I've got one with different ringtones ♪
01:44♪ Flying from LA all the way to Puerto Rico. ♪
01:47The Boyz video, it was quite an elaborate casting process.
01:50We were basically reaching out to anyone I knew,
01:53had ever met, anyone that my friends knew.
01:57It was sort of a real kind of like scrambling
02:00to like get all these men together.
02:03I directed that one.
02:05So that was cool to be in charge of all the Boyz.
02:11I just wanna go back, sing Hit Me Baby one more time.
02:15This is from 1999 featuring Troye Sivan.
02:19♪ I just wanna go back to hit me baby one more time. ♪
02:23In 1999, I was seven.
02:28It would be nice to go back to 1999 and be seven
02:32because I would have no worries.
02:35One cool thing actually about this particular line,
02:40I was working at MXM, Max Martin's studio
02:44with Oscar Holter who made this song
02:46and Max popped his head in the door
02:48and actually gave us this line.
02:50He was like, you should say, I just wanna go back,
02:54sing Hit Me Baby one more time.
02:56Took no publishing because he's a legend like that.
02:59I always just thought that was a really cool story
03:01how he's kind of so in on the joke
03:04and also just so cool with giving people advice
03:08and suggestions.
03:15The tour with Troye was amazing.
03:17I think just our cute off days
03:20actually were probably my most fun memory.
03:26We became actually quite a nice little family on that tour.
03:31I find touring actually really hard emotionally
03:34and being with Troye just made that a lot easier
03:38and less of an emotional battle for me.
03:41I find the stage actually these days
03:44to be a very angry place for me.
03:48I've done a lot of physical damage to my body
03:50from performing and I'm often in a lot of pain
03:53when I perform.
03:54Genuinely, physically, I have nerve damage in my neck
03:57from things that I've done on the stage.
03:59For me to give a performance that I feel is good enough,
04:01I have to really physically throw myself around
04:04and that makes me very upset when I do it.
04:07So it's kind of this hell hole.
04:10But being with Troye just softens that quite a lot
04:13and a lot of the other people on the tour
04:15just made me feel a lot lighter.
04:20I Blame It On Your Love Every Time I Fuck It Up.
04:25This is from track 10.
04:27Or Blame It On Your Love, depending on your preference.
04:31♪ I blame it on your love every time I fuck it up ♪
04:35That's either the peak of my enjoyment on stage
04:41or the peak of my anger on stage with that song.
04:43It unleashes something in me
04:47which I feel I have to get out.
04:50It's almost like an exorcism or something, I don't know.
04:52I kind of need to play that song, I think,
04:55to work things out in myself when I'm performing.
05:00I'm Everywhere, I'm So Julia.
05:04This is from 360.
05:06♪ I'm everywhere, I'm so Julia, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
05:10There was a time where Julia was everywhere, you know?
05:15I don't just literally mean out everywhere.
05:18I kind of mean like she was sort of doing something
05:21different with fashion.
05:24She had these big, huge, black-winged eyeliner looks
05:30and everybody was talking about Julia.
05:33I thought that was kind of like a fun play
05:35on saying someone's the reference, you know?
05:39There were no musical references for the Brat album
05:43because I don't really listen to music that much.
05:48Probably the main reference would be Lou Reed,
05:52which obviously the record doesn't sound anything
05:54like a Lou Reed record, I'm very much aware of that.
05:57But I would say more his kind of lyrical style,
06:01the way that he would describe people in his orbit,
06:05even if maybe necessarily you didn't know who they were,
06:07that's probably the musical, lyrical style reference
06:11that's most akin to Brat.
06:16Trash the hotel, let's get drunk on the minibar.
06:20Fancy.
06:22♪ Trash the hotel, let's get drunk on the minibar ♪
06:26There's definitely been a few sort of horrid hotel room
06:30scenes after a last minute party, kind of a vibe.
06:35But I'm a good girl now, I don't do that anymore.
06:41But I'm going skiing even when the slopes are closed
06:46because I'm so hot with snow up my nose.
06:51Yes, that's from a song called Hot Girl,
06:54another character study of somebody who is not me.
06:59♪ But I'm going skiing even when the slopes are closed ♪
07:01♪ Because I'm so hot with snow up my nose ♪
07:03I'm not a role model.
07:05I didn't become a musician to become a role model.
07:09You're supposed to annoy some people,
07:11otherwise what's the point of doing it,
07:12do you know what I mean?
07:16Bitches know they can't catch me.
07:19Boom, boom.
07:20♪ Bitches know they can't catch me ♪
07:23Your picture perfect blue, sun bathing on the moon,
07:25stars shining through your bones illuminate.
07:28Boom clap.
07:28♪ Your picture perfect blue, sun bathing on the moon ♪
07:34I really like Boom Clap.
07:36It's sort of just like a classic pop song, you know?
07:40I think it's well-written, if I don't say so myself.
07:45I Knew You Were No Angel But God, What Did I Do?
07:48This is from my first official song, I suppose,
07:51called Stay Away, which is a song that I love so much.
07:55♪ I knew you were no angel ♪
07:59♪ But God, what did I do? ♪
08:04If I could talk to the younger version of myself,
08:07I would probably say, chill out a bit.
08:10And I would also say that you should listen to yourself
08:17because you know best,
08:18even if you think right now that you don't.
08:29♪ I knew you were no angel but God, what did I do? ♪