Charli XCX is a Very Good Popstar(™). She is smart and funny and doesn’t take herself too seriously. She makes bangers about boys and has giant purple platform party shoes. We want to be her friend. So we did what any normal person would do, we popped out to the her countryside home to have little chat, and marvel at her eclectic array of ornaments. Here are some other things we learnt.
1. Like the rest of us mere mortals, even popstars have relics of their embarrassing childhoods
“I think I was 14 when I first got Myspace and started uploading music. It was really bad. It was really cringe, and it’s still on the Internet now. Yay!”
2. She’s could probably have a second career as an interior designer on Changing Rooms
House decor highlights include: a taxidermied parrot, a pink velour chaise-longue, a hot dog magnet, a flamingo sculpture, all the plants, and an all important bottle of champagne by her bed.
3. She has a sexy 70s zone in her house
“I guess I just wanted a big wow factor.”
4. She helped pave the way for today’s internet-born popstars
“When I was starting it was kind of like the beginning of the bedroom producer, and SoundCloud. And now that’s just something that’s like the route that huge popstars went down.”
5. She has very good taste in walls
We’ve mentioned the retro orange 70s number already, but the technicoloured/textured fun doesn’t stop there. There’s also a carpet wall, a palm tree wall, and lots of floor to ceiling walls of windows. It would be wrong to make a reference to Wonderwall here but… well, there you go.
6. Friends 4eva <3
“I’m really inspired by my friends music, and my friends. Like that’s my main sort of source of inspiration, because they’re the people that I hang out with, and cry with, and party with. So that’s where I get a lot of material from.”
7. Her feminist fans helped inspire her to direct music videos
“My fan base are very kind of vocal about their feelings on feminism, and women in pop music. I just kind of thought, well I should probably just direct my own videos now.”
8. Which led to one of the best and most boy crazy music videos this year
“The idea was kind of about reverting the male gaze. And everyone was really down for it, and that was really cool. It was fun to get bigger artists to sort of play along with that. Like Joe Jonas drizzling syrup over pancakes.”
9. She likes clothes as loud as her music (but not as melodic)
“I’m really obsessed with this guy, Sankuanz. He’s a designer from China and he makes…” *holds up a white plastic spacesuit-esque outfit* “I mean this is so cool, it’s so loud though. I mean you can’t wear it. It’s so loud. Like if I’m trying to talk to you, it’s just — so loud.”
10. Perfection’s overrated
“I think one thing I’ve always tried to do is just to kind of be true to myself, and never try and be a perfect pop figure. Just because there’s a lot of false perfection in pop.