You’re stuck inside. You’ve already orchestrated a series of livestreamed workouts, psychopath tests, art classes and deep and meaningful emo chats. There’s only one thing left to do really… no, not Skype sex (unless? 😳). It’s time to make an album. Or at least, that’s what UK pop angel Charli XCX just decided to spend the next month of her lockdown life doing.
“For me, staying positive goes hand in hand with staying creative, and so that’s why I’ve decided I’m going to use this isolation time to make a brand new album from scratch,” she announced last night, on a Zoom call to 1000 fans. Charli went on to explain that the album will be indicative of the times, in that she’ll be returning to her DIY roots and using only the tools she has available to her at home to create all music, artwork and music videos.
That’s not to say that she’ll be producing everything solo and leaving her followers in the dark. Instead, she hopes to team up with other artists online, while keeping the whole process open for us to watch unfold. This means asking for fan feedback on ideas, sharing conversations between her and collaborators and hosting Zoom conferences in order to crowdsource ideas.
“I’m going to set up an email address so that fans or anyone can send me beats or references,” Charli said. “In that sense, it will be extremely collaborative because anybody who wants to be involved can explore their creativity alongside mine.” Such. A. Good. Idea.
Charli’s time-management must be better than ours, because her self-imposed deadline is 15 May — a little over a month away. “There’s a couple of scratch ideas but I’m basically starting from nothing, so hopefully I meet the deadline,” she said on the livestream last night. The album’s working title is How I’m Feeling Now. If she’s feeling anything like how we’re feeling now, this album will be bursting with chaotic energy and oscillating between wildly different moods. Into it.