Charli XCX owned the summer with an album that is also a vibe.
Should she be sweating the fall?
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But this week has been … a lot.
This is a little … intimate, yeah?
Shes barefaced, already sweating, her usual mountain of curly black hair extensions gone.
Youre going to get me in a really vulnerable position.
it’s possible for you to ask me something crazy, she says.
Its a teasingly seductive invitation, but Charli is not about to expose herself any further.
Sometimes youre the peoples princess, she tells me.
And sometimes youre the villain.
Ubiquity will run you hard.
The music has been almost secondary to the brat aesthetic.
Its a lifestyle brand.
Its made her more famous than she ever expected.
Random artists are calling, wanting to collaborate, she tells me.
I cant say who, but people I greatly respect.
Its like being the new kid in school who people are fascinated by.
Of course, theres also merch, like a $60Brat-green towel (it reads TOWEL).
(On her verse, Eilish sang, Charli likes boys, but she knows Id hit it.)
And how do you stay bratty?
Charli herself sums up the philosophy in the sauna as Who gives a fuck?
Then we get into specifics.
It is all highly subjective.
On her personal brat list: French manicures, Aperol spritzes, and Lou Reed.
Self-care, like the spa were in Not very brat.
(AsTheGuardianput it ever so dryly in mid-July, Is the long era of clean living finally over?
…Brathighlights how many young women currently aspire to live dirty, hedonistic, happy and bra-less.)
Lying is so fun, so brat, Charli continues.
Who made this rule that you have to be truthful and honest in the press as an artist?
Her tweet about Kamala Harris, however, was arguably not really brat.
), on his annualsummer playlist.
This fall, shell venture to keep theBratdominance going, heading out on the Sweat tour withTroye Sivan.
When we decide to shower off and get dressed, we both realize we forgot to bring underwear.
Were both being little sluts, she quips.
Shes always wearing buggy sunglasses, even at the club.
As with everythingBrat she calls the album rollout the campaign theres a plan behind it.
Shes no longer wearing pop-star clothes, she explains.
When we walk into the cafe, someone calls out, Girllllllllll!
They hug, but we dont linger.
Part of whyBrathas been so successful is she gave her fans something to gossip about.
On the lyrics, she name-dropsher friendsand subtweets her frenemies.
A few weeks later, Charli rewarded the speculation by releasing a remix with the actual Lorde.
As the original song promised, One day we might make some music / The internet would go crazy.
But seeing Lorde IRL seemed a bit too … real.
Out of her control.
Not exactly according to todays plan.
How was it to see Ella?
I ask her when we sit down.
she says, swatting at a bug hovering around us.
I know thats so fucking cheesy.
She redirects the conversation to her friendship with Sivan, whom she describes as a fucking beautiful angel.
Her mind is somewhere else: Oyyyyy … ummmm … ugh.
Im a little discombobulated this morning.
Im sorry, she says.
Im not assuming Ill win a Grammy.
Doyouthink I will win a Grammy?
I tell her I dont pretend to know how those sorts of things work.
Charli had signed a record deal at 15, and it was one of three early splashy moments.
I didnt even have a fucking stylist.
But she never found the same level of chart success.
She became niche famous with a loyal fan base of queers.
There was this more intense fan base forming, Charli says.
They werent just into the music; they were into me.
She has also written for Britney Spears, though the songs were never released.
Ironically, 2022sCrash,Charlis previous album,was supposed to be the sellout (her term).
It was mostly radio-friendly songs with catchy hooks almost all of them about pining after or rebuking a boy.
She has calledCrashher main pop girlie moment.
Do I want to be singing Good Ones forever?
(The lyrics include I always let the good ones go-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh.)
Personally, no, she says.
Those songs dont get me off as much.
Still, the paper concluded, She can be a big-time pop star, if she so chooses.
Crashwas the end of a five-album deal, and afterward she considered leaving her label but ended up staying.
She describes her relationship with Atlantic as tricky.
Ive always been … interpreted as difficult, she says.
I have a high standard, and I dont think theyre right always.
And Im not willing to do something just because they think its right.
They dont know whats best for me and my career, you know?
I dont suffer bullshitters, you know?
There are a lot of bullshitters in the music industry.
There really, really are.
Or streaming songs or whatever, she recalls.
But it’s crucial that you realize that that doesnt fucking matter.
We dont live in that world anymore, and Im not that artist.
But she wouldnt mind a Grammy, she admits.
WithBrat,Charli gives the impression she feels vindicated by doing things her way.
Ive never seen my music as particularly niche, she tells me.
Theres plenty of room for the avant-garde on a commercial level in pop music.
Hes really, really special.)
I ask Charli if thats true.
Youre so on one today, she says.
Did she ask her to be in the 360 video?
I didnt ask her.
But ugh, fuck.
Shes said too much.
WhetherBratis particularly edgy musically is arguable, but its definitely not aloof or abstract.
I think people want something real, she tells me.
She insists the ethos of the campaign is all about last minuteness.
Theres this element of You had to be there, she says.
Her goal, she says, is cultivating desire, essentially.
This is Brat Summer.
Its something a lot of 20-somethings can relate to.
This is me on the weekends.
Charli says its okay to make mistakes, so we make mistakes.
Im partying all the time, she says flatly, as if that should be obvious.
Everyone is always like, Charli, now maybe is the time to leave it alone?
Im like, Why?
Immessy.Im also really not the girl who leaves at a chic hour.
(Sivan has said she throws iconic house parties.
I asked Skinner what makes them so great: Aperol spritzes and loud music.)
At one point while were together, an eager gay approaches Charli.
This is the weirdest year of your life, right?
America they didnt lap up Boom Clap until now.
Charli obliges his request for a selfie.
Jokes on them, right?
Its probably impossible to build a successful pop career these days without borrowing from the Taylor Swift tool kit.
The Easter eggs, the signature color, the rabid fans.
And both artists are experts at revealing themselves by revealing very little.
What is brat, after all, but an era?
Charli has spent enough time with Swift to have learned something from her game.
(She later put out an apology to the Swifties.)
Ive always quietly thought theyd be a good couple, Charli tells me.
Her writing is surreal and inventive, always.
I love to see hard work like that pay off.)
She has often framed her lyrical references as a rebellion against the supposed rules of modern feminism.
If youre not, youre deemed a bad feminist.
Eventually, the two jousted with each other on the charts.
In June,Bratwas poised to take the No.
in Portuguese, prompting Charli to post an Instagram Story: Can the people who do this kindly stop.
Online or at my shows.
I will not tolerate it.
Neither will she tolerate any questions about the matter.
People are gonna think what they want to think, she tells me.
I told Matty that.
They were both like, Shut up.
What are you talking about?
We sit in silence.
You do the silence game.
But I know that well where you go silent and want me to talk more.
But I dont care about it being awkward, she says.
Well sit in silence.
Charli offers to drive me to our cover shoot, byDavid LaChapelle.
Shes sort of trapped by fame, and all the tabloid photographers are chasing her.
An animal trapped in the woods would bite off its own limb she bites off her hand.
Then shes brought to the hospital and probably given some sort of painkiller.
Instead of a real Hollywood tragedy, its more of a fantasized one.
Shes stuck in a dreamscape.
Does Charli ever call the paparazzi on herself?
I mean,Idont fucking call them.
Someone does that for her: I asked Julia once, So, like, whats the plug?
Do you have a guy?
She seems to be losing patience with me by now.
Can you say Im not texting and driving?
she tells me while driving over.
(She wasnt.)
She says shed rather not talk, just listen to some music.
Sorry, do you mind?
I like listening to stuff.
Charli says she wants to play me an unfinished remix of Sympathy is a knife.
Im not a fucking idiot.
I know how shit works.
With the Kamala tweet, Charli, perhaps for the first time this summer, made a brand misstep.
Ok i goggled [sic] it but next question is who is Charli CCX [sic]).
The mainstream media breathlessly interpreted the viral moment as proof that the youth might turn out at the polls.
The right wing resorted to hysterics.
We dont need a brat in this moment, said a panelist on Fox News.
The border is open.
Inflations through the roof.
The price of gas has doubled.
Theres a good reason the Harris campaign co-optedBratgreen but chose Beyonces Freedom for the vice-presidents walk-on song.
Nonetheless, at the DNC, people sold DEMO(B)RAT hats.
She makes her statement one careful word at a time.
Im happy to help to prevent democracy from failing forever.
It is an uncharacteristically earnest response.
I obviously knew what I was doing, she continues, rolling her eyes, presumably at herself.
But she did not expect her tweet to be viewed 55 million times.
Im not Bob Dylan, and Ive never pretended to be.
Everything I do in my life feeds back into my art.
Everything I say, wear, think, enjoy it all funnels back into my art.
Politics doesnt feed my art.
The other thing they might share: a hunch that this good feeling cant last forever, can it?
and Deutsche Bank uploaded a job listing as a brat meme: Were looking for a brat in finance.
The MTA posted in brat lingo.
So did the Brooklyn Museum and Caroline Calloway and Hydro Flask.
Charli posted through it, sharing a screenshot of the Pitchfork obituary on Instagram with the caption oh?
see u next week :)
Her remix to Guess with Eilish hit No.
1 in the U.K. She launched the brand partnership with Skims as well as one with Laneige.
But its definitely in the bratosphere, so to speak.
She is juicing this moment for all its worth.
In August, she reportedly went to Poland to work on a movie with Jeremy O. Harris.
She recently shared a new brat autumn meme on Instagram.
The caption: are we ready for this.
Can you be both brat and hyperpopular?
Its not even that cool to be famous, Fox tells me without irony.
But brat is now so big that it just keeps getting bigger.
As Imogene Strauss, Charlis creative director, would later tell me, We couldnt control it anymore.
We lost our baby, in a weird way.
Im very well aware that you cant be omnipresent forever, Charli tells me in her car.
Ive known for a minute that at some point, someone will say this is over.
I actually think the press and outlets dont get to decide when its over.
The kids get to decide when its over.
Its all larger than her now: This is a sit back and watch it burn situation for me.
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