It's rare that a new band can burrow into the cavities of one's chest on one or two listens, even more so when you've been turned off by whispers of English press hype in the lead up to  pressing play. Rarer still when the band plays the kind of slow-burning music that, in our review of their great debut, we branded "a skittering, downbeat, halflight pop". And when you consider that the group consisting of four East London students just on twenty years old - Romy Madley Croft (guitar, vocals), Baria Qureshi (guitar), Oliver Sim (bass, vocals) and Jamie Smith (beats, production) - were signed to the Young Turks label (on Beggars Banquet) with only six songs to their name, it seems disproportionate to heave accolades so early. But after learning tricks from dalliances with producers Diplo and Kwes, The xx have managed to wholly produce something approaching an instant classic. Or at the very least, and something just as rare in this day and age: a fresh sound.

With their debut xx climbing critics lists the world over, the band making their Australian debut at the Laneway Festival in January 2010. We speak to co-singer Romy Madley Croft (above far right) about their recent CMJ New Music Festival appearances, the wave of hype chasing them across the globe, sparring with lyrical partner Oliver Sim and having your best friend tattoo your words across their chest.

(UPDATE: Pitchfork reports today that Baria Qureshi has left the band and they are now a three piece - 13.10.09)

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I guess everyone's asking you this but you canceled a couple of shows recently citing 'exhaustion'. Are you guys doing ok?

Yeah everyone's cool. I think it's just that, we've played a lot of shows in our time but we're still quite new to being in close proximity [with] intense touring. We haven't had a day off for a long, long time and I think everyone's just gotten a bit overtired.

Is it just one of those times at the moment where you wake up in the morning and someone tells you where to go and what to do?

Yeah. It's fine. It's great to have that, in a different country especially where it would be hard to find your own way. You know, if you were just left there with a map. But it's busier than we're used to. We're used to being pretty slow, chilled out easy-going people, just sort've doing our thing. Being on tour and traveling the world is a bit more intense. But that's fine, you just keep adapting.

Are the relationships in the band mutating slightly as you head out into the world?

Yeah, um...I'm at home for the first time for a long time with my Dad. I've known Oliver for seventeen years so being away with your oldest friends - because being so far away from home you want to be with someone you know -  it's great to have him there. But definitely being on tour with anyone, you see the whole ins and outs of everyone's personalities. Bits you wouldn't normally see if you were normal friends. So it does tend to put a strain on some things, but you're just trying to work with that.

So is that partly what led to a break? Getting away from each other?

Yeah, it's nice to have some space. When you're always around people you don't kind've realise what's going on. You need some time alone to reflect.

You just played the CMJ festival in New York, had you been there before?

Yeah we went in the summer for ten days. It was cool we played six shows in ten days so we had a bit of time to acclimatise and see some of New York, and I really appreciated that. It was quite cool.

But [this time] it was very, very busy. We were playing two shows and a live session a day over two days. We were all a bit overtired but it was really cool. I had no idea what it was going to be like, I stopped quite a long time ago doing the whole finding out on the internet what was going on. I feel a little bit out of the loop with us actually. It gets a bit difficult and I don't want to get too caught up in it. Whenever I search my favourite bands and see what they're up to, I see these comments of, like, 'I love this band', and then 'I hate this band'...I don't think I could deal with that [about us].

If you give the positive ones any credence you have to give the negative ones credence.

Yeah exactly. But going to America, I didn't know what was going on. The first gig we played there were like 200 people outside, I didn't realise. It was really great. It was a big surprise.


The xx -'Crystallised'

Have you had any crazy fans yet?

Everyone's been cool so far. We definitely have varying kinds of fans. I like that, even from the beginning we've always had a much older crowd than us, coming to our shows. [With CMJ] we hadn't played to our peers for a long time. It was really weird when we played to 18 - 20 year old fans because we just weren't used to it at all.

Why do you think that is?

I dunno, I couldn't really say. It's funny for us when we were doing shows at 18, and I always wondered why there weren't more young people. It would've been cool. But since then, like, I had my friends parents come to the gig. And fifteen year old kids saying it was really cool. It's interesting.

When Young Turks first found you, did you sound the same as the way you sound now?

Well yeah I think to when we first started out, we do. Compared to the album. When we made the album we were really happy with the sound of our demos, and when Jamie came to produce it we wanted to keep the essence of them. And not make everything sound super perfect, and keep some of the mood from that. And so we've always...the way the songs are on the album was always how we'd played them live. We just wanted to keep that relation between live and the album and everything the same.

But when we first met Young Turks we had about six songs. They were really great in that they had faith in us and gave us a place to rehearse and got us gigs. That's what we got in the first place. They were never like 'Oh yeah we want to release something in three months so you better get this ready'. It was just 'Here you go, here's a place to create, now go for it'. And in that time we wrote the rest of the album and became better instrumentalists and everything. And since then we've kept going with that.

Did the songs change between that point and then going and working with Diplo and Kwes and then back to the point where the album was finished?

I think working with the different producers...I mean people complimented us on the simplicity of some of those songs. So when that was happening I didn't really see it. When we were working on 'VCR', which now I realise, to play, it's a very simple song - but at the time that was how well I could actually play. So it didn't seem simple. I taught myself to play, I wasn't particularly skilled or anything. It was the limitations that led to it being the way it was. And I think sometimes the simplicity and the space that was in the music, there wasn't a good excuse for the space to be filled. As opposed to realising maybe it didn't need to be filled. And using those producers was inspiring, just to meet those people and hear their ideas. We didn't really give any direction, just soaked up what they said. So when it came time to do it we realised that actually maybe our demos were enough. To record them well and get all the sonics right was enough. So that's what we ended up doing with Jamie.

Did that simplified thought process affect your lyrics as well? In that they're quite forward and stripped back...

I've always really loved writing. I've always loved words, and using words more like poems. And before I discovered I like singing - I didn't discover that I liked singing until I was about 15 - before then I'd just been writing poems. With me and Oliver we really care about the lyrics. And I didn't realise how different people listen to those things differently. I'm definitely the kind've person who listens to lyrics first, and then there's music. And so does Oliver. Then there's Jamie who's the complete opposite. He has to listen to a song about six times before he even realises what the words are. He just hears the whole music soundscape. And so I think having both of [them] in the band...[Jamie's] hearing the instruments, and is like 'Oh that's boring, that guitar part'. You know, he's got the back of that. And then [Oliver and I] are making sure with the lyrics that we're conscious and careful of what we're saying.

Do you help each other out with lyrics at all or do you just leave each other to your own devices?

Everything I sing I've written and everything Oliver sings he has. Either one of us puts forth a verse or a chorus or even just some word ideas, and we bounce back and forth off that. But it's never really directed to each other, it's very around the seams. If Oliver's got something, maybe it conjures up an idea or reminds me of something that happened to me, or there's just something about it. And then we build on that. I mean I'm very inspired by his writing and he tells me vice versa. It's good having someone to bounce off.


The xx - 'Basic Space'

Does he ever bring something in and you think 'Oh that's a bit shit'?

(Laughs) We're very honest with each other, that's the bonus of being such good friends. Basically if Oliver tells me that he doesn't really think it's very good, he's like, 'What is that?' And I would just be like, 'Yeah, fair enough'. I trust it. Or if either of us really loved something, [we'd be] like, 'No that's actually good, you don't understand'.

I'd guess that most of the lyrics on the album would've been written in a vacuum compared to where the band is at now. Is it a bit daunting to be thinking of how many people will be reading lyric sheets and paying attention to the next thing that you do?

I know Oliver says he's very conscious of it. But I still find writing a therapy for myself. And so I'm always trying to get situations out of my head into words and that's always on my mind, and the fact that everyone's going to be listening is another thing. I've always been really private about sharing any of my writing. And I still am, but when it's out there I'm happy it is. I try not to think about it too much because I want to continue to write how I truthfully feel. Even if it's cryptic. And then accept that everyone else is going to hear it too. That's cool.

No one's come up to you with your lyrics tattooed on their arms or anything yet?

(Laughs) My best friend actually has 'Heart Skipped A Beat' tattooed across her chest. It's crazy. I was like 'Are you sure you're gonna get that done?' (laughs). It means a lot to her obviously, and it's not really in relation to me. You know, a love for me. That obviously just rings true to her in her current situation. It's in my handwriting as well actually. It's really beautiful how she's got that, I'm so honoured that she's had it done. It's just crazy. I think she's the first one so it's quite close to home.

I suppose it's lovely that you can put those feelings into words for your friends.

Yeah it's so great. All my friends are so supportive and always come to our gigs and our songs mean things to them. I've always liked it how when you love a song it means something to you but it also means something completely different to someone else. It's great that they all have their songs that mean things to them. I never really explain to anyone what they mean to me because I like everyone else to have their own idea about things.

You'll be here in Australia for the Laneway festival in summer, and you're playing with (recent UK tour partners) Florence and the Machine. So at least you'll have friends around.

We've become good friends with them and toured with them so when we found that out we were really excited. I don't know how our colour scheme's going to go with [Summer], black, black jeans. It'll be a bit hilarious.

Marcus

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The xx will be here for the St. Jerome's Laneway Festival in 2010. Their excellent debut xx is out now. Read our review.