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‘Brat’ Unfiltered: Charli xcx on How She Stole the Summer (And Worked It Out With Lorde on the Remix)
Charli xcx discusses 'brat', how her remix with Lorde came together, changing culture and more in a new Billboard cover story interview.
Inspired by a 1990s neon rave flyer and the title credits to Gregg Araki’s 2007 comedy, Smiley Face, Charli, 31, calls the album art’s color “actually quite disgusting” and says she picked it because it “spark[s] a really interesting conversation about [desirability]… It had to be really unfriendly and uncool.” Its shocking shade (it’s Pantone 3570-C, by the way) and easily replicable format has spawned mass virality — even the LinkedIn business bros, far from her target audience, are heralding it as “genius marketing.” 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 by way of her guest appearance on Icona Pop’s “I Love It,” and the following year, she topped the chart thanks to her feature on Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy.” Her own 2014 single, “Boom Clap,” propelled by its synch in the John Green teen drama The Fault in Our Stars, reached No. Known for her quick pen — she co-wrote hits for Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes (“Señorita”) and Selena Gomez (“Same Old Love”) — and signature smudged black liner and dark mane of unruly waves, Charli seemed destined to continue dominating the charts as both songwriter and artist.
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