The XX

Wed 2nd Sep, 2009 in Features

“It’s a bit embarrassing I probably shouldn’t be saying this but we didn’t know the original,” says Oliver Sim, lead singer of The XX from his London pad. I’d just asked him about the cover of a song they did of – œ80s hubby and wife soul duo Womack and Womack.

There isn’t hint of pretentiousness coming through the earpiece talking to this young Londoner. “Actually we knew it from a garage remix that was big in like 1998,” he cringes.

Apart from an affinity with covering soulful slow burners to hip hop songs, they’re a band who won’t have to rely on the trendy indie knack for ironically reanimating – œ80s hits. The XX seem to have quickly catapulted themselves into the minds of bloggers worldwide, from new wave hipsters to dorks like myself. Their music seems to tip toe through a plethora of influences, with a sound that is spacey, delicate and definitely suited to extended 3am listening seshes. It wasn’t going to be easy making sure my outright obsession for this band stayed safely tucked away from my gushing tongue.

“Thank you so much, it’s so great that we have fans in Australia”, Sim staggers. “It actually looks like we’ll be making it to Australia late this year or early 2010.” Before that happens though, the band has a schedule that includes tours with Florence and The Machine, Friendly Fires and School of Seven Bells, plus their very own headline shows in London.

“Yeah it’s a bit crazy looking at [the calendar],” the frontman agrees. “It still kind of feels like London is just getting to know us! We’re so excited to go to America for the first time later this year though.” This openly enthusiastic yet polite 19-year-old tells me that he’s never really been many places. “All our friends have been travelling after school but we’ve just been so busy playing and recording that we are sort of only getting to it now.”

You can easily forget that these guys are kids just outta school. No ordinary school either – The Elliot School in south-west London, whose musical alumni includes Hot Chip, Burial and Four Tet. It was much earlier than high school that The XX’s musical paths were mapped out, with Oliver and fellow band member Romy Madley Croft meeting in kindergarten. “We’ve known each other since we were about three-years-old,” he laughs. “She’s like my sister in a way.”

Sim muses on how The XX’s kindred voices are complimented by signature drum machine crackles and snaps. “I suppose you could say a lot of the songs have that spaced out vibe about them. I mean, we didn’t really realise that trait until someone complimented us on it. I guess we’ve made a conscious decision to keep the space and really think about how we fill it.”

Having a producer in the band has helped retain that feel. “Jamie brings his knowledge of production to the table,” Sim elaborates. “He seems to be able to figure out the perfect balance, you know a lot of RnB beats with our obviously dreamy sound.”

The RnB beats Oliver are talking about come from the band’s unashamed love of – œ80s and – œ90s hip hop, soul and RnB. But as he explains, The XX is not a direct result of the band’s musical tastes. “It’s really funny because when I think about it, The XX is an anomaly to the sort of music we listen to. I’m really into – œ90s RnB, Romy’s into disco, Baria’s is quite entrenched in drum – œn bass and Jamie loves electronica and hip hop.”

Since being spotted by the peeps at Young Turks at one of their London gigs, The XX has actually taken the slow road to blog hero status. “They really gave us the freedom to grow,” says Sim. “When we started with them we had about five or six songs and hadn’t played many shows. Everything was just given time to grow naturally. I mean, these songs on the record are all the songs we’ve ever written, from songs we wrote when we were sixteen like VCR and ones we penned six months ago,” he laughs.

The lead singer utters some final words before hanging up. “Who knows, we might be seeing you sooner than later,” he winks down the line.

The XX’s debut album XX is out now through Remote Control.