Charli XCX: ‘I Wanted ‘Brat’ To Feel Like A Conversation With The Listener’
Charli XCX has spoken about working with Lorde on their hit remix of the Brat track, Girl, So Confusing, in a new interview with Billboard.
order Charli XCX’s ‘Brat’ and ‘Brat – deluxe edition’ here
“I had to go through the process of telling her that this song is about her and her being OK with that first,” Charli explained, talking about the Lorde remix. “I was trying to meet up with her for almost a year, and we kept having this weird, like, we were [going to], then we wouldn’t. It spoke to the narrative of the song itself. In the end, it didn’t work out. Then the day before the record came out, I left her a voice note. [Lorde] replied straight away and was like, ‘Oh, my God, I had no idea you felt this way. I’m so sorry.’ And then was like, ‘You know, maybe I should be on a version of the song.’ I didn’t even ask her. She brought it up… It took three days total.”
“When I was writing this verse, I was saying these things to her for the first time,” Lorde added. “There was such a rawness and an immediacy to what I was saying. I love that we truly did work it out on the remix. There’s something very brat about that, something very meta and modern. Only Charli could make that happen. She had opened up a channel between us, and it made me say things that I had never said. I was articulating things I’d never said or maybe even things I’ve never even heard said. This whole thing has been such a huge honor.”
Charli went on to describe the inspiration behind Brat. “I wanted this record to feel like I was having a conversation with the listener in a true way. I could say that to you in the back of a cab on the way to a club. Like tonight? I want to dance with A. G.,” she said.