Charli XCX has spoken about the book she’s currently writing in a new interview with NME.
The artist sat down with NME for this week’s Big Read to discuss the success of her most recent album ‘Crash’, the end of her major label deal and her plans for the future.
After previously telling NME in 2019 that fiction-writing could be one possible creative avenue she might explore as part of a future “successful 180 [turn]” from her music career, Charli then tweeted “what if i wrote a book….?” back in June.
Asked to expand on her current writing plans by NME, Charli was unwilling to elaborate on what form the book might take “in case it turns out to be really shit”.
However, she did reveal that she’s consulted the former BBC Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw, who published his memoir Soft Lad: A collection of stories (about me) this week, for advice.
“I was so into it, and then I hit a wall and haven’t touched it since,” she continued about her book. “I got my agents all riled up, sent them four pages, and then ghosted them. I was asking Grimmy about the process, and he said you kind of have these moments of lightning bolt inspiration, and then you kind of put it down.
“When the time pressure’s on you, then you really do it full steam, so maybe I’ll be a bit like that? There’s no deadline.”
Charli also spoke in her latest NME interview about her take on pop music, saying that “I like playing games with pop music”.
“Pop music has never just been as simple as being a pop star and releasing music,” she continued. “In a way I would love it – if it was just that for me – but then I think I would be a more boring artist who will probably be forgotten. I enjoy the nuances of this fucked up industry and game-playing and all of these strings that happen behind the scenes…
“I’m enjoying that element of pop music. I enjoy poking fun at it, I enjoy buying into it, believing it, rejecting it, being a mess, and the chaos within it.”