Noted cinephile and frequent Letterboxd logger, Charli is acting in a bunch of films and shows.
Early next year, Charli will star and produce in A24’s The Moment along with Kylie Jenner.
She will also feature as an actor in Daniel Goldhaber’s remake of 1978 cult horror Faces of Death, Greg Araki’s erotic thriller I Want Your Sex, Cathy Yan’s upcoming film The Gallerist, Julia Jackman’s period fantasy 100 Nights Of Hero, Romain Gavras’ satirical action Sacrifice, Pete Ohs’ intimate drama Erupcja and TV show Overcompensating.
Charli XCX also contributed to Emerald Fennell’s forthcoming Wuthering Heights film which stars Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie.
And the film also gives us the first Charli song since the slime green era, with Charli collaborating with elder music legend John Cale of The Velvet Underground, who has recently worked with fellow Welsh producer Kelly-Lee Owens, and released some fine solo work on Domino Records.
‘House’ is far away from the electro pop of BRAT, with brooding screeched stringed instrumentation and tumultuous low-end buttressing Cale’s pleading narrative prose that is delivered in the form of explanation.
Charli herself appears in the video, directed by Mitch Ryan, and sings “I think I’m going to die in this house,” a foreboding refrain that leads to industrial-sounding clanging rhythms and is accompanied by dark imagery in the clip.
Charli could have worked with anyone but the pop auteur went with an interesting choice.
Wuthering Heights is released in February.
Of the song Charli says:
“I got a call from Emerald Fennell last Christmas asking whether I would consider working on a song for her adaptation of Wuthering Heights. I read the script and immediately felt inspired so Finn Keane and I began working on not just one but many songs that we felt connected to the world she was creating. After being so in the depths of my previous album I was excited to escape into something entirely new, entirely opposite. When I think of Wuthering Heights I think of many things. I think of passion and pain. I think of England. I think of the Moors, I think of the mud and the cold. I think of determination and grit.
A few years ago I watched Todd Haynes’ documentary about The Velvet Underground. As many of you know I’m a huge fan of the band and was really taken by the documentary. One thing that stuck with me was how John Cale described a key sonic requirement of The Velvet Underground. That any song had to be both “elegant and brutal”. I got really stuck on that phrase. I write it down on my notes app and would pull it up from time to time and think about what he meant.
When working on music for this film, “elegant and brutal” was a phrase I kept coming back to. One day whilst on tour in Austin, Finn and I went to the studio and wrote the bones for a song that would eventually become House. When the summer ended I was still ruminating on John’s words. So I decided to reach out to him to get his opinion on the songs that his phrase had so deeply inspired, but also to see whether he might want to collaborate on any.
We got connected, we spoke on the phone and wow… that voice, so elegant, so brutal. I sent him some songs and we started talking specifically about House. We spoke about the idea of a poem. He recorded something and sent it to me. Something that only John could do. And it was… well, it made my cry.
I feel so lucky to have been able to work with John on this song. I’ve been so excited to share it with you all, sitting quietly in anticipation.“
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
