She’s found a way to infiltrate the pop mainstream spectacularly - so much so that she’s supported Taylor Swift on her months-long Reputation tour around the world this year – yet Charli XCX still manages to have this insanely cool, insanely enviable connection to the club and party scene with her left-of-field, kitschy, unique brand of dance pop. 

Often concocted with PC Music’s A. G. Cook and Scottish producer SOPHIE, each song bears the undeniable bubblegum taste of consumerist and popular culture, often exaggerating or flipping it on its head to maximum effect. Music videos are a pastiche of pop culture references or celebrity cameos like in Boys, but we’ll get to that later. 

1999 featuring Australia’s own Troye Sivan is our latest taste of this unpretentious, kitschy pop we’ve come to love; an ode to 1999 and its turn-of-the-century spoils, Charli and Troye take turns singing about why it was great (no explanations needed, TBH) and why they’d like to go back. The video is an insane green-screen masterpiece, spoofing iconic '90s advertisements, products like the iMac and Nokia mobiles, The Matrix, Titanic, Eminem and *NSYNC. 

But in reality, Charli’s killing it in 2018 and is LIVING the pink, glittery dream of seven-year-old Charli. 

“I know I loved Spice Girls and Britney Spears and I don’t really know what four-year-old Troye was up to but for ME, when I came up with the idea for the song, I just thought… I dunno, the title 1999 is so fun and there was so much fun to be had with the artwork and the video that I kind of wanted to see where it took me,” Charli explains. “I don’t really, like— I’m not really that serious when I say, ‘Let’s go back to 1999!’ Like, whatever, it’s just a fun pop song that people can just party along to.”

And this ‘whatever’ attitude is what’s so refreshing about the 26-year-old Brit, who now splits her time between LA and London. Love her music or hate it, Charli couldn’t care less about those who look down their nose at pop music, because she writes for herself.

“I don’t really think about what I’m doing too much when I’m writing? I don’t think about the audience, really, that much. I just do what I feel. And sometimes that’s just dumb, repetitive words over and over again that people either really like or think is totally stupid,” she admits.

“I just do what I feel and go with my instincts and be very spontaneous and not thought out; I just go with my gut. But it’s cool when people think that I’m progressing pop music, that’s awesome because I’m such a pop fan. I just want pop to be as great and as fun as possible you know?”

Where pop music has in the past been a dirty word, not deserving of any sort of credibility or critical acclaim, the last few years have brought about a newfound respect for the genre. Pop artists now work extensively with indie producers and songwriters, bringing unique nuances and a progressive, multi-disciplinary feel to their music, and Australian pop is finally having its time in the limelight after a long era of Aussie psych/garage punk reigning supreme. 

“I think there is a lot of COOL pop music right now – obviously Troye – and Ariana Grande. What she’s done is super progressive and interesting and OUT THERE. I feel like pop is getting cooler and more diverse and more experimental.”

Charli’s own half-Indian background (her dad is Scottish, while her mum is Indian) also gives her cause to collaborate with other minority voices in the music industry, which she says will only make music more interesting. 

“I think there’s a lot of interesting artists coming up at the moment, I just collaborated with Tommy Genesis who is also part-Indian, which is really cool and it’s cool to do something with her. 

“Separately to that, I’ve become a really big fan of 88Rising who are this Asian collective – I went to this show they did in LA at the Shrine Theatre and it was just SO wild. So many people, so hyped and I dunno, it was incredible to watch them kill it. I think music is becoming more diverse with the internet. And I’m so interested in collaborating with people from all different parts of the world because I think it makes music more interesting and everyone has a different story to tell. So I’m super open to that.”

Time-travelling the conversation back to 1999, the year in question, Charli remembers what life was like for young Charlotte Aitchison. 

“I definitely was listening to the Spice Girls. Hit Me Baby (One More Time) also came out in 1999 so I remember seeing that music video for the first time, I was just getting into Britney Spears. I actually wasn’t big into Backstreet Boys, I didn’t really know that much about them? I was kind of more into my girl power phase and getting down with the Spice Girls. I know that I wanted a Tamagotchi, but my mum wouldn’t let me get one because she thought I was too irresponsible and thought I’d kill it, so I never got one of them. I was DEFINITELY collecting Beanie Babies. Those were my SHIT. I was trying to collect them and I THINK I… I think I got quite a high number, maybe 50 or something like that?” 

read more: all the '90s references in charli xcx and troye sivan's 1999

If Broad City taught us anything, it’s that limited edition Beanie Babies can be worth thousands of dollars now. Does she still have them?

“Yeah, I think they’re probably still in the attic? Weirdly, my parents like…” Charli laughs. “They have like a lot of random different hobbies, but one of the things that I used to do when I was younger was collect teddy bears! So it was very normal for me to be obsessed with Beanie Babies and stuff, yeah it was weird.”

Like her songs, meeting Troye was a unique circumstance as well. Charli was throwing one of her (now epic) parties at her new place in LA – “I just left them open invite and had whoever show up – musicians, other artists, producers, and also just rich random people” – and Troye rocked up one time.

“He was just so sweet and nice. We kind of had a lot of mutual friends and we write with a lot of the same people. We just know a lot of people in common. We kind of like kept in touch, I saw him talk about my mixtape Pop2 in a couple of interviews and it was sweet, and I meanwhile… my Twitter account had kind of become this Troye Sivan stan account!” she chuckles. 

over the past few months i feel like my twitter account has just become a troye/ariana stan account... but i’m cool with that if u guys are tbh

— CHARLI XCX (@charli_xcx) July 19, 2018

“I just became OBSESSED with the music that he was releasing. When he released My My My, I was like ‘IT’S SO GOOD!’ The music video was amazing. When he performed on SNL I was like, ‘fuck, this is so good.’ And I just became really into stuff he was releasing. His album is so incredible and I just love him – I think he’s a really interesting pop star and he’s so unique and powerful and really exciting, you know? We spoke about working on stuff together and it was kind of vague but then I got 1999 played for him and he was like, ‘I really like it!’ So that was cool because I wasn’t sure whether I’d keep that song initially and when Troye was like ‘I really like it!’ I was like, ‘okay, cool. Let’s do it together and I’ll keep it!’ And he wrote his part and yeah! Because he thought it was cool, I was like, ‘oh it must be cool!’”

Sadly, Charli crushes our dreams and informs us Troye will be on tour in the US when she’s here for her Pop2 show, Taylor Swift support slots and a handful of afterparties, but she says if you’re a local musician and down to party, she’s keen.

“Banoffee’s definitely gonna pop up. I follow Mallrat on Twitter but I think she’s coming out to LA so she’s not gonna be there, but I’m VERY open and I want to be as collaborative as possible so I’m putting the feelers out there. I want it to be a party so I’m definitely open. [The afterparty] will start at 10, I know people will be coming after the [Taylor Swift] show but I’ll be there!”

read more: charli xcx has redefined pop, here's why

The conversation turns to the epic music video she directed for Boys, a montage of dozens of celebrity boys including Diplo, Flume, Brendon Urie from Panic! At The Disco, Mac DeMarco, Mark Ronson, Ty Dolla $ign and countless others. 

“There were a load of people [that didn’t work out], one was Seth Rogen! When the video came out he actually tweeted me going, ‘oh my god, I would’ve loved to have been in this!’ and I was like ‘FUCK that would’ve been so cool!’ So maybe I’ll have to make Boys Pt 2 with just Seth Rogen. That’d be pretty great. 

“It did happen all over the world and I was there for a majority of the stuff. We shot in LA, we shot at Coachella, we shot in New York, we shot in London, we shot in Japan which is where I didn’t go, we shot in Korea, so yeah it was a very long shoot and I was on set for pretty much all of it. Flume was actually the second person we shot, we shot him in my house in LA so that was fun! 

“I actually met his new puppy today. It’s the fucking CUTEST dog I think I’ve ever seen in my life,” she squeals. 

Catch Charli XCX playing Pop2 at an exclusive show in Sydney on October 23rd, as well as 1999 parties in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in collaboration with Banoffee and a bunch of local artists.