Lorde wasn’t kidding when she said she rides for Charli xcx.
The “What Was That” singer revealed the release of Brat last year — which resulted in their viral collaboration on the “Girl, so confusing” remix — gave her a “kick” when it came to her upcoming album Virgin.
“I’d been kind of cooking this album up, we were like quite a way into it, but Brat coming out really gave me a kick in a lot of ways,” the New Zealand singer-songwriter said during a Wednesday interview with BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders. “It forced me to further define what I was doing because Charli had so masterfully defined everything about Brat.”
She added that “it’s just this amazing thing when a peer throws the gauntlet down like that” in reference to the widespread release of Charli’s sixth studio album, which became its own pop culture moment. Lorde herself aided the popularity of Brat by joining her in one of the album’s early remix tracks, which later spawned an entire album full of features.
On the original “Girl, so confusing,” Charli references her relationship (or lack thereof, at that point in time) with the two-time Grammy winner, which came after years of the two being compared to one another. However, they arguably “worked it out on the remix,” which Lorde recalled as a moment of “rugged vulnerability” that has now inspired her new work.
“I had been trying to express in this very naked way [through music] and then Brat came out and she was kind of doing that from the other side of the coin,” Lorde explained. “And doing the remix together and meeting her in that place of rugged vulnerability and kind of cracking open the thing, people responded really well to that.”
Nonetheless, the success of Brat pushed Lorde creatively. “I’ve spoken to a lot of peers who all had the same feelings,” she said. “It’s very sick and I’m so grateful to her.”
Since the remix dropped, Lorde joined Charli to perform the track on her Brat tour and during the first weekend of Coachella a few weeks ago. In a Thursday profile with Document, the “Green Light” songstress said it was a “dream” putting on the surprise performance alongside “a homie.”
“Charli was playing, and I just walked out into the grass, and was like, this is it. This is everything you could dream that your work would feel like,” she said, before adding that Charli’s “whole group is so cool,” seemingly referencing her time hanging out with her fellow surprise performers Billie Eilish and Troye Sivan.
“Through watching Charli and hanging out with her, I saw how, yes, we’ve got a job to do, but it also has to be fun, and we have to all be connected and having these special moments that no one can see,” she added. “It was cool to hang with them and just all be sitting in the grass afterward and eating bad pizza.”
Lorde’s new album Virgin arrives June 27.
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