The xx have earned an enormous amount of critical acclaim for their self titled debut album both at home in the UK and across the pond in the US.
Now on a world tour the three school friends from Wandsworth, London are here in Japan to promote and play their first show in Tokyo.
We stopped by their management office to grab ten minutes with Jamie and Romy and pick their brains.
Is this your first time in Japan? What are your expectations?
b: Yes!
j: I don’t know, we have been told that the crowds are really amazing. Loud in the right parts, quiet in the right parts. We went out last night to a sushi restaurant and a bar, and it was kind of how I imagined it.
What else have you got planned while you’re here?
r: Another day of press tomorrow, and Jamie is DJ’ing.
j: Yep, it’s a UK garage and house web stream DJ set.
r: Where else are we going? Osaka? Kyoto? But it’s just for sightseeing and press, we only have the one show here in Tokyo. We are coming back for Fujirock though…
Oh great, so you guys are confirmed on the line-up?
r: Yes, yes! I haven’t seen the full line-up but I have heard Massive Attack are playing.
You have mentioned that you like and have covered some tracks from Aaliyah and Missy Elliot. How and why have they influenced your music?
r: Well I know Oliver is really into R&B, and I got into it through him – He has an older sister who kind of grew up with that and then he stole her CDs. I think we all appreciate a wide variety of music, I don’t feel to snobby liking pop music or R&B, I just appreciate the harmonies and the bass.
Yeah, you can definitely hear that deep bass undertone in your music. Also, do you like TLC? They are playing in Japan soon, would you pay a hundred pounds to go see them??
r: Really??? Oh wow! Yeah I think I would… even without Lefteye…
After this where are you off too?
r: We go back to London for a week and then we’re off to the West Coast of America, we came off a seven week tour of America but for some reason we didn’t do the West Coast so we are going back to do that. It’s going to be really nice.
What about places that you have previously played?
j: Shepherds Bush Empire in London
r: It was great coming back to London, it’s like being on holiday having a really fun time with friends and stuff.
Where are you looking forward to playing?
r: There are some really big gigs in LA, real big venues. There are a lot of European festivals too, and I’m looking forward to Glastonbury ‘cos we’ve never been, we are on the Park stage and the John Peel stage – I guess the English festivals are going to be great because we will get to party with our friends.
What are your thoughts about the success from your first album?
j: It’s great
r: We started making music very personally and quietly, it wasn’t really intended for a lot of people to listen to it, not that I know what it was intended for, it’s something that we are still having to get used to. It’s been a big surprise that people have actually liked it. The response has been overwhelming, you know releasing an album was huge, going on tour was huge… it’s much more than we anticipated.
Well that leads in to our next question… What are you going to do next?
r: We have done everything that my 14 year old self would have wanted to do when I first got into music, I guess we will just continue to write music that I feel pleased with and hope that people like it.
j: We’re just gonna see how it goes, we had no intentions for the first album and I think that worked well for us.
r: Maybe we will have a better understanding of what works in live shows and we want to get out of a live show.
Who are your favorite people you have played with?
r: I have been a big fan of Coco Rosie for a really long time now, we played with them at ATP the other day. It’s a bit surreal watching your favorite artists stage side.
j: The last US tour we did was the nicest tour I think we have done to make friends on, we toured with JJ.
r: It was really good to step out of that supporting band role and play a bit more of a central role.
Were you at home for the recent election? A little birdy told us that your music has been used throughout the election on TV, how does that make you feel?
r: Yeah, we have a blanket deal with the BBC so they can use our music. But it was really weird to get a message while we were in the States from a friend saying that we were the sound of the election! We are not very vocally political so I don’t really know how it felt. I was a bit confused by it all.
Stay tuned as we will have another interview appearing soon in our Tokyoheads section
The xx will be returning to Japan for Fujirock this summer, but we are still waiting to hear confirmation from the organisers. Until then check out The xx homepage / myspace
