Swimming With Sharks, Idolising Josh Homme & Adopting A Less “Moody” Image

At the time of our chat, Oliver Sim is in Byron Bay enjoying a couple of days off before The xx take the Splendour In The Grass Amphitheatre stage. "I've had a bit of a holiday," he enthuses. "All of the locals I've met have been apologising for the weather, but I think it's beeeeautiful! [Laughs] I'm from London so this is, like, amazing weather to me. So I've been swimming. Everyone's in jumpers and trousers and I'm in shorts and T-shirt and having a great time, yeah. I was in the water yesterday and some guy started waving at me to get out, and I got out and he said he spotted a shark, like, a few metres away!" he laughs again. "But this is my first time in Byron Bay and I think it's beautiful."  

When asked whether he ever gets to see other bands play at festivals when The xx are on the line-up, the vocalist/bassist admits, "That's my favourite part of festivals, is being able to kind of hang out and see other bands play. So we're playing tonight here at Byron Bay and we're here tomorrow, so we're gonna come back into the festival and see Queens Of The Stone Age play. I'm so excited. When I was a teenager, Josh Homme was my absolute, like, pin-up of what I wanted to be when I was I older. I still am a massive fan."

Sim estimates The xx are currently "playing two thirds" of the band's latest I See You record in their live sets, as well as "quite a lot of songs from the first and second" albums, before concluding, "We don't wanna get bored of our own set, so we try and change it as much as we can." On whether The xx have ever tried to work out how to play a song live, but have had to abandon the idea 'cause it just didn't work out, Sim offers, "We're kind of having that issue right now with one of my favourite songs from I See You called Replica; we've performed it in, like, four or five different versions and it hasn't quite been right. So we're still feelin' it out. I hope it makes its way into the set." After admitting "it's satisfying if you get to the other end of" such a challenge, Sim shares, "Especially in the studio, like, a lot of these songs have gone through sooo many different versions. There's a song called Performance that honestly went through, I'm gonna say, ten to 15 different versions before we got to the final one, and there were moments where I thought it wasn't gonna end up on the record even though we loved it. We knew how to perform it live, but we didn't know how to record it. But I'm glad we got there."

The music video for On Hold, the lead single from The xx's latest record, is an absolute masterpiece so we're curious to find out how much of the concept can be credited to the band. "Well, we got in contact with Alasdair McLellan who we'd worked with before - he's a fantastic photographer, but he had never really done a music video before - and, you know, we knew what we wanted from this kind of album campaign... We wanted it to be a lot more light and to be, I suppose - you know, what we've done in the past has always been very, um, I hate to use this word, haha, but very moody. We wanted something a lot younger and a lot brighter with a lot more positivity and, you know, we were making mood boards of things that we wanted, with images, and we had pulled up so many of his images without even realising.

"And we knew we also wanted to come back to Marfa in Texas where we recorded a large part of this album, and it was a place he had never been to before so, yeah! We kind of headed there and spent a week there filming, and came up with that music video - it was a lot of fun."

There's a nostalgic wash over the clip that gives viewers the impression they're flicking through treasured old photographs and Sim praises, "I think that's something Alasdair does SO well; everything's kind of really golden. Yeah, I think, you know, he kind of nailed exactly what we wanted: that kind of golden light and those beautiful blue skies." And beautiful people into the bargain, we point out. "Totally beautiful people - all locals, it's amazing. We sent out an invite, basically, to local kids in Marfa and a kind of neighbouring town, and said, 'Do you wanna be in a music video?' And most of them didn't know who we were, they were just kind of super-excited to come to a party and be filmed. But, you know, they were great! They were so up for it, it was amazing.    

"All we did was -  you know, 'cause they were all underage - we just gave them fizzy drinks and put on some good music, and they were up for dancing!... When I was that age, I'd be waaaay too self-aware to dance and be filmed, but they were awesome."

If you're yet to view The xx's Night + Day documentary (it's on YouTube), what are you waiting for? "That was just amazing," Sim gushes of his band's eight-night stand at Brixton Academy, which Night + Day documents. "That was our fourth Night + Day and to do it back home - not only in London, but in our end of London, in Brixton - was amazing, it was really amazing. It was a real homecoming and to kind of like collaborate with so many people - it was a lot of work but, you know, it's one of the things that I've been most proud of that we've done.

"We were trying our best to make it not like a takeover, but kind of like just working with the whole area; so working with the local charities, working with the local, like, food vendors and clubs and cinema and radio - it was a real delight. It was quite nice to see community."     

Given that Brixton is "a bit of a hub in itself, like, it's got so much going on", Sim acknowledges "it was kind of the perfect place to do it". "We also know it, as well, because we all grew up in, like, pretty much the same neighbourhood - just opposite in Wandsworth so, yeah! And we've got all of our family there as well."

On growing up in this South London district, Sim recalls, "There was just a lot an offer. My first-ever gig was in Brixton. My mum took me to The White Stripes when I was about 13. [The gig was] all ages. My mum had, like, a second coming when she was in her 40s and, you know, really wanted to be going to gigs, and she fell in love with The White Stripes. And I was at an age where I was falling in love with music so we were buddies, we would go to gigs together and go to festivals. It was awesome."

As well as collaborating with local Brixton businesses, The xx also collaborated with artists on the Brixton Academy stage. "We collaborated with Robyn, Jehnny Beth from Savages and Florence [Welch] from Florence & The Machine on individual nights and then Romy [Madley Croft] also did a collaboration with Cat Power. And we did some collaborations on the local radio station as well." The artist collaborations utilised "existing tracks", Sim elaborates. "So, with Robyn, we worked out a version of her first song With Every Heartbeat and we kind of worked out how to do that, and then Jehnny Beth joined us for one of our songs called Infinity, and with Florence we did a version of a remix we did of You've Got The Love.   

"It was amazing. Especially seeing, like, I think, all three of those women and also Romy did one of Cat Power's songs with her. But, you know, being on stage with Florence - Florence is a good friend of ours, but also one of my absolute idols; she's one of my favourite performers in the world and to just be up on stage with her... I've learnt a lot and had a lot of fun, and I think she's one in a million."

When it's suggested that Welch's voice needs no amplification, Sim agrees, "No, no, 100%. Like I was stood next to her while she was doing full belt and, haha, she did not need a microphone. She's amazing."

Sadly, The xx's Icelandic Night + Day, which was scheduled to take place in mid-July, had to be cancelled at the 11th hour when the festival site, Skogafoss waterfall, was added to the Environmental Agency Of Iceland's list of endangered areas. "That was due to happen last week," Sim laments. "It was incredibly sad but, you know, it was for reasons that were kind of out of our hands and it was for the sake of the actual area, like, we didn't want to put it in danger by putting the festival on there... We visited it a coupla times and it's such a special place, I just wouldn't want to put it in danger."