NeoL

―How was your recent performance at Glastonbury? We saw the video, and the crowd enjoyed your new songs.


Jamie xx：It was extraordinary. Glastonbury is very fun but it’s always a lot of pressure. Especially because I have had such good shows before. I am grateful that my show was on a Friday night, so I got to enjoy the rest of the festival without the pressure. The crowd was so great – it was better than I could have hoped for.


―It was moving to see you hugging Romy and Oliver during ‘Waited All Night’. Can you share what you three talked about after the performance?


Jamie xx：We talked about how nice it was to be back on stage together. It’s been a long time since 2018, and it never fails to be a personal experience. It felt so comfortable on stage together. I had forgotten how nice it is to be with them.





―The new album was made over four years, including during the pandemic.In our previous interviews with artists, many said that the pandemic had a big influence on their work and career direction. Do you think the pandemic impacted your views on life, music, or your career?


Jamie xx：Yes, a lot has changed, especially in my personal life. I learned what was important to me, in terms of how to live life and maintain a balance between work and personal life. Music came first to me since I was seventeen till my thirties. I had to discover a whole new side of myself in the pandemic.


― Your new album discusses the introspection of the time in your bedroom and excitement on the dancefloor. It is very striking. Did those changes from the pandemic influence your album?


Jamie xx：Yes, it made me want to go back and make music like how I used to. Which was all just for me. I didn’t know when people would be listening to my music again, or when I would be able to play a show again. It forced me to make music for myself. I started to enjoy it again.

―Was there a breakthrough moment while making this album? When did you start to see the overall picture?


Jamie xx：When I made ‘Dafodil,’ I initially wanted to release it as a single. My neighbour advised me to wait until I made a full album around it, which I was grateful for. I made ‘LET’S DO IT AGAIN’ and ‘KILL DEM’ and put them out as singles. I was working on an album that would include those but as time went on, it was nice to keep ‘Dafodil’ just for the album as informs more of what the album sounds like, compared to the other songs.

―The album title ‘In Waves’ is inspired by surfing.What got you into surfing, and what do you enjoy about it?


Jamie xx：I was in Japan about ten years ago. I had to go to Toronto for the next show and stopped in Hawaii. That’s when I went surfing for the first time. I caught the first wave and managed to stand up, and I saw the wave from a new angle, literally. I have seen waves throughout my life, but being able to move with it and seeing how physics works blew my mind. Seeing the natural world in a new light is such a special thing in life. It gave me a new energy and it was so nice to have something else that I am obsessed with, other than music.


―Did surfing change you, and how do you think it influenced your approach in making music?


Jamie xx：Surfing taught me the benefit of having calm in my life. Whenever I go surfing I feel so content, happy and calm. I guess I am striving for that in my life. It is much harder to do with work, but at least I have that as a base to reflect on and achieve.

―You were skateboarding with Romy in the track ‘Loud Places’. Is surfing something you do with friends too?


Jamie xx：I surf whenever I can. Sometimes I am lucky enough to have friends around. When I am in LA, I drive on my own at 5 am to surf on my own. Even when I am out there with my friends, it’s a quite a solo experience. Occasionally we talk to people, but it suits me very well being in my internal world.


―What ideas and concepts, would you say, shaped the sound of this album?


Jamie xx：The album was made such a long time ago, that so many approaches are involved. I was searching for a way to do something that would make the album feel like a whole. What I worked out is that this ‘search’ was what made the album. I had to try many different ways to get back to my love for making music.





―The track ‘Dafodil’ features Panda Bear. How did this collaboration come about?


Jamie xx：I sent the instrumentals to different artists to write verses based on summer in London. I got loads of different ones from different artists. The Panda Bear one just fitted the climax of the song so well. There are many versions of that song, maybe some others will come out another day, but this was the tightest album version I could do.


―Do you have any favourite songs or albums by Panda Bear or Animal Collective?


Jamie xx：There was an Animal Collective album that came out when we were doing our tours. That feels very nostalgic to me. Panda Bear made a cover of one of our songs, and it never made it to the world but I always love that. I love the vocal production of those tracks. So, I have always been a fan from afar.


―Kelsey Lu is featured on the track ‘Dafodil’. What do you find great about her?


Jamie xx：She is very thoughtful and we are similar in many ways. I worked on her album and spent a lot of time with her. We hung out a lot over the years. Kelsey lived in London near me for a long time, we used to go clubbing a long time ago. We just became very close. It made sense to me to do something with somebody that I am so close with.





―You performed on the Glastonbury stage with Robyn, who was featured on the track ‘Life’. Why did you choose for her to be in that song?


Jamie xx：The same reasons. We haven’t been out for a long time. I was a fan long before I knew her. I think it was a good place to start working with people that I knew and had similar sensibilities to me. I was lucky to be in a studio with her because she is such a legend.

―Can you tell us about the sampling on the album? Are there any notable songs or artists?


Jamie xx：All of these records were something I have had for a long time. I am always buying records and there is always some part of my mind thinking about where I could use them; either in DJ sets or sampling. It mostly comes from listening to music from home that was very different from the music that I was making. These ended up informing samples that I used in my record.

The first song on the album samples the Rip Groove vocals. I never thought about sampling a song from that era because I usually sample things from the sixties, seventies or early eighties. But that piece of music is so intrinsic to the UK base culture. I like how that exists on the album and it reflects a big part of my life.


―How has the pandemic influenced the xx’s new album, and how did it affect your relationship with Romy and Oliver?


Jamie xx：I got to make the whole album with Oliver, before and during the pandemic. We got even closer in that time. I got to spend so much time just with him. It was a real pleasure to get to do that. I love that album and it is really meaningful to me. I got to work on Romy’s album for that period too. Our ideas were slightly different so I only made a few bits for that album. The whole point of us going out, and doing the records was that we were pushing the boundaries of what we are as a band. Now that we are coming back together, we have a lot more to pull from. Maybe it will be more of a challenge but ultimately it will make the music better.

text Junnosuke Amai