Charli XCX wraps up this season of Inside the Candy Shop on Apple Music by celebrating the release of her new album, how im feeling now made entirely while quarantined in Los Angeles. On the season finale, she takes fans through the album track by track and highlights songs by her collaborators A.G. Cook, BJ Burton, SOPHIE, Dylan Brady, and Palmistry.
Charli tells Apple Music: "Today is the day my album came out. Oh, my gosh. I've been building up to this for, I think, five weeks now. I mean, basically I decided I would make this album in its entirety, in quarantine, from my own home and have BJ Burton and AG Cook, co-executive produce, alongside me and we did it. We did it. We made it. All the songs are done. They're all out. I can't quite believe it because it was crazy. It was crazy. We've been working basically nonstop, particularly this past couple of weeks and I can't believe that it's happened. But it's done."
Charli also shared with Apple Music how an At Home With group FaceTime with Dua Lipa and J.Lo helped name the album’s opening track “pink diamond”:
“Dua Lipa asked me to do an Apple Music interview for the At Home With series with her, Zane [Lowe] and Jennifer Lopez. Which is, of course, truly a quarantine situation. When am I going to ever be on a FaceTime with J.Lo? Anyway, on the call, J.Lo was telling this story about meeting Barbara Streisand, and Barbara talking to her about diamonds. At that time, J.Lo had just been given that iconic pink diamond by Ben Affleck. I instantly thought, ‘Pink Diamond is a very cute name for a song’ and wrote it down on my phone. I immediately texted Dua afterwards and said, ‘Oh my god, she mentioned the pink diamond!’ A few days later, [LA-based R&B artist and producer] Dijon sent me this really hard, aggressive and quite demonic demo called ‘Makeup On’, and I felt the two titles had some kind of connection. I always like pairing really silly, sugary imagery with things that sound quite evil. It then became a song about video chatting—this idea that you’re wanting to go out and party and be sexy, but you’re stuck at home on video chat. I wanted it as the first track because I’m into the idea that some people will love it and some people will hate it. I think it’s nice to be antagonistic on track one of an album and really frustrate certain people, but make others really obsessive about what might come next.”
Charli XCX Celebrates The Completion of Her New Album:
"Today is the day my album came out. Oh, my gosh. I've been building up to this for, I think, five weeks now. I mean, basically I decided I would make this album in its entirety, in quarantine, from my own home and have BJ Burton and AG Cook, co-executive produce, alongside me and we did it. We did it. We made it. All the songs are done. They're all out. I can't quite believe it because it was crazy. It was crazy. We've been working basically nonstop, particularly this past couple of weeks and I can't believe that it's happened. But it's done."
Charli XCX On Changes to How She Thinks About Making Music After the Album
"Oh, I'm feeling all the feels today because I've put my album out. I can't quite believe it. It's been such a journey to get here starting from nothing five weeks ago. And then with the help of all of these incredible producers and my amazing fan base, whove been giving me feedback, and help, and ideas, and inspiration the entire five weeks that we finally made it, we made it here. We've created so many different artworks for all of the songs that I released prior to the album coming out. We've workshopped lyrics together. We've workshopped top lines together, me and my fans. We've made music videos together. It's been such a collaborative process from start to finish. And honestly, one that has really changed the way I think about music making big time."
Charli XCX on Including an Unreleased Fan Favorite 'party 4 u' on Her Album
"This song Party 4 U is kind of become like an unreleased fan favorite. So when this album came around, A.G. and I immediately started talking about Party 4 U because we always mentioned that song. We're always wondering where it could fit. Because it was never over for us. It was always very much like a song that was on our minds. We were always thinking about how it could happen, where it could happen, how it could fit, how it could grow. Because it was recorded so long ago, and then, I don't know, it just feels like it's been on a real journey.
So with this album, it just felt right to include it because, obviously, this album is so centered around my fans, anyways. It kind of felt right to put this in as like a little gem for all of them. So, yeah, I recorded a new verse in my house and then A.G. made this incredible outro, which actually, when I heard it for the first time I cried again. The crowds, the crowd noises, that was actually a crowd noise from my show last year at Brixton Academy in London."
Charli XCX on Collaborating With Fans to Write ‘anthem'
"Got to shout out the fans for helping me write the second verse of this song. I went on Instagram live. I played the demo. I was kind of asking people what they thought of the melody, of the hook. And then I wrote a second verse with all the people who were watching right there on Instagram, and it was so cool. It was so cool to see everybody's suggestions, see what people reacted towards, what they kind of moved away from. And I'm so happy that this song is on the album with this verse because I think this really is the ultimate kind of collaboration between me and my fans. And yeah, it just feels truly special and truly of the time. The song's called Anthem, and it kind of reminds me of that movie Project X. Dylan Brady on production, again, shout out Dylan. But yeah, the production is so wild. It just reminds me of that movie. And it's about missing partying, which I definitely do a little bit, but this song makes me feel that energy again."
Charli XCX on Throwing an LGBTQIA+ Party on Club Quarantine
"Tonight, I am partying. I'm throwing a party with this incredible LGBTQ+ URL party. It's on Zoom. It's called Club Quarantine. I'm throwing a party in there. It's going to be wild. Yeah, come through. If you can get the code and get in, it will be wild. Lots of incredible people are going to perform and DJ, and it's going to be a party. I'm going to be partying. Me and my boyfriend will be getting lit."
