Name: Charli xcx Thinks Early Success Would’ve Made Her A “Nightmare” | Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend
Uploaded: 2026-01-29T17:04:43.000Z
Duration: 6 min 50 s
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Gerund

You have this long arc of making very successful music.

Past simple

And, I mean, my daughter, who I told you is a massive fan, been listening to for years, long before Brat, and was a fan of yours.

So when the moment comes that Brat comes out.

Brat, Summer, the whole cultural phenomenon of that, you're probably maybe a little better prepared, if you can be prepared for something like that, for sure.

It's funny, I guess as an artist, I had already sort of dabbled in commercial success through the songs I had written for other people and been a feature on.

And that had literally taken me around the world and allowed me to perform on different stages and things like that.

So I kind of had this, like, secondhand experience, as you were saying, of, like, pop star success.

I was sort of like the one, like, photobombing the photo rather than, like, in the main center frame.

But it was cool, you know, I was cool with that.

I had my own song, this song called Boom Clap, which was in this film called Fault in Our Stars.

And that was my sort of big, like, oh, now she's going to do it.

I didn't really, like, have my brain, like, fully dialed as, like, an artist brain in a way.

Like, I wasn't connecting all the pieces of the puzzle together in the.

In the way that I. I do now when I think about my work.

And then after that, I kind of, like, went into this other world of, okay, now I'm gonna kind of really, like, make underground stuff and work with, like, my freaky friends and things like that.

And so when Brat happened and people were into that record, I was actually kind of at this point where I was kind of like, I'm just going to make this record for me, and I don't really care if anybody else likes it.

I felt like I was at a point in my career where I could really sustain being able to do what I wanted.

Even if the album wasn't commercially successful, I was totally at peace with it.

And I'd been so swinging on the pendulum back and forth between, like, what I wanted as a person, as an artist prior to that.

But with this record, I was like, down the line.

Like, I am ready for it to flop and I am going to stand by it.

Like, this is for me and my fans who like, give a fuck about what I'm doing.

And then obviously, like, it didn't really happen like that.

Like, a lot more people than my hardcore fan base were into the record.

And I think because I had had this prior journey before of, like, you know, being in the background of the photos and, like, kind of, like, having this sort of, like, almost type moments, I felt.

Like, I'd kind of, like, seen so much, and I'd also, like, experienced so much of what the industry is and how people come and go and how people treat you when you're on top versus when you're not.

I think I'm just quite realistic about fame and the industry and how serious or unseriously you need to take it.

I feel, like, really thankful that I got to have the experience that I had prior to Brat, because I think it.

I think I would have been a nightmare if I hadn't.

Like, I really, honestly, like, really, like, I think it would have been, like, quite a dangerous, like, concoction of things all coming together.

There are people that have that when they're 19, 20, 21, and oftentimes that can lead to drug addiction, mental illness, because I don't think people are meant to experience that 100%, and it's not something biologically we're meant to be able to handle.

I'm just curious, because there's a little bit of false modesty about Brat.

It wasn't just successful very few times.

Can you say that an album is a cultural phenomenon?

It was artistically a smash, but it took on a whole life.

The color and font of the album became a thing.

That's when you know you've done something interesting.

You're passing by a coffee shop, and the color and the font is telling you buy a mochaccino, and you're like, okay, this doesn't even have anything to do with Brat.

They're trying to use Brat to sell a mochaccino.

Was there a moment when you've had success before?

You'd been playing before people for a long time.

Was there a moment that crystallized for you where you thought, oh, my God, this is weird.

And also, I'm very bad at doing the thing where you, like, look back and acknowledge success.

Like, I'm kind of like, next thing, let's go.

Like, I don't know, like, I can sit here and, you know, talk to you guys and say, like, actually, yeah, it was really cool.

Like, but in the moment, I wasn't really thinking like, that.

And I think I find the whole sort of like, social experiment of the whole thing really fascinating.

And I think the way that people interact with pop culture has always been, like, a huge inspiration to my work.

And so for me, this was sort of like, oh, my God, this was like the cherry on the cake of everything I had ever hoped for.

Because it was so interesting to see how people, fans, haters, brands, presidential campaigns were interacting.

Fascinating the way that, yeah, like, trend cycles happen and.

And, yeah, it's like, that's always been such interesting fuel for.

I'm fascinated with how people engage with stuff.