The xx

Consider this: you’ve just released your bangin‘ debut, critics love it and it’s flying off the shelves (or filling carts on the iTunes store). But how do you follow it up with another winner?

You’ve got the expectations of fans, critics and record label bosses. You’ve got the weight of hype and the intrusive interrogations of musical journalists.

The difficult second album is a wily beast indeed — just ask The Strokes, MGMT or Bloc Party, all of whom arguably failed to meet the high benchmarks set by their debuts.

The xx, however, not only exceeded expectations with last September’s Coexist, they seemingly managed to avoid the hype trap entirely.

The London trio quietly kept on with what they were doing, and continued to do it very well. How did they succeed where so many others have failed?

Guitarist and co-vocalist Romy Madley Croft ponders a moment, then responds in her softly-spoken manner, “I think originally we were just so happy to be home from touring and to be creative again, really.” “When we got back we found an apartment, then we put some equipment in and made a soundproof studio… We just kind of got on with it.”

“When we got back we found an apartment, then we put some equipment in and made a soundproof studio, made it somewhere we wanted to be. We just kind of got on with it,” she adds plainly.

“It all happened quite naturally, which is something I was really happy about. We were all thinking if we came back and it wasn’t happening, then we should take some time off from things.”

“I think the pressure came on a little bit more when we started doing interviews, after we’d finished the album, and people were asking us, you know, ‘Did you feel pressured?’, and we starting thinking, ‘Oh, maybe we should’ve done!’”

The xx began “second-guessing” themselves, says Madley Croft, but instead, “wanted to get back to that place,” she continues; “a place in our minds where we’re making music not with the pressure of the outside world but because we love doing it. We didn’t want the idea that we were trying to please anyone else.”

Surely it’s difficult, though, to not be lured in by the trappings of fame? A-list parties, rubbing shoulders with celebrities, VIP rooms, limos and red carpet and all that jazz? “I think, to be honest, it’s just the kind of people that we are,” she admits.

“We’ve never been in-your-face, fame-hungry people. We just love making music and have never taken fame too seriously. I think if we were getting chased down the street by people then we would feel a bit differently, but we walk around London and nobody especially notices us.”

“It just doesn’t really cross over into our everyday lives,” she ponders openly. “When we go away and we’re playing a show and are hanging out near the venue, then there are people who come up to us and of course that’s a different experience. But it’s like stepping into that role. We’re not really like that in everyday life, because we’re all very normal. I guess that’s why we’re not fazed by it, because it’s almost doesn’t seem real.” “We’ve never been in-your-face, fame-hungry people. We just love making music and have never taken fame too seriously.”

The band are currently in Australia on tour this month, and hope to have a little more time to explore. Their previous two visits have been all too brief, says Madley Croft. “It was really nice to come back last year, after we first came down for Laneway [in 2010]. But I wish, for both times, we’d had more time to explore, to get more of a feeling for [Australia].”

“I’m going to force myself to find some time to walk around and explore this time, rather than just doing interviews during the day,” she notes, before remarking on the less-than-glamorous side of promotion.

“You can get in a bit of a loop, because you’re going to somewhere to promote the album and you want to talk about it and everything, but then you don’t end up seeing the place.”

Perhaps it’s possible to kill two birds with one stone, by only doing interviews face-to-face in museums, national parks, and other such touristy areas? “Sure, next time we’ll do them on a boat tour! Although it seems a bit like a press conference on a boat though,” she replies with a chuckle.

An oft-remarked-upon aspect of the xx’s live show is the surprise of seeing a crowd singing, even shouting, along to vocals that are almost whispered in their softness on record.

Though it might strike as slightly inappropriate for people to get too exuberant in their sing-alongs to their delicate brand of indie, when Madley Croft is pressed about whether she’d consider pulling an audience up for shouting, she plays along. “I never have, but I’d quite like that!”

“It’s definitely been a different thing for us, having people singing along. Although it must seem strange for people coming to our shows who aren’t expecting it,” adds Madley Croft. “It was really nice to come back last year, after we first came down for Laneway. But I wish, for both times, we’d had more time to explore [Australia].”

“For me onstage, having people sing back to you is a sign of acceptance and that people have been enjoying it. So I’m quite open and enjoy it. The same goes for clapping along — I hadn’t thought we were a clap-along band, but it’s too fun to have people show their crowd participation. I never thought that would suit the music but it sort of has, strangely. As the show has gone on, we’ve got a bit louder and a bit more upbeat. I think it’s just an evolution of us playing live.”

It was mentioned in an article on the band in The Guardian last year that Madley Croft has issues at airports each time they visit the US. Apparently, “[the] whorls and ridges the 23-year-old has on the tips of her fingers are so fine they can’t be detected by the special machines at US border control.”

Pointing out that it must be good knowing that if music doesn’t work out in the long run for the singer, there’s always a promising second career as an untraceable cat burglar — she reveals, “Well, I wanted to be a spy when I was a kid, so maybe that’d be a great job for me!”

“As for that story, I think I must have just put the wrong hand on the [fingerprint scanner] when I got my visa. So every time I go through I get taken off into a room and they interrogate me pretty intensely and then they realise that nothing’s wrong and set me free.”

Has The xx musician ever considered just flaunting her rock star status to get out of trouble? The singer just gives another soft laugh, befitting of her band’s refined sense of musicality: “No, I wouldn’t say that.”

Coexist is out now through Young Turks/Remote Control, read the Tone Deaf review here. The xx play the first of two shows in Festival Hall tonight in Melbourne, then two Sold Out shows at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion; limited tickets are still available for their gig at the Bunbury Convention Centre. Dates and details below.

The xx 2013 Australian Tour Dates

4 April – Festival Hall, Melbourne (Limited tickets available)
5 April – Festival Hall, Melbourne – SOLD OUT
6 April – Hordern Pavilion, Sydney – SOLD OUT
7 April – Hordern Pavilion, Sydney – SOLD OUT
9 April – Convention Centre, Brisbane (Limited tickets available)

Tickets on sale now at http://handsometours.com/current/the-xx-3/