Charli XCX Finds More Creative Inspiration In Movies Than In New Music

Charli XCX has shared that she does not feel creatively driven by new music.

The 360 singer shifted her focus toward acting and filmmaking after finishing her acclaimed 2024 album Brat because she no longer felt a strong pull toward making more music.

During a conversation with Yung Lean for Dazed, she explained: "After Brat, I felt really uninspired by music. I don’t really listen to that much music anyway. I listen to you, Lou Reed, Sophie, AG Cook, Benjamin [Bladee], George [Daniel, Charli’s husband and drummer with The 1975], and that’s kind of it. I’m not listening to a lot of stuff and I’m not particularly hungry to learn about new music. It’s never inspired me, really.

"I’ve always been more inspired by film. So I think at that point, when I wasn’t feeling particularly inspired by music, I wanted to delve more into a different creative space. You have always done that. I’m blown away by the amount of work that you’re constantly making, whether it’s sculptures, paintings, clothes, music, or, now, film."

Charli said she felt an immediate spark to start creating new music for the upcoming Wuthering Heights movie.

She wrote on social media recently: “After being so in the depths of my previous album, I was excited to escape into something entirely new, entirely opposite.

"When I think of Wuthering Heights, I think of many things. I think of passion and pain. I think of England. I think of the Moors, I think of the mud and the cold. I think of determination and grit."

The soundtrack includes the track House, which features John Cale of The Velvet Underground, an artist she has long admired.

Charli’s Brat album achieved enormous success, earning multiple Grammy and BRIT Awards and becoming a cultural phenomenon through the Brat Summer movement, though she once feared it might lead to her being "dropped" by her label.

Speaking with Gwyneth Paltrow on her Goop podcast, she said: "I actually made this record being like, 'OK, I’m just going to do this one for me. Maybe I’m going to get dropped by my label, and that’s fine.' That was kind of the headspace that I was in."