Thy Kingdom Glum

Lurking in a corner office at his record company’s London headquarters, The xx’s Oliver Sims clears his throat. “It’s “xx”– not “double x”,” offers the softly spoken singer after one of those pauses that threatens to linger all afternoon. “We came up with the name because we thought it looked good aesthetically. It was chosen purely for visual reasons. We put quite a lot of thought into everything we do. But, of everything, this has the least meaning. It was picked purely for visual reasons. Afterwards, people started asking us if it had anything to do with double x chromosomes (the female genetic). Those angles never occurred to us.”

All flapping coat-tails and frosty glares, The xx look like they’ve just stepped out of a ‘70s vampire movie. Their music’s rather downbeat too, a sub-arctic melange of Mazzy Star shoegaze and elegiac dance rhythms, elevated above the merely formulaic by the ethereal vocal interplay between Sim and long-time songwriting partner Romy Madley Croft.
“It’s all been a bit strange,“ says Sim of the group’s sudden and, for him at least, unexpected rise to prominence (they make an eagerly awaited Irish debut at Electric Picnic).
“We played London for the first time in four months recently and it was a major jump. A lot of the audience were there to see us, as opposed to having just stumbled through the doors. And they knew all the songs. It was a funny feeling, seeing all these people mouthing along.”
Normally when the two key members of a buzzy new outfit claim not to be able to recall first clapping eyes on one another, it’s because they were too drunk/drugged/otherwise stupefied to be in possession of their senses at the time. In the case of Sim and Madley Croft, however, there’s a better excuse.
“We’ve known each other since nursery school,“ Sim explains. “Since we were three-years-old basically. We went to the same nursery, the same primary, the same secondary schools. She’s like my sister basically. I don’t remember the first time we met. I think at that age your parents chose your friends for you. I’m pretty happy with my mum’s choice. ‘
Sim and Madley Croft started The xx at school, as a way to stave off boredom. There’s a long tradition of musicianship at the institution in question, Elliot College in West London. Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden is a past pupil as is Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor. One old boy, however, looms larger than all others.
“The big claim to fame about our school is that Pierce Brosnan went there,” laughs Sim. “He was the most famous ex-pupil. To be honest, I don’t know how much credit to give the school. I don’t know if they were giving us a lot of freedom or if they were simply neglecting us. There was quite a lot of space and time to do your own thing. There was no strict uniform. Just a jumper.”
At school, Sim was several years behind Burial, the mysterious dubstep champion who, despite being nominated for the Mercury music prize, has managed to keep his identity a secret.
Surely Sim can spill the goods?
“‘Fraid not,” he says, laughing for the first time. “I’m told he went to the same school as me. And we’re all big dubstep fans, which may explain all the bass in our songs. But we’ve never met and I honestly have no idea who he is.”
The xx caught their first big break last year when Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine hand-picked them to support her in the UK. They’ll be back opening for her this winter, when she marks the top 10 success of her album with a string of sell-out dates in Britain.
“It’s astonishing how well she’s done,” Oliver enthuses. “We’ve seen loads of her shows obviously. And they’ve always had a fantastic atmosphere. I don’t think anyone expected she’d do quite as well as she has, however. It’s great music. But the step up has been amazing. Two years ago, it was her and her guitarist in some shitty pub. Now she’s playing all of these Academy-scale venues in the UK. I think she’s got an amazing voice and is an amazing performer, so it’s great to see her dong so well.”
Having released a series of well-recieved EPs over the past 18 months, the xx, none a day over 20, had to contend with a label bidding war recently. In the end, they stayed loyal to Young Turks, the first label to express an interest.
He says: “We’ve had people approaching us promising all sorts. Mostly, all they talked about was releasing loads of material. We were hearing this back when we only had five songs written. To be fair to Young Turks, they wanted to help with somewhere to rehearse and with gigs. It didn’t feel right to go past them. Back when nobody else cared, they were the ones looking out for us.”