Charli XCX

Mm-hmm.

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

And it didn't really happen.

I don't think I was ready then.

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

I wasn't connecting all the pieces of the puzzle together in the way that 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 going to 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.

This is for me.

This is for my fans.

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 what I wanted as a person, as an artist prior to that.

But with this record, I was down the line.

I am ready for it to flop.

Stand by it.

I love it.