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A group of 20-year-olds from London has made the Internet sit up and notice over the past year or so, with their blend of haunting melodies, mellow electronic vibes and intimate vocals. The xx, comprising Oliver Sim, Romy Madley Croft and Jamie Smith (Baria Qureshi has since left the band), produce music that pulls you into a secret conversation between two lovers. According to popular online music aggregator, The Hype Machine, they were among the top ten bands that were blogged about in 2009. Men's Health spoke with Oliver (far right in the picture) when they were in Frankfurt, Germany about their debut album and their coming Singapore gig.
How did the name 'The xx" come about?
The name came before the music. A lot of it was rather visual. We quite liked the letter X. and how it looked. It was quite strong and bold looking. And thinking ahead of ourselves, if we were to have artwork, there was a lot of possibilities, it just had a very strong aesthetical presence.
On the other side, we quite liked the mystery behind it. It’s quite a void answer for a name. there are so many different interpretations you can make of it whether it’s a kiss-kiss, genetics chromosome or pornography. That’s the two sides to it really.
What made you decide to form the band?
We were very secretive about it in the beginning. Romy and I started it. We were about 15 or 16. It was at a time we were really falling in love with music and going to gigs on our own. It was just a frame of mind; why not try it ourselves? A lot of it came out of boredom as well. We just tried it and we were very secretive about it, we didn’t tell any of our friends. We were gigging a little bit before we told anyone about it.
Why so secretive?
I suppose we weren’t too confident. It’s a lot easier to play in front of quite a lot of strangers than a couple of your friends just because when it’s someone that really knows you, it’s much more scary.
All of us – our parents – are real music lovers with music always playing in our house constantly while we were growing up. My parents have been very supportive. When I finished school, I didn’t continue to go to university because I decided I wanted to do music. For about a year while we were recording and gigging, I wasn’t really planning that many things. I didn’t invite them to any shows because I wanted it to be good enough. They just trusted me that I was doing something and they were very supportive. I think we’ve been quite lucky in that way.
Where do you see yourself going with this music business?
I definitely think we have a long way to go. Music is something I can’t stop. Whether people are going to hear it or not, I’m still going to make music. This first album - we only finished it when we were ready and however long the second album may take, that’s how long it’ll take. Whether it’s a year, or four years, I don’t know. As clichéd as it sounds, I’m taking every day as it comes. I will still be making music in 20 years time and if people still want to hear it, that’s nice.
How has response been on tour?
We’re playing a lot bigger venues this year. All the shows have been sold out and the crowd has been really amazing.
Considering your music, do you prefer more intimate settings for your concerts?
We used to play smaller more intimate venues so in the beginning, that’s what our music lent itself to. Now we’ve put a lot of work on production and it’s a lot bigger and we're trying to work hard on it so it’ll translate well into bigger venues. Now we have a whole light show as well. I think it does work quite well now in bigger venues. It’s a lot more new so it’s really fun.
So you’ve been expanding your music slightly?
Yeah just to create more of a show. The songs have been expanded and changed in a way that didn’t work so well on records but worked very well 'live'. The show now feels like it’s building to something which is really nice. I think we’ve got a long way to go but it’s feeling really good.
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A group of 20-year-olds from London has made the Internet sit up and notice over the past year or so, with their blend of haunting melodies, mellow electronic vibes and intimate vocals. 
