Probably subconsciously, my mind needed to do something more structured after having done something that was essentially us throwing everything we can think of into a barrel and rolling it down a hill to see what happens. After that, it wasn’t like “Now we have to do super normal songs!” as a response. I do agree that Girl With Basket of Fruit was the most bonkers record we had done so far.

I appreciate classically formed songwriting immensely and it is something that we aspire to, but at the same time we’re interested in the insane, intense, noise-industrial-experimental music. No, we’ve gone back and forth forever between doing things that are fairly traditional, verse-chorus-bridge type of songwriting and the untraditional ones. So when you released “A Bottle of Rum”, the lead single from OH NO, I was surprised to hear one of your most radio-friendly tracks. Your previous album Girl With Basket of Fruit had some of your most out-there, crazily chaotic songs, which is a high standard for you. Psychologically, that was probably something necessary. I mean, every other aspect of life has changed, but considering we’d been touring since we started, it’s the first extended break we’ve ever had.

It’s been a good opportunity to do just that. We love making records and I love recording. Aside from not touring, though, things haven’t really been that different. We also started a subscription service on Bandcamp, so that’s new. We finished that last September, and we’ve since been working on a new record. We worked on our new record which came out on Friday. We have our own studio, and time not spent on tour is time spent in the studio, so we had a chance to do a tremendous amount of recording in the last year. Financially, that has not been great, but it has given us a lot more time. Like everybody, it was playing in a band and being unable to go on tour. How have you, as a person and as a music project, adapted to the pandemic? You continued evolving as Xiu Xiu, and the world has also changed a lot. It’s crazy how much all of us have been over since that record. Jamie Stewart: What an honor! That’s nice to hear. We were wasting our time at that moment and just wanted to say hi, so we chose that. This interview is really special for Kıyı Müzik, because the very first song that went on airplay on our radio back in 2012 was actually “Hi” from your eighth studio album Always. You can read the interview below, or check out the Turkish version here. Our interaction proved to be quite joyful: The topics we talked about don’t only include OH NO, but also Werner Herzog, David Lynch, The Cure and the love songs never written. Our expectations did not fail us, and soon after we met up with Jamie Stewart via Zoom, engaging in a sincere conversation. The early singles A Bottle of Rum” and “Rumpus Room” already suggested that we were about to hear a very special project once again. This album of duets hosts an impressive list of guest musicians, which are, respectively: Sharon Van Etten, Drab Majesty, Haley Fohr, Greg Saunier, Susanne Sachsse, Liars, Angela Seo, Owen Pallett, Chelsea Wolfe, Fabrizio Modenese Palumbo, Shearwater, Twin Shadow, Alice Bag, Liz Harris and Valerie Diaz. Going strong for 19 years, Xiu Xiu are now back with their 12th studio album OH NO (released March 26th). Led by Jamie Stewart since the beginning, the project has touched upon a variety of genres, ranging from noise pop to experimental rock, redefining the walls of sound in the process. Xiu Xiu are among the most original music acts of the 21st century.

Rumpus room xiu xiu