I always just experiment with different sounds and styles until I find something that evokes the feeling I’m going for. I’m not trying to think too much about what anyone else is doing. – Jamie xx
When I hear something new, mostly in rhythms, I often find it interesting to recreate it in a studio in a completely different way. – Jamie xx
It doesn’t make sense for me to try to be, like, a dance dude who only releases two 12-inches a year and then plays every weekend. Making an album, you get to put out a body of work that shows a lot of different sides of you. And you get to work on it for an intense period of time and promote that album. And then you get to move on. – Jamie xx
At Coachella, I want to start separating how I do a big festival set from how I do a club set. – Jamie xx
Floating Points plays a lot of music that I don’t know, and I like geeking out and trying to find out what the tracks are. His knowledge of house music is pretty deep, and his selection is just amazing. And I think it’s a pleasure to listen to his music because it’s so perfectly produced. – Jamie xx
At festivals, you can go a lot bigger than a club and have massive euphoric moments because there are so many people there all feeling the same thing. – Jamie xx
I don’t hate on the whole EDM thing happening in America because, although the music is not of my taste – a little bit brash for me – I think it’s also introducing a lot of young people to dance music, and then they’re discovering better dance music through it. – Jamie xx
I like the contrast in making something that sounds sunny but also has an element of melancholy to it. – Jamie xx
I begged and begged, and my uncle gave me his old turntables. It was one hi-fi and one old Stereo Lab turntable and a rusty mixer. I was really chuffed. I kept that for five years – that’s where I learned to mix. – Jamie xx
I’m always getting sent new stuff, so I have to incorporate digital equipment into my sets, but I try to play vinyl as much as possible. It’s just the best-sounding format still. And I’ve been using vinyl since I started deejaying, for over 15 years, so it also just feels the most natural for me. – Jamie xx
When I buy lots of records, I stop making music – it’s detrimental to the creative side. When I’m DJing a lot, it’s just basically partying every day. – Jamie xx
I started using vinyl because I stole all my parents’ records when I was 10. I didn’t think about sound quality then, but I always loved how they sounded. – Jamie xx
For some producers who are technical-minded, making the song sound good is easy, and getting the emotion into the song is harder. – Jamie xx
A lot of new genres were being born at the time I started going out to clubs in South London, and I was part of an exciting movement that has now blown up around the world. – Jamie xx
I can make something for a long time and just not come up with an ending. It’s finishing things that I don’t enjoy. – Jamie xx
My parents’ record collection was the music I was hearing as long as I can remember, and I would play Otis Redding over and over again. – Jamie xx
Before the first xx record, I pretty much exclusively listened to electronica. Now, I listen to anything. I think the most inspiring thing is just learning more about more and more different kinds of music and becoming a fan of so many different types and so many different genres. – Jamie xx
It’s not like I force myself to think of sad things, but… it’s more that I make music because it makes me happy. – Jamie xx
I have this romanticized idea of dance music in the ’90s because, obviously, I was way too young to be a part of it. So I have this rose-tinted idea of it. I have this idea of it being a very special time. But I still don’t know that much – I can never remember any names of seminal artists. – Jamie xx
I play vinyl and CDs. Playing vinyl is the best sound quality you can get playing music loudly, so that’s the main reason I do that. – Jamie xx
It’s still as exciting to play records I’ve not heard before as it was when I was young. There’s not much that makes me feel like that besides making music. And they definitely feed into each other. – Jamie xx
People always think the xx are, like, moody and all dressed in black. We do all dress in black, but we’re actually quite fun people – and we’ve come out of our shells a lot since the first album. – Jamie xx
All music is escapism for me, but I like the way that, on a good night, that sense of escapism can be shared. – Jamie xx
I’m a mess. My house is full of records, and my computer… I can’t find the things that I want. But it usually seems to work out. – Jamie xx
I just like the lineage and the heritage and the fact that British dance music is still progressing. I’m from London; I love London, and I wouldn’t know how else to show that love in musical terms. There’s something about British stuff that’s a bit faster, a bit harder-hitting. Just tough. – Jamie xx
