{"id":553392,"date":"2026-06-25T11:59:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/553392\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T11:59:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:59:22","slug":"john-cale-interview-working-with-charli-xcx-her-album-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/553392\/","title":{"rendered":"John Cale Interview: Working With Charli xcx, Her Album Cover"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn Charli xcx<\/a>\u2018s recent Rolling Stone cover story<\/a>, the British pop star spoke about her ongoing collaboration with one of her heroes, John Cale<\/a>. Last fall, she teamed up with the Velvet Underground<\/a> co-founder for \u201cHouse<\/a>,\u201d from her soundtrack to Emerald Fennell\u2019s Wuthering Heights<\/a>. \u201cI just feel really honored to know him,\u201d Charli said of Cale. \u201cIt\u2019s like, \u2018What the fuck?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCale went on to appear on the black-and-white cover art for Charli\u2019s upcoming album Music, Fashion, Film<\/a>, out July 24. The avant-garde legend is seen sitting in a kitchen alongside Martin Scorsese and Marc Jacobs \u2014 each one representing a component of music, fashion, and film. We spoke with Cale about all of this for Charli\u2019s cover story, and you can now read the full interview below. \u201cI learned there are no limits to what I could expect from her,\u201d he told us. \u201cI\u2019m determined to find the next layer with her, maybe an operatic stream of conscious vocal.\u2026 I\u2019m writing the piece now with her in mind!!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did you first meet Charli? What was your first impression of her?\u00a0<\/strong>
Lively and a social spark! Well, we met on the phone first. Got a lot done very quickly \u2014 no messin\u2019! I get bored very easily, so anyone who works fast and pushes hard keeps me interested.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She made an impression on me in that she\u2019s built herself a type of fortress, surrounds herself with like-minded creatives \u2014 all providing the goodwill necessary for her to thrive and do her thing 24\/7. Fearlessly, I might add.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat makes her stand out from other artists today?\u00a0<\/strong>
Energy and vivacity mixed with a real knowledge of music, far different from her own. An awareness of cultural shifts on the precipice \u2014 how to harness it all whilst not losing her own identity. She\u2019s smart, fun, a bit of a whirlwind, and always curious. Yeah, it\u2019s her laser-focused desire to absorb all that\u00a0life offers \u2014 and try it on for size!<\/p>\n

\n\tHer sense of discovery in music and film, it\u2019s got no boundaries. And I believe it\u2019s what a lot of people are waiting for around the next curve. Her generosity to my particular history and my current work makes me blush.\u00a0What happened in the past is just that, past \u2014 she\u2019s interested in acknowledging what came before, but pushing into Charli World!<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was it like to work with her on \u201cHouse\u201d?\u00a0<\/strong>
How to turn a puzzle into an introspection that was magical. Doing \u201cHouse\u201d was a way to understand an approach to trying something new, and finding a different way forward. I didn\u2019t write this because of Wuthering Heights. I wrote this because, Charli.\u00a0Oftentimes women are put in a box and have less freedom when textualizing historical novels, so I was well-aware of the dangers. I knew I had to be careful and needed elegance to underwrite the emotion. So I tried to give voice to the character, but more importantly to Charli reinventing herself in the moment and being serious about the assignment.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tThe point that I got to made me aware of the different postures available for creativity, more than I expected. It was important where did it begin and where did it end.\u00a0The rubric was just that. The prose demanded that a discussion would need to be implied in the text. I didn\u2019t want it delineated. I just wanted it implied.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTruth be damned. \u201cIn every room I hear silence.\u201d When I began writing the words to \u201cHouse,\u201d it continued. I wanted to keep writing in that vein. It was a tangent that went all the way from \u201cHouse\u201d to a sense of liturgy in its conclusion. I was really surprised [by] the direction that the prose took, it wasn\u2019t so much a songwriting perspective but very much a methodical theatrical approach, what was learned. I had to stop myself from putting on the brakes because I don\u2019t usually have those brakes.\u00a0I tried to sense-feel my way to saying several things in different ways. For that opportunity, I thank Charli.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did Charli approach you to be on the album cover?\u00a0<\/strong>
She said she had an idea to run by me. There was talk of a video, an ode to an imprint of time and place. Next thing, I was on a flight. Ended up in a random kitchen.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was it like to capture it? Had you met Scorsese and Marc before?\u00a0<\/strong>
No, I\u2019d never met either of them until the shoot. Very definition of \u201cexperience.\u201d It was a type of surreal cultural compendium assembled to document yet another form of art.\u00a0I wanted to be a fly on the wall watching this unfold, but I had to be in it. The album cover allows me the birds-eye view of that moment in time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tImprovisation was key. The critical ingredient to fostering comfort and connection in the company of greatness!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Charli xcx\u2018s recent Rolling Stone cover story, the British pop star spoke about her ongoing collaboration with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[264],"tags":[3030,18,117,19,17,51272,337,222431],"class_list":["post-553392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-charli-xcx","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-john-cale","tag-music","tag-velvet-underground"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116810637417146119","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}