Biography

2005-2009: Formation

The band met whilst studying at Elliott School, the same school that produced Hot Chip, Burial, Four Tet, and Pierce Brosnan. The group, however, have downplayed the influence of the school on their career: “A teacher from Elliott who had never even taught us said how great we were. It’s a bit annoying. We were left alone, more than anything – although I’m sure that helped us in its own way.” Oliver Sim and Romy Madley-Croft started the band as a duo when they were 15. Guitarist Baria Qureshi joined once they began performing in 2005, with Jamie Smith joining a year after.

2009–2011: xx

The group’s debut album, xx, was met with sweeping critical praise, achieving a rating of “universal acclaim” on Metacritic. The album also ranked well on best of the year lists, placing ninth on the Rolling Stone list and second for NME. In the 2009 NME The Future 50 list, The xx were positioned at number six, and in October 2009, they were named one of MTV Iggy’s “Top 10 Bands with Buzz” (at the CMJ Music Marathon 2009).

Their self-titled debut was released with the British independent record label Young Turks on 17 August 2009. Though the band had previously worked with producers including Diplo and Kwes, they produced xx themselves, while Jamie Smith and Rodaidh McDonald mixed it. The xx recorded their album in a small garage that was part of the XL Recordings studio, often at night, which contributed to the low, whispery nature of the album. In August 2009, the band headlined their own concert tour. The xx have toured with artists including Friendly Fires, The Big Pink, and Micachu. In a first taste of success, their single “Crystalised” was featured on iTunes (UK) as Single of the Week, starting from 18 August 2009.

The music of the album was used extensively on television and in media such as 24/7, Person of Interest, NBC’s coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games; during the series Cold Case, Suits, Mercy, the Greek version of Next Top Model, Bedlam, Hung, 90210, as well as being the feature song for the March 2010 E4 advert for 90210, Misfits, the Karl Lagerfeld fall/winter 2011 fashion show, Waterloo Road, and the film I Am Number Four.

In late 2009, second guitarist and keyboardist Baria Qureshi left the group. Initial reports stated that this was due to exhaustion, but Oliver Sim later said that the rest of the band made this decision, “Also to be fair to her, people have an idea about that she left the band. She didn’t. It was a decision that me, Romy, and Jamie made. And it had to happen.” Later, Madley-Croft described the split as feeling “like a divorce.”

In January 2010, Matt Groening chose the band to play at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival that he curated in Minehead, England. In addition, the band played in five of North America’s most popular music festivals, Coachella, Sasquatch, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits. In May 2010, the track “Intro” was used by the BBC in their coverage of the 2010 general election. This led to the band playing the track on an episode of Newsnight. The song was also sampled in Rihanna’s “Drunk on Love” from her album Talk That Talk and played during the ending of the 2012 movie Project X and before the UEFA Euro 2012 matches at stadiums in Poland and Ukraine also intro was played during the end of Top Gear Season 19 Episode 6 (Africa Special Part 1).

In September 2010, the band’s debut album won the Barclaycard Mercury Prize, acquiring best British and Irish album of the year. After the live ceremony screening, the album jumped from 16 to 3 on the 12 September U.K. albums chart, accompanying an 269% sales increase. XL’s marketing campaign drastically expanded after this substantial win, with day-time TV advertisements and billboard campaigns on some of UK’s highest-profile digital billboards. Thanks to the highlighted publicity, XL Recordings says it has shipped more than 40,000 CDs in the days following the Mercury Prize. XL Managing director Ben Beardsworth explained,”Thanks to the Mercury win…things are accelerating dramatically and the band will be reaching a bigger and bigger audience with their music.” In another promotional initiative, the label sent out Saam Farahmand’s audio/visual sculpture of the album when the band toured at Bestival 2010, a sculpture also appearing in an event at Seoul.

The band were nominated for ‘Best British Album’, ‘Best British Breakthrough’ and ‘Best British Band’ at the 2011 BRIT Awards held on 15 February 2011 at the O2 Arena in London; however, they did not win in any of the categories.

2011–present: Coexist

In December 2011, Smith revealed that he wanted to release their second LP ahead of their festival appearances the following year and that it was inspired by “club music”. “The majority of stuff I’m working on now is The xx stuff. We’re just about to start recording. Hopefully we’ll get it done in time for most festivals next year, because that’s the most fun.” Discussing the sound of the album, he said: “We’ve all come back off tour and been partying a bit more. We left when we were 17 and we missed out on that chunk of our lives when everyone else was partying. Club music has definitely had an influence on the next record.”

On 1 June 2012, it was announced that the second album Coexist would be released on 10 September. On 16 July 2012, they announced and released “Angels” as the lead single from Coexist.

In August 2012, The xx was featured on the cover of Issue #81 of the Fader.

On 3 September 2012, in a collaboration with Internet Explorer, The xx released the entire Coexist album to stream on their website until 11 September, the worldwide release date of the album.

The xx performed at Bestival on 9 September 2012 in front of the largest ever crowd at the festival. The group are scheduled for their first North American tour starting on 5 October in Vancouver, Canada, with dates throughout the US and Mexico.

In 2013, The xx held a series of three festival-style concerts, called “Night+Day”, in Berlin, Lisbon, and London. The festivals featured performances and DJ sets curated by the band, including Kindness and Mount Kimbie. Each festival culminated in a nighttime concert by the band.

In 2013, The xx was nominated for the Brit Awards as Best British Group, although lost out to Mumford & Sons.

In April 2013, The xx contributed the song Together in the official soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby.

In 2013, Fox Broadcasting Company used the track, Intro, for their coverage of the World Series.

Influences

The band has cited several artists in their influences: singer Romy Madley Croft has mentioned her liking for Jimi Hendrix, The Slits, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, Yazoo, Eurythmics, New Order and also The Cure. The XX have also been inspired by Cocorosie, Electrelane, Cocteau Twins, Aaliyah and The Kills.