Jamie xx: 'I Wanted To Mess With People's Brains A Little Bit'

It has been almost a decade between Jamie xx's two solo albums: 2015's game-changing In Colour and the freshly-released In Waves.

A lot of the intervening years can be accounted for – another album and tour with the band that literally gave him his name, The xx, as well as extensive touring and DJing on his own accord. There is, however, inevitably a period where he was entirely unplugged from the proverbial matrix – begging the question: who is Jamie xx when he's at home and back to being James Smith? 

“The pandemic, really, was my first moment to stop, and I realise I literally didn't have anything else going on,” he says from his London home. “I've been learning how to cook and hanging out with friends more. I'm still a terrible cook, but there's always time.”

Smith has also made a point of spending more quality time in the cities he's doing shows in after having spent a lot of previous world tours shuttered away. “I used to be so attached to London,” he says. “I'd always be missing home when I was on tour. Nowadays, I feel like I'm just excited to explore, and it's a nicer way to tour as well. I'm trying to see as much of the world as possible.”

An angled white rectangle is featured in the exact same spot on the covers of both In Colour and In Waves.

While the former is matched with a dazzling colour wheel, the latter is matched with wavy black and white lines that almost feel like an optical illusion. “I wanted to mess with people's brains a little bit,” confesses Smith regarding In Waves' album art. “I definitely think this record is a lot more trippy than In Colour, so I wanted it to be a real visual juxtaposition. Both covers really reflect how each album sounds.”

Smith goes on to note that the stylistic leap between his two solo efforts came naturally as the years progressed. “Not only did I do a lot of growing up, the way dance music in particular has changed over that time as well,” he says.

“When I was making In Colour, I was obsessed with UK dance music – it was really a love letter to its history. This one is a bit more global-sounding. I've enjoyed the fact I get to go to all these places and experience different versions of dance culture all over the world. That definitely seeped into the record.”

A lot of Smith's friends were enlisted to work on In Waves with him, which stemmed from initially working on the album in the early stages of the pandemic and not being able to see people. The Avalanches lend a hand to the joyful All You Children, while Swedish pop megastar Robyn adds some 90s house panache to the trumpeting Life. “A lot of it was just texting my friends,” he says of the album's collab list. “It actually ended up being a great way to do it because I had a real connection with everyone I was working with.”

Perhaps the most interesting collaboration of sorts is Waited All Night. Canonically, it's not a song by The xx. It is, however, a song by Jamie xx, of The xx, featuring Romy, of The xx, and Oliver Sim of... you guessed it, The xx. Three solo artists, each with albums of their own, reunited in the most peculiar of ways. “I had gone to LA to write pop songs,” says Smith of the track's origins. 

“One of the demos that came out of it had this little ad-lib at the end that I just loved. I resampled it and ended up turning that into the chorus of Waited All Night. I then asked Romy and Olly to come in and write verses individually. That's actually a very different way of making music for us three, but I think that was kind of the point of us all doing our solo things.

“We all have different perspectives and different angles on making music now, and hopefully, that'll make the next xx stuff even better.”

Smith is then pressed on whether a fourth album from The xx – who have not performed together in over six years – is potentially on the horizon. “We were in the studio the week before last,” the producer reveals. “We're doing one week a month right now, but a lot of it's just talking. The last time we had a week in the studio, and only on day five did we actually pick up instruments. That's a big part of the process: communication and getting close again after all doing our own things.”

Before he gets to that, however, Smith has his own world tour to worry about.

He's been hard at work on the production for the In Waves live show, which will no doubt feature further dazzling visuals as well as a few new surprises.

“I've been trying to work on engaging the crowd so they're not just staring at me,” he explains. “I've been getting a great group of dancers that come along and dance in the crowd and a crew of camera people film them. By the end of the show, the dancers are on the screen, and other people are dancing along with them. That way, the show becomes about the crowd rather than just watching one guy.”

Australia will get its own taste of the In Waves tour this December, with Smith marked as Meredith Music Festival's headliner and his own run of shows also booked in.

“I have so many great memories of Australia,” he says. “I've got so many great friends there, like Jagwar Ma – I always stay with them in Byron when I'm in town, and we go surfing together. I did an amazing trip once where I was in the Northern Territory and got a tour of these sacred Indigenous caves. That was one of the best experiences of my life.”

In Waves is out now via Young/Remote Control. Jamie xx tours Australia this December – all remaining tickets are on sale now via Handsome Tours.

Jamie xx

In Waves Tour Australia 2024 

Wednesday 4 December 2024: PICA, Melbourne [New Show]

Thursday 5 December 2024: PICA, Melbourne [SOLD OUT]

Saturday 7 December 2024: Meredith Music Festival

Sunday 8 December 2024: Carriageworks, Sydney [SOLD OUT]

Monday 9 December 2024: Carriageworks, Sydney [New Show]

Friday 13 December 2024: Hotel Brunswick, Brunswick Heads [SOLD OUT]