Loverboy worships an artist that takes inspiration from the darker arts…or at least the darker side of pop, and so we have been eagerly anticipating the latest era of one Allie X. The album, Cape God, dropped on Friday and this time around Allie X has delved deeper into the darkness than ever before, whether it be visually, sonically or thematically. From singing about abuse, distorting her vocals or simply walking in kamikaze heels, Allie X is veering into the shadows and we’re here for it.

Cape God is an atmospheric and cinematic affair, as hinted at by singles, ‘Regulars’ & ‘Fresh Laundry.’ Allie X goes on to explore her inner goth on our personal favourite ‘Devil I Know’ before giving us relatable content with ‘June Gloom’, specifically the lyrics, ‘June Gloom in my room, these days I like to stay inside, watching the kids get high.’ #Triggered

Allie X speaks to Loverboy about breaking guys’ noses, penning a song in half an hour, attending the Lanvin Mens show and still finding time to do the grocery shopping!

 

So Allie, first up you should know, that in honour of our interview, I am wearing my most mysterious and glamorous outfit – a Vivienne Westwood tracksuit, with a mesh hood. I associate both these words with you.
Mysterious and glamorous! I actually felt very glamorous at the Lanvin Mens show recently. I wore a light blue trench. It felt super feminine and I felt very put together. That’s one of my recent favourites.

That sounds very chic.
It was very chic!

Talking about the lewks, you’ve had numerous different eras, but you were saying that Cape God, feels the most ‘you’.
Before Cape God, I felt like I needed to protect myself a bit more. I wore sunglasses all the time for a reason! This time I just feel at a place where I am able to share more intimate details about who I am. Whether the record is well received or not, I feel proud and liberated by the whole experience.

Obviously with so many looks over the years, people are going to ask where does Allie X end and Alexandra Hughes begin….
Yes. With my last EP, Super Sunset, I really did carve out characters but Allie X has always just been part of me. But this time I’ve leaned into certain experiences, more than if I was just going grocery shopping.

And yet, we see you grocery shopping in the ‘Regulars’ video!
Yes, perhaps I shouldn’t have used that as the example! Haha…

Tell me about the visuals for that video because we see you falling in these impossibly high heels. Did you fall for real?
Yes, I fell for real! It was scary! I mean I did it to myself – I chose those shoes! Originally when the director SSION/Cody Critcheloe and I were making the treatment for this video, I had this vision of me being on stilts, towering over everyone, to demonstrate how much of an outsider I was. Then I realized that you need real training for stilts so I just went with the highest fucking shoes I could find. By the end of that shoot I was so scraped and bruised from falling, it was really funny. When we went through the first edit, there were no falls and then I was like, ‘We have to have the falls in the video.’ Looking at me, you just feel sad for me, and that’s exactly how you’re supposed to feel.

Pain is Art! Cape God’s musicality is so diverse. There are some sounds that we have never heard from you. Like on ‘Ring the Bell’, there’s a fretless bass, right?
Yeah! Well, do you know what that was actually? That was a guitar that we pitched down on a plug-in. It has such a sick tone.

It’s got that drive like an early Gary Numan song…
Fuck, yes, I love Gary Numan.

I teach a class on Punk here at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Oh cool! No way!

Yeah! The gay writer and filmmaker Jean Genet is often seen as one the first punks because he purposely wore and used symbols as a form of self-imposed self-exile. Do you feel like you’re punk?
I don’t know if you can be a pop singer and be truly punk. My partner was a big punk back in the day, and he still is in terms of principals. I love the spirit of punk and I like to identify myself as someone who is in exile. I think it’s because I was bullied in school and was never understood in my younger years. It became very empowering to just identify myself as ‘other’, and own it.

So what allowed you to open the musical palette for Cape God?
That’s a really good question. I was in Sweden on a writing trip working with some producers. I knew them from when I was working on music for Troye Sivan. But this time I wasn’t really sure if I was working on music for another artist or myself, so I was kind of surprised when on the first day, they said, ‘We think you’re cool! We want to work with you on your project. This whole week is for you!’
We didn’t look back at any of my previous work, instead I sang them the first verse of ‘Fresh Laundry’ acapella and then played the bassline. This beautiful thing happened, this sound just came out of nowhere and the next day we wrote, ‘Ring the Bell’ and then the next day, ‘Regulars.’

You wrote all those songs in three days?!!
It might have been four. If you heard the demos from those days too, the finished production is not very far off. It’s so rare that happens. Also lyrically, the music was allowing me to say lyrics I had never been able to say in a normal LA pop world. It just lended itself to complex ideas that I’d had in me for a while but never said. 

Do you think them not having the same set of expectations from your previous work allowed you to move beyond that?
I think it was partially that. I think it was just synergy between myself, Oscar and James. They really respected my ideas in Sweden. If I was in a writing room in LA and said, ‘I want to be near fresh laundry, it’s been too many years of not folding,’ people would have definitely politely steered the song in a whole different direction, like, ‘No, I mean that could be like a weird bridge lyric…’

You always do a fantastic bridge. Especially in ‘Fresh Laundry’, like you’re going from the outside to your inner thoughts. What is it about a bridge that is so inspiring for you?
I love the progress of a bridge, but the bridge you’re referring to in ‘Fresh Laundry’, I actually consider to be the chorus, although it feels like a bridge in a lot of ways. I actually wrote all the ‘Fresh Laundry’ lyrics a year before we finished it, when I was very sick. I remember taking a bath early one morning and just staring at the bathroom floor. It looked dirty and the towels smelt of mildew. I was just like, ‘Fuck, I’m alone. I wish my Mom was still doing my laundry and that things were clean and just taken care of…’
The lyrics ‘You said you’re always on my side but what if my size has changed too much, tell me who am I?’ are like a message to my Mom. I remember, when I was at kindergarten, I pushed this kid into a bookshelf, I swear it was an accident, he turned around and there was a lot of blood coming out of his nose. The teacher thought that I did it on purpose, told me I was a bully and sent me to the principal’s office. I thought my Mom was going to be mad but she said, ‘I’m always on your side.’ Even saying it now makes me tear up. I think that lyric means, ‘I know you said you are always on my side but I’m not who I was back then.Will you still be on my side now that I’m so different?’

Do you think that this difference is why your work resonates with the Queer community?
It’s hard to explain why I have always fit in the community so well. Out of respect for my Queer community, I would never call myself a part of it because on paper I’m really not, even though I feel like I am in a lot of ways.
I just have always been more comfortable in the company of Queer people, particularly gay boys, and I think it’s because I’ve been kind of an outsider. I share maybe a darker humour and a world view that just resonates more with my Queer friends for whatever reason.

Well you are definitely an ally, so we consider you part of the community. Having written for Troye Sivan before, you guys finally teamed up for a duet on Cape God. What was it like this time?
‘Love Me Wrong’ was actually written for a film at first but then a year-and-a-half later the film didn’t end up using the song so I was like, ‘I want to feature it on my record.’ I had it written in about half an hour. Troye and I were like, ‘This is kind of iconic.’ It’s such a melodic song by today’s pop standards. The only person who would sing something like that now would be Lana Del Rey.

Loverboy is named after the biggest selling single of 2001, by the icon that is Mariah Carey. So we ask everyone, what is your favourite Mariah song?
Oh fuck! Hard question. I love some of her covers like, ‘I can’t liiiiiiiiiiive…’ is so good. I love ‘Dreamlover’ and ‘Always Be My Baby’ too. I could go on but I think it has to be a tie between ‘Emotions and ‘Vision of Love.’

Cape God is out now.
Allie X tours North America and Europe this Spring. Tour dates here.
www.alliex.com / Facebook / Instagram / YouTube
Interview: George Alley