“ There was always this thing in me that wanted to have my own voice”: Allie X in Conversation with Princess Julia

allie x princess julia 2024 interview girl with no face editorial savana ogburn — Make it stand out

There’s no denying that Princess Julia and Allie X feel like kindred spirits. As two aesthetic titans, both of whom are beloved in queer circles, the two artists share a daring approach to self-expression, as well as an enduring love for underground art.

Following the release of Allie X’s third album *Girl With No Face*, they came together at Polyester’s London studio for a very special conversation about New Romanticism, the pride that comes with doing creative work entirely your own way, and turning a look even when you’re just popping to the shops.

Princess Julia: What is it that attracted you to the analogue synth? In a way you've got to be sort of economic with tracks and sounds. I sort of remember using a four track to mix things and adapt things.

Allie X: I think it's my decade in Los Angeles, and becoming quite fatigued on over-processed modern commercial sounds, everything really over-compressed, super tuned. Everything is made from plugins, no real gear is used anymore. I love the minimalism and the limitations of the early 80s. There weren't a lot of choices. So the things that had just been invented gear-wise at that time were employed in really creative ways.

So yeah, just my personal taste. I tried to keep the vocal production also in keeping with the early 80s and the late 80s, when there wasn't such a thing as Autotune. Things sounded a bit more raw. I miss that in modern music.

How does the current creative climate feel to you?

I would say the state of the music industry is improving, but it's not great. But the creative climate is rather exciting for me right now. I think there's so much disruption going on because of technology. And I think in a lot of ways, a lot of power is being put back in the artists’ hands through streaming and not everyone having to be a radio artist. Even something like being able to access your own royalties online, it gives you a lot more sort of insight into your own business.

I feel in some ways, like I may have done better in the 80s. That I may have been really famous. But in other ways, I think now might be the best time for me. I think if I tried to do something in the 2000s, like the early aughts, then I think I wouldn't have had a shot because labels have never understood me or supported me. And at that time, if I wanted a career in pop, I would have had to really go through that channel, and I don't think it would have worked.

I see how the creative feeling through the decades has undulated because there's always been a subcultural platform somewhere in the creative sphere. So I guess really, it's that old word, isn't it: the underground. Which I find really fascinating.

People do quite often ask me, “Is there any underground anymore?” And I always think there is, because I do believe that there are pockets of people around the world, making stuff, making do with stuff that they can get their hands on and making music, making fashion, starting up their own communities. And for me, that is something throughout my life that has sort of spurred me on. So when I hear and engage with your music, I do really get that sort of almost spiritual feeling.

Thank you so much.

I wanted to talk to you a little bit about your lyrics because on Weird World for example, I get this feeling that you're talking about being sort of an outsider, in a sense. Could you enlighten me further?

I wrote that in the summer of 2020, when the pandemic was alive and well. This is probably not what you expected to hear, but I was starting to look at my contracts that I'd signed as an artist, and as a writer, and realising that things were not at all what I thought they were, and feeling pretty naive and almost embarrassed and angry about what I was seeing in the deals that I was in.

I started to have this sort of sense that reality isn't what I thought it was. But then at the same time, I was like, “How powerful this is, now that I see the true state of affairs? And actually, why don't I go ahead and change things?” That's kind of what spurred me on to produce and write my own album and not involve anyone else.

You've written it, produced it. Everything?

There's a couple of small collaborations on it. I did spend most time in isolation, producing it and writing it myself. I had a little bit of help finishing but I've never done it like this before. Usually, I would have been in a room with, you know, two or three other people and it would have been really quick. I would not have been on the computer programming anything. It’s a pretty different experience.

Weird World sounds like a bit of a revelation. It was a siren call to expand, you know, what you're capable of. And I do sort of think in society that sometimes we, as women, are sort of educated in a weird way, that we can't do everything - but we can, in actual fact. And to be in that situation, take control of your being and what your outpourings convey is quite a fantastic revelation.

Embarking on this almost impossible path that I've been on the last few years and then making it to the end, I’m just so proud of that. And I was able to prove to myself a lot of things I was unsure of.

I do think a lot of that is a deeply rooted sort of sexism thing that I wasn't even aware of. As I was doing it, I was like, “Well, can I actually produce? Am I good enough?” And all these feelings of unworthiness that I do think I do think women, even if they're not aware of it, have built into us. So it's just a great moment for me, just to have completed this task, just to say, “Yeah, I can do it. And I did do it.”

My next question for you is that there’s some talk around the New Romantic aesthetic coming back. What does that mean to you?

The New Romantic era is obviously one of my favourite things to talk about, because I was really very much part of it. And it took place in the late 70s, that subcultural moment. A lot of people from the scene were like punk and soul people, but somehow we all came together after the punk scene sort of dissipated in London and across the UK. We created a little club night basically, that lasted from 1978 to 1980. It was really just a couple of years, but it obviously radiated out and people started creating their own nights.

The actual core New Romantic thing was very sort of short-lived in a sense. I find it really interesting. Whatever we did in that club, whatever we were thinking about, has resonated with people through the decades. That amuses me greatly but also I feel very grateful for and motivated by actually. It doesn't feel that nostalgic because I do think that we really had a very visionary approach regarding dress and self-expression and sexuality. When I talk to my friends from that time – it could be Boy George, it could be Martin Kemp – we’re all still doing stuff very much in the present, creating stuff.

Where did you come from? When did you tap into your creativity?

I always grew up wanting to perform and to sing and stuff. But I, I really wasn't exposed to or curious even about culture, I'm embarrassed to say, 'til I was in my early 20s. That's when I started to actually listen to music. I was classically trained into theatre – the theatre people, by and large, are quite tunnel visioned and think there's only musical theatre. I didn't really explore, I didn't have a fascination or a curiosity, but there was always this thing in me that wanted to have my own voice.

So just by virtue of me wanting to become a writer, I did start listening to music properly in my 20s and I had really cool friends. When I moved to downtown Toronto, that introduced me to a lot of stuff, but even I was very unaware of post-punk and new wave.

It was actually my partner who introduced me to a lot of this music in the last decade and it became a total refuge for me, as I was living in Los Angeles and I was in all these writing rooms for commercial pop, and it just started to really kill my soul. So I started listening to all this music from the late 70s, early 80s that mostly came out of the UK, a bit out of Germany. I think there was such anger in me that I didn't even know about which was connecting me to it. And that's sort of how I ended up enveloped in this genre and writing a record from referencing all that.

I'm quite curious about your musical theatre background. I’m not joking, I love musical theatre. Could you see yourself returning to musical theatre? Because I could now that you're saying that - I'm feeling you could be in Cabaret.

I was just gonna say, I would only do it if it was the right fit, like a show like Cabaret. But back when I used to audition and stuff, I'd only ever be cast in the ensemble because they couldn't make sense of me as the ingenue. I was too weird, you know? So I think like, it really would have to be on my own terms. And I would have to be in so many shitty musicals these days, like all these jukebox musicals? Crazy.

I want to ask you about your stunning looks and how much time you invest in creating your looks and your inspirations. Because that is part of music making as well. I feel like the way you present yourself is very strong.

Thank you, especially coming from you. You're like a walking piece of art. I want to know if you're not socialising on any average day, and you're just going down to the shop to get some onions for the stew you're making or whatever, what are you wearing? Do you do a look?

Yeah.

So I'm not like that. And I actually really admire people like yourself that are committed to the look, committed to the persona, 100% of the time.

I just can't help myself. I don't know what it is. I just feel like if I walk out of my home, I feel the need to present myself in a certain way to just feel good about myself. I think that's all it is. It's totally pleasing myself and it's just a way of me feeling confident because, you know, I do find that within a lot of people that like to dress up and maybe seem quite confident, that like deep inside, I’m just a shy little girl clawing my way out into the world, creating a look and wearing makeup and it just makes me feel better about myself. And maybe that's quite a naive way of being. It just helps me in my personal endeavours to just have that extra bit of confidence.

I don't think that is naive at all. it's your life. And I think everyone's perception of reality is quite personal to them. We only have, if we're lucky, 90 to 100 odd years on the planet and like, who's anyone to say, “You should do it this way?” I think it's whatever makes you feel good.

I have been known to go out without any makeup... actually no I haven't.

I was asking someone that's friends with Amanda Lepore, I was like, “So if Amanda's like out at the grocery store, what's her look?” And they're like, “Well, she may wear something a little toned down. But she's always got a lip and a pair of sunnies at the very minimum.”

Amanda has this sort of whole philosophy about the way she is, and she wants to look sort of hyper real, that’s her vibe. And that's how she lives her life.

So back to your question to me that started my question to you, I'm actually not like that. I will be in pretty radically different states, depending what I'm doing on a given day. I like to sometimes just not stand out and be just kind of comfortable. But then at other times, like when I’m doing anything Allie X related, I guess when I'm sort of presenting as the side of myself that I really like getting into a look.

I think that's commendable. I feel that you've got sort of an inner confidence. I feel so wibbly wobbly at times that I'm like, I can’t let anyone see me! I actually feel quite nervous about all eyes being on me, like performance wise, I'm not a very confident performer. But I see that you are.

I do have a confidence after doing it for so long, and I suppose I even did as a kid. Maybe I feel so strong and fulfilled in that state that when I'm not in that state, I don't feel the need to be as ferocious.

UK tour tickets for Allie X are available here.

“ There was always this thing in me that wanted to have my own voice”: Allie X in Conversation with Princess Julia

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