Jamie XX: "I Feel Comfortable Being Nervous, It Spurs Me On"

It’s always the quiet ones.
This, in a nutshell, is the story of the xx, the torturously shy London trio who have conquered arenas while maintaining a fabulously gloomy aura. Just as surprising, in a way, is the progression of in-band producer Jamie Smith from monosyllabic teenager to influential DJ and friend of Drake and Rihanna. He set out on the journey with 2011’s We’re New Here, a wildly ambitious reworking of Gil Scott Heron’s swansong LP, I’m New Here. The record wasn’t perfect, Smith at times appearing overawed by the source material. He had come to worship Heron, rather than remake the great man’s music in his own image. Yet there were moments of bliss too – most notably, ‘I’ll Take Care Of You, the Durutti Column-esque guitar motif by xx bandmate, Romy Madley Croft, which was sampled on Rihanna and Drizzy’s ‘Take Care’.
However, it wasn’t until last year’s In Colour that we had a true sense of Smith’s potential outside the xx (which remains very much his day job, the group set to release their third long-player in the next year). Bouncing joyously between old school hip hop, minimalist electronica and sweeping soundtrack composition, the record was a genuine tour de force – the work of an artist who had at last come of age.
“Starting out we were young and shy – not very confident about what we were doing. We’ve changed and grown a bit. We’ve always been shy,” Smith told me last year. “Even now, it’s something I still experience. As you get older, you realise that you do have to interact with people. You have to think about the big picture – make an effort on social situations.”
One influence on In Colour was a stint in New York, where he embraced underground hip hop and came out of his shell.
“I did a lot of residencies there,” he reflected. “I do experience nerves. That helps me. If I’m trying to do the best I can in a short period, it is quite a natural way to work. I feel comfortable being nervous. It spurs me on.”
Behind the decks, he’s one of the most innovative DJs around, switching between genre and moods with an admirable wilfulness yet somehow maintaining a consistency of tone no matter where his curiosity takes him. At Longitude he is surely to deliver a masterclass in the difficult art of making 90 minutes of bleeps and bloops feel like the most profound music you’ve ever heard.

Jamie xx plays Longitude on Sunday