The Artist Explains: Elle Exxe - 'Lately' (Video)

We speak to nonconformist artist Elle Exxe about the ideas behind her hard hitting  pop track, ‘Lately' and the tongue-in-cheek, drag-queen starring video which accompanies it. 

‘Lately’ is the lead single to be taken from Elle’s debut album 'Love Fuelled Hate', released September 9th. In the meantime, you can catch Elle Exxe live on Thursday 11th August at BIRTHDAYS (Dalston, London). Tickets are available for free and available here.

Elle Exxe Explains:

Where was the video filmed?

Cre8 Studios, London

How does the video compliment the song?

My musical style is bright, bold and in-your-face and I think this was reflected really well with the use of colours, characters, attitude and performances. The song itself is about that intense lust where you lose track of who you are and forget about all your work/life responsibilities. The predictable video for a song like 'Lately' would probably have been in a bedroom with lots of underwear shots and intimacy..but I’m not the kind of artist that likes to do what’s expected..so we flipped it on it’s head and shot a video highlighting the hilarity of being asked to “ooze sex appeal” for a promo and showing me as the kind of performance artist that I am.

Any behind the scenes stories?

The video was so raw it pretty much WAS our behind-the-scenes story. The planning was good fun - searching around ASDA at 1am for underwear solutions and clothing to fit me and a giant ex-rugby player (Robin Boot) was pretty hysterical. Also watching him attempt to hide his manly bits under a micro-mini dress was highly amusing.

Tell us about the ideas/ themes/ imagery used?

The theme/idea centred around gender and sexuality but with a fun-light-hearted tone. Sex-appeal in female pop artists is a really interesting topic to me. I’ve experienced many conversations with men and woman who suggest women should dress, look or act a certain way as a means of gaining traction via sexual attention in the music industry. So we played on that by creating a character called XL (the #1 Pop-Superstar Trainer on the planet), she acted as some kind of misogynist-flavoured cartoon of patriarchal society encouraging me to objectify myself. I responded as I would in real life with a giggle and then shutting it down and doing whatever the f**k I want with my life and my body.

What is the message the video is trying to convey?

Oops I think I maybe just answered that! I’d like it to open conversations about whether sex-appeal is important or truly necessary to sell music, but the real message is simply that I’m an artist that can’t and won’t be controlled by society or my industry.

Interview feature by Karla Harris