Charli XCX is no stranger to controversy, and her latest confession is sure to spark debate: the queen of hyperpop admits that her heavy reliance on Auto-Tune has left her struggling to sing in tune.
“I could sing in tune but now I think I’ve gotten so lazy because I sing with auto-tune the time,” she revealed on the Tape Notes podcast. “I never am not singing with Auto-Tune.“
The “Brat” singer, known for her critically acclaimed new album, isn’t shy about her vocal limitations. “Tuning’s not my forte,” she confessed, adding, “I’m pretty out, because my ear is so used to leaning in.”
This reliance on the software even extends to karaoke, where Charli opts for rap tracks. “People are like, ‘Isn’t she a singer?'” she jokes. “And I’m like, ‘Well yeah, but haven’t you heard of Auto-Tune?‘”
“You really get lazy because you can relax into a note rather than being super ‘on’” she explains. “here are some amazingly technical singers who do sing with Auto-Tune and are still, like, pitch perfect, but that’s not me. I drink and I smoke and I use Auto-Tune – those three things.”
While Charli embraces the “lazy” aspect of Auto-Tune, she also acknowledges its creative potential. “When something is innately electronic, you then want to find imperfection somewhere else,” explains her producer and partner, George Daniel. “Whether it’s some modulation that’s catching your ear that is basically the human element of something that’s innately not real.”
Charli agrees, emphasizing the importance of “human mistakes” on “Brat.” “For Brat I think that’s really important. It’s important to have this, like, ‘human’ kind of mistake element happening with the tracks because I think that very much goes with the ethos of the record.”
