Lorde Breaks Down How Charli XCX’s ‘Brat’ Inspired Her New Album, ‘Virgin’

The news Lorde fans have been waiting for finally arrived yesterday (April 30), when the singer announced Virgin, her new album. Lorde has since spoken about it a bit more, revealing that Charli XCX’s Brat influenced her mindset while making it.

As NME notes, in an interview with BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders, Lorde said:

“Brat coming out really gave me a kick in a lot of ways. It forced me to further define what I was doing because Charli had so masterfully defined everything about Brat and I knew that what I was doing was very distinct to that. When a peer throws the gauntlet down like that, you’re like ‘OK, yeah, we’ve gotta pick it up,’ I’ve spoken to a lot of peers who’ve all had the same feelings. It’s very sick and I’m so grateful to her.”

Speaking more directly about the “Girl, So Confusing” remix she appeared on, she added, “Brat came out and she was doing that from the other side of the coin almost and doing the remix together and meeting her in that place of rugged vulnerability and cracking open the thing. People responded really well to that. I was like, ‘OK, cool, this is a good thing to be doing.'”

Virgin is out 6/27 via Republic Records. Find more information here.