‘What We Really Want is to Spread Love’: An Interview with XO
'Fashionably Late' (2025) EP, XO, Album cover. Image credit: @xo.co.uk on Instagram.
Before the last night of their mini UK tour on the 30th October, the nation’s newest girlband sat down with Gryphon writer, Erin, upstairs at Headrow House to discuss life on tour, music-making and the world of pop in 2025. Members Summer, Emmy, Reanna, Shali, and Zoe, perched on the edge of the stage they would perform on later, composed and ready for their set at the venue.
Fresh off their first tour of primary schools around the country and full of energy from the last three nights of performing to new crowds, the girls were excitedly awaiting the release of their debut EP Fashionably Late (2025).
With the confidence-boosting pop EP dropping a couple weeks later on 14th November, this self-confessed “most chaotic girlband you’ve ever met in your life” will return to venues nationwide on tour in May next year.
Erin: Welcome to Leeds, is it your first time being in the city?
Zoe: As a band, yes.
Summer: Well, we came here for the school tour.
Emmy: We did Harrogate and the surrounding areas.
Zoe: But just not in the city centre.
Erin: So, this is the last date of your mini tour, how are you guys feeling?
Reanna: Sad it’s gonna be over! We were literally saying in the [tour] van earlier that we wish it was longer.
Erin: But you have another tour coming up, is that right?
Reanna: May next year, put that in there!
Erin: I’m writing it down as we speak! So, how has it been so far?
Summer: So good.
Zoe: Amazing! London last night was mad. We literally walked off like “That was euphoric”!
Emmy: Teary eyes all around.
Erin: Do all of you have dance experience or is it a new thing for some of you?
Emmy: So we’re all from the performing arts industry. Some of us trained more predominantly in dance and some of us did more the singing and acting route. But then all found our way [to dance] and now for all these shows we have lots of rehearsals with a choreographer who’s amazing and she massively helps us out.
Erin: I heard you’re all musical fans, I was wondering if you can think of one which you would cast yourselves in?
Shali: It would definitely need to be one with more POC characters, maybe Hairspray?
Emmy: Hairspray’s one of our favourite films, isn’t it.
Shali: Oh what about West Side Story, that’s a good one! Or In The Heights.
Erin: What would a musical of your guys’ journey so far be called?
Shali: Wow what a question! I’m loving this.
Zoe: Ummmm, Chaos?
Summer: Chaos: The Musical!
Shali: Organised Chaos! ‘Cause it always works out in the end.
Erin: And I assume there’d be pyrotechnics in this Chaos: The Musical?
Reanna: Yes! Massive pyro!
Zoe: Reanna, do your impression of the pyro.
Reanna: *firework sounds*
Emmy: Reanna’s middle name is pyro.
Reanna: I can’t wait for us to have pyro once we can afford it
Shali: I can’t wait for the [aerial] harness. For us to be like, flying around.
Reanna: The vision’s alive.
Erin: Stan culture is such a big thing for girlbands, are you guys, or have you guys been stans of any bands?
Reanna: Little Mix. I was a Little Mix STAN. Oh my god, I was literally obsessed with them
Shali: Definitely Destiny’s Child.
Summer: And the Pussycat Dolls.
Emmy: We were all such girlband fans.
Reanna: Girl’s Aloud
Summer: Sugarbabes as well!
Reanna: We saw the Sugarbabes!
Emmy: Spice Girls obviously
Shali: Even like the ones we see today, like Katseye. We saw them two days ago, they were INSANE.
Erin: How do you guys feel about maybe being the idols of a standom in the future?
Reanna: It’s a weird concept really, like you can’t really visualise – when you get streams of people looking at your stuff, it’s hard to visualise until you see, like today we’ll see 150 people. Even that’s crazy, like 100 people in a room all looking at us, so it’s hard to conceptualise people supporting you when you can’t see them. That’s definitely a weird thing about music, that you can never see it in person until you do gigs. But it’s definitely cool.
Shali: Yeah and it’s definitely scary because people looking up to you is always scary when you don’t necessarily feel like you should be looked up to… Do you get what I mean? However, I think that as a band we definitely want people to…
Summer: To be inspired!
Shali: Yeah we want to promote being yourself, being more confidently yourself, not comparing yourself to other people. Which is where I struggle with the concept of ‘stan’ a little bit, because I know that people can almost get into this world where they look up to someone so much that they may compare themselves to that person and I would never want that. But I definitely would want someone to be inspired to confidently be themselves. Yeah, I think what we really want is to spread love, kindness, just happy vibes.
Erin: That leads perfectly onto my next question about the school tour you’ve just completed. How did it feel to have so many young people in front of you for your debut tour? Did you feel a lot of responsibility to be role models for them?
Emmy: It’s like 50/50 because we want to be cautious that we make a good impression because that is our first initial meeting with them. But also the main thing that we stand by is that you just have to be a hundred percent yourself. Our whole ethos is being unapologetically you and I’m glad the kids could see that organically. When we were having conversations with them it was really nice because it felt almost like boundaries came down with them as well. I think that’s something that will carry through with our fans, I don’t know, you can just tell that they don’t care and they’re not embarrassed.
Summer: They’re just having fun.
Emmy: Yeah just having fun with us. And that’s what it’s all about.
Erin: How does it feel having a collaboration with Charli XCX in your discography?
Reanna: Sick.
Zoe: Crazy. Unfathomable sometimes.
Emmy: Especially the summer that Charli’s just had, blowing up the charts, like she was everywhere. It was Brat summer! I remember watching the BRIT awards and she was winning so many.
Summer: And that was before we even got that song.
Reanna: And Zoe rewrote some of the lyrics in the verses. I think to have her name and our names all together [with Charli’s] in the credits… like, that’s out there now forever!
Emmy: And it is the perfect collab, even though we’re not fully established yet, Charli is completely herself, like she’s the most British woman you could ever meet.
Shali: She’s unapologetically herself and we love that.
Emmy: Yeah and it’s refreshing to audiences because we’ve had such an era of everything being perfect and everything being filtered and not real-life, and I think people are just craving that Britpop era.
Zoe: That kind of messiness, not taking anything too seriously.
Erin: You touched on songwriting there, is that a creative process that you’d all like to have a hand in for the future of the band?
Shali: Yeah for sure! We all write in our free time. I mean we were even fixing one of the demos we’ve been given, today on the bus, we were all doing it together. But on the upcoming EP– which is coming out on the 14th of November, presave in our bio!
Emmy: Fashionably Late!
Shali: Yeah on the EP, obviously Zoe’s co-written on ‘Real Friends’ and then we’ve also written a song called ‘Silly Boy’. So we have two songs that we’ve definitely written on, coming up on the EP and then from this point forward it’s gonna be writing mania.
Erin: Are there any songs on the EP that you guys are especially excited for people to hear? I know there’s a lot of buzz around getting ‘Ponytail’ on streaming services.
Zoe: Yeah everyone’s wanting ‘Ponytail’. I think there’s quite a lot of people excited for ‘Candy’ as well.
Reanna: Yeah, I think that’s going to be the focus of the EP.
Zoe: Until something’s out you don’t know how people are going to react.
Reanna: But we love performing her! If you’re watching tonight, you’ll see. That one is so fun, she’s full-out and the kids loved that one on the schools tour.
Erin: I know a lot of artists who’ve spoken about feeling different about their work once it goes out into the world. So, with the release date of the EP coming up, do you guys anticipate feeling any different about the project once it’s released?
Zoe: Some of the songs on there we’ve had for quite a while, so for people to finally hear them, it’s a bit of a release. It’s weird because you see artists post about it all the time, like “I’ve sat with this for so long” and I just want it to not be ours anymore. You can sit and re-listen to a song a hundred times and be like “Oh we could change this and we could do that” but it’ll be nice once it’s out to be able to let go of it a bit now.
Emmy: It’s hard with music because, like Zoe said, you are always five steps ahead and you could actually be, as an artist, in a completely different realm from what you’re releasing in that moment. So it’s hard having that balance because I’m sure as soon as it’s released we’ll be like “Okay, let’s go! Next one!” But what brings the songs back to life is the reaction. Even some songs that we weren’t completely sold on, we’ve performed them and they’ve read really well and now we view [them] completely differently.
Erin: The music is very city-girl-strut music, have you guys ever put your own music on for a Hot Girl Walk or anything?
Shali: Oh yeah definitely!
Reanna: Do you know what, ‘Real Friends’, when we had the demo for the first time as well, it had Charli’s voice on it. And that was nuts. So hearing that and knowing we were going to put our voice on it, but it was her, that was crazy.
Erin: And where do you guys see the future of the band going? I can see you guys on an arena tour in the future.
Zoe: Amen, manifesting that! Honestly last night in Birmingham [O2 Institute], that was our Wembley.
Shali: Yeah, I felt like we were at a massive stadium yesterday.
Emmy: I can’t even imagine what it would actually feel like to [perform there].
Reanna: Do you know what’s weird, we wouldn’t be able to see their faces. Like, the bigger the venue, the less people you can physically see. We like to recognise people who we’ve seen at the other shows, you know?
Emmy: But it’d be so hard to not disassociate, do you know what I mean, because it probably just feels like you’re in a dream.
Shali: But yeah definitely a lot more of the live stuff. We’re in talks for a few things, so keep on the lookout!
Reanna: Eyes peeled!
Shali: But I think that’s what we thrive on, like the schools tour was a little taste of it and now on this mini tour, we’re literally on top of the world.
Summer: The reaction’s been so good.
Shali: Obviously for us, it feels massive because it’s the most amount of people that we’ve performed to yet, but when we get going it’ll be more and more people and we’re just so excited for that.
Later, after this interview, the band delivered an impressive, energetic set to close their mini tour. Tracks like ‘Candy’ and ‘Ponytail’ certainly got a welcome reception as predicted, and each of the girls shone, both on their own verses and as one in the choruses. The crowd at an XO show always hype up the incredible dance numbers, and the confidence that the group embodies leaves the room with every fan once the night is over.
To keep up with the band, learn music video choreography, or get tickets to the upcoming tour, you can follow them on Instagram @xo.co.uk or visit their website xoofficial.co.uk
Words and interview by Erin Gascoigne-Jones.