The Xx life and biography

The xx are an English indie pop band, formed in London in 2005. The group released their debut album, xx in August 2009. The album ranked highly on many best of 2009 lists, placing number one on the list compiled by The Guardian and second for NME. In 2010, the band won the Mercury Music Prize for their debut album.

The group's debut album, xx, was met with sweeping critical praise, achieving a rating of "Universal acclaim" on Metacritic. The album also ranked well on "best of the year" lists, placing ninth on the Rolling Stone list and second for NME. In the 2009 NME The Future 50 list, The xx were positioned at number six, and in October 2009, they were named one of MTV Iggy's "Top 10 Bands with Buzz" (at the CMJ Music Marathon 2009).

Their self-titled debut was released with the British independent record label Young Turks on 17 August 2009. Though the band had previously worked with producers including Diplo and Kwes, they produced xx themselves, while Jamie Smith and Rodaidh McDonald mixed it.The xx recorded their album in a small garage that was part of the XL Recordings studio, often at night, which contributed to the low, whispery nature of the album. In August 2009, the band headlined their own concert tour. The xx have toured with artists including The Big Pink and Micachu. In a first taste of success, their single "Crystalised" was featured on iTunes (UK) as Single of the Week, starting from 18 August 2009.

The music of the album was used extensively on television and in media such as 24/7, 'Person of Interest, NBC's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games; during the series Cold Case, Suits, Mercy, the Greek version of Next Top Model, "Bedlam", Hung, 90210, as well as being the feature song for the March 2010 E4 advert for 90210, Misfits, the Karl Lagerfeld Fall/Winter 2011 fashion show, Waterloo Road, and the film I Am Number Four.

In late 2009, second guitarist and keyboardist Baria Qureshi left the group. Initial reports stated that this was due to exhaustion, but the band later said they made this decision due to "personal differences." Later, Madley-Croft described the split as feeling "like a divorce."

In January 2010, Matt Groening chose the band to headline two nights of his All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Minehead, England. In addition, the band played in five of North America's most popular music festivals, Coachella, Sasquatch, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits. In May 2010, the track "Intro" was used by the BBC in their coverage of the 2010 general election. This led to the band playing the track on an episode of Newsnight.

In September 2010, the band's debut album won the Barclaycard Mercury Prize, acquiring best British and Irish album of the year. After the live ceremony screening, the album jumped from 16 to 3 on the September 12th U.K. albums chart, accompanying an 269% sales increase. XL's marketing campaign drastically expanded after this substantial win, with day-time TV advertisements and billboard campaigns on some of UK's highest-profile digital billboards.

Thanks to the highlighted publicity, XL Recordings says it has shipped more than 40,000 CDs in the days following the Mercury Prize. XL Managing director Ben Beardsworth explained,"Thanks to the Mercury win...things are accelerating dramatically and the band will be reaching a bigger and bigger audience with their music." In another promotional initiative, the label sent out Saam Farahmand's audio/visual sculpture of the album when the band toured at Bestival 2010, a sculpture also appearing in an event at Seoul.

The band was nominated for 'Best British Album', 'Best British Breakthrough' and 'Best British Band' at the 2011 BRIT Awards held on 15 February 2011 at the O2 Arena in London; however, they did not win in any of the categories.

In December 2011, Smith revealed that he wants to release their second LP ahead of their festival appearances next year and that it is inspired by "club music". "The majority of stuff I'm working on now is The xx stuff. We're just about to start recording. Hopefully we'll get it done in time for most festivals next year, because that's the most fun." Discussing the sound of the album, he said: "We've all come back off tour and been partying a bit more. We left when we were 17 and we missed out on that chunk of our lives when everyone else was partying. Club music has definitely had an influence on the next record."

Read more