Q&A: The xx's Romy Madley Croft On Apolo Ohno, Working As a Trio, and Asking Her Friend to Leave the Band

The xx, featuring Romy Madley Croft (center), play Showbox SoDo on Monday, April 12.

Calling from a tour stop in Baltimore, Romy Madley Croft, singer/guitarist for the deservedly hyped British pop act, the xx, gave us a call to talk about Pretty Girls Make Graves (which you can read about over here). Here's a bit of what else we chatted about.

You guys had a song, "Intro," featured in a commercial for AT&T featuring Apolo Ohno during the Olympics. Did you catch any flack from the folks back home for supporting an American athlete in the Olympics?

I think none of us are actually very aware of sport, as people. We always want to like see (commercials) first and make sure it's not really distasteful. We just watched the ad and we liked it. I didn't know who the guy was. We didn't know that AT&T (was) a really big company. I guess it's sort of naivety from being from a whole nother world of entertainment and sport and media.

Are you planning on adding a fourth member to the group? You gonna stay with a trio?

Definitely. I think that we have made the live show work as a three piece and we feel very comfortable and happy. If we really felt that a fourth member was needed, we would have tried it out. But so much of our band is based on the fact that we're all friends and the fact that we have known each other for such a long time. I think having another member coming into that dynanic would kind of be quite difficult for us and for them, I think.

Baria left from exhaustion and working so hard on the road. Is that correct?

It's definitely a mix of things. We weren't all getting along as we had been. Amongst us all being so tired and stressed out, we realized that socially we weren't, like, as good friends as we used to be.

It all came to a head that it would be better if we were actually a three piece. We did ask Baria to leave. We've been friends since I was 11. It's just that thing where you realize that you've grown up ... you're not the same as you were.

After that, we had two days time which was in that time we had to work out how to be a three piece. That's how hectic our schedule was at that point. We had to cancel two shows and then go straight on to it.

Have you kept up at the same pace?

Pretty much.

Have you added any new necklaces in your rotation lately?

I'm actually starting to minimizes them a bit. It gets kind of heavy.