Charli XCX: I’m only mean to creeps

Charli XCX is only rude to "creepy old men" who want her to sign too much merchandise.

The 22-year-old singer is proud to be outspoken and won't allow herself to be ruled by what her record label wants. She sees herself as tough rather than mean, insisting there are very few people she would ever treat badly.

"I'm never a b***h to anyone — apart from the creepy old dudes who want me to sign 50 things for them to sell online. I don't do that," she told British newspaper The Sun.

"But kids, yeah. It takes effort for them to drive to the airport and skip school or whatever to come and meet me, so I'm always nice and of course I'm tongue in cheek with songs like Break the Rules.

"It's not me advocating people to not go to school. Kids should go to school."

Most stars are sent to professionals to learn how to field questions from the media, but that's not Charli's bag. She laughed that the one person who did attempt to give her some advice ended up telling her she was "untrainable" and "the worst person" she'd ever dealt with.

Part of her attitude comes from how hard the star has fought to be a success. Her album True Romance came out in 2013 but didn't set the charts alight, although her song I Love It released with Icona Pop did well. It annoyed her that many industry professionals only wanted to talk to her properly after that track, which gave her the fire in her belly she used to make her latest album, Sucker.

"With all this pent-up aggression I had, I went to Sweden and worked with [Grammy-nominated producer] Patrik Berger, who I'd worked with on I Love It, and we wrote a load of punk songs," she explained.

"I suppose going to Patrik was therapy. I'm quite an aggressive and angry person sometimes, so punk therapy was my therapy and led me back into liking pop music and the industry again."