Oliver Sim talks about his love of Carrie, a Stephen King character who is “marvellous and incredible” but instead “demonised and persecuted”
This story is taken from the Autumn/Winter 2024 issue of AnOther Magazine:
“I have always been obsessed with telekinesis. I used to stare at inanimate objects and think, ‘If I concentrate hard enough, it’s going to move.’ I was 13 when I started falling in love with horror, but Carrie cemented my interest in the genre. Films like Carrie make me able to laugh at the idea of fear, they bring a sense of playfulness to it. Carrie could be a superhero, but the thing that could make her marvellous and incredible, she is demonised and persecuted for. I like the combination of femininity and ferocity. In video games I would make sure to be the female character because it was liberating. As a little boy, femininity was always something that was associated with weakness and frailty, it was something to hide. So when I saw it in characters in films or music, I would eat it up.
“I wasn’t persecuted in the same way that Carrie was at school, but I definitely had moments of being bullied and being tirelessly called ‘gay’. It was such a strange time for me because if I was left alone at home, I loved the things that came along with my sexuality. I think it made me more of a deep thinker, it made me more creative, but at school it wasn’t something I could show. I definitely identify with Carrie – I just love and admire her.”
Having grown up in southwest London, 35-year-old Oliver Sim experienced international stardom at the age of 20 when his band, the xx, captivated the world with their sleek, minimalist take on pop. The songwriter, bassist and vocalist in the trio, Sim has since forged a solo career and, in 2022, released his debut album, Hideous Bastard, along with an announcement that he’d been living with HIV since he was 17. His first record, produced entirely by his bandmate Jamie xx, is a journey of self-acceptance, a process he described as an exorcising of the shame and fear he had felt for a long time. The lead single, Hideous, features vocals from Jimmy Somerville, lead singer of the 80s synth-pop band Bronski Beat, who became a mentor to Sim as he embarked on a creative voyage in pursuit of honesty and joy. After a prolonged period apart from the xx, he’s back in the studio with them and trying to see as much cinema, live music and art as possible, to draw inspiration for what comes next.
This story features in the Autumn/Winter 2024 issue of AnOther Magazine, which is on sale now. Order here.
