Xenomania

Brian Higgins found early success after producing Australian singer Dannii Minogue's third album, Girl (1997), which gained favourable reviews at the time but failed to enter the British Top 40. However, the success of the lead single, "All I Wanna Do", led to a collaboration with American singer Cher and Higgins co-writing her international number-one hit single "Believe" (1998). Although the song outperformed all expectations and won him three Ivor Novello awards, Higgins found himself without a label when London Records was sold in 2000. while Matt Gray had started his musical career in the 1980s, writing music for the Commodore 64 home computer. Nick Coler programmed The KLF's singles and Tim Powell started out in 1989 "doing hardcore rave stuff". Higgins praised Sugababes for the "crucial role" in Xenomania's subsequent success—"To me they represented something superior to what was out there. As a result, the Sugababes undoubtedly brought the best out of us as we always felt under pressure to produce results that would do justice to their voices and overall talent." Xenomania were approached to create the debut single for a girl group formed through the television talent show Popstars: The Rivals. The eventual winners, Girls Aloud, recorded "Sound of the Underground", one of sixty songs that Higgins and Cooper had written with the aim of launching their own girl group. Higgins said Girls Aloud were "a blueprint for a girl group that we'd had in our minds for ages, one that was individual rather than generic, with a sound that blurs the edges between pop and indie. We know that people aren't really interested in pop music as it was." The song was the Christmas number-one of 2002, selling just over 213,000 copies in its first week of release. The single spent four consecutive weeks at number one, achieving a platinum certification from the British Phonographic Industry. "Round Round" and "Sound of the Underground" have been called "two huge groundbreaking hits", In 2003, Xenomania wrote and produced "No Good Advice" for Girls Aloud, which reflected Higgins' general mood of failure after the deal between Xenomania and London Records fell through. Shortly after the album's release, another round of sessions during that summer yielded three new tracks that later surfaced on a reissue of the album in November, including a massively successful cover version of The Pointer Sisters song "Jump" for the film Love Actually. It was said that "Higgins injects an element of instant-catchy-cool to the songs without going overboard in trying to shape uber-chic dance floor hits." Also that year, they produced the singles "Miss Perfect" and "7 Ways" for former Five member Abs's solo album, Abstract Theory. Sugababes' "Hole in the Head", another UK number-one, was one of several tracks for their album Three that were co-written and produced by the Xenomania team. According to Higgins, he knew "Hole in the Head" was "the single" as soon as he heard the backing track again: "Those moments of clarity are the best bit about the music business. We try to find perfect matches unique to the artist we are working with". Following the success of Girls Aloud's first four singles, Xenomania was enlisted to produce Girls Aloud's second album, What Will the Neighbours Say?, in its entirety. Higgins said, "The pressure to come up with singles was, as always, immense. But [...] we were able to have a lot of fun working on ideas that were maybe a little too odd to be on the radio." Stylus Magazine declared, "There is no pop in the world like Girls Aloud today." All four of the album's singles ("The Show", "Love Machine", "I'll Stand by You" and "Wake Me Up") were top five. Xenomania were approached to work with Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue on new tracks for her greatest hits collection Ultimate Kylie, including the single "Giving You Up", which developed a reputation among her fans as one of her worst singles. Other Xenomania productions proved less successful. Mania was a joint venture between Higgins and BMG. Despite the group's near total obscurity in the United States, the song was listed at number 245 on Pitchfork Media's "The Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s" list. It was also listed at number 23 on The Observer Music Monthlys 75 best singles of the decade. Virgin Media gave the album five stars, saying it was "bursting [...] with invention, quirky lyrics, tongue-in-cheek sauciness and [...] appeals to grown-up pop fans and music critics as well as to the teenyboppers." In 2008, Slant Magazine said that "Chemistry is probably still their crowning glory". Xenomania worked with other British artists such as Bananarama, Texas, and Rachel Stevens. They contributed tracks to Stevens' album Come and Get It, a commercial failure that The Guardian listed among its "1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die" and hailed as "a riot, thanks to a stellar team of pop producers [...] who seem to have taken the precarious state of Stevens' career as an excuse to let their imaginations run amok". Xenomania continued their work with both Saint Etienne and Sugababes, producing the latter's UK top five single "Red Dress" (from the 2005 album Taller in More Ways), described by The Observer as "a thumping tour de force from Xenomania [...] Not unexpectedly, it flirts vivaciously with pop songwriting convention, boasting not one but two killer choruses". Xenomania also produced Totally Frank stars Frank's 2006 debut album; the group was dropped after their album failed to perform well. In 2006, Girls Aloud released their first greatest hits collection, The Sound of Girls Aloud, which featured their singles to date—all produced by Xenomania—including the new track "Something Kinda Ooooh". The song was referred to as "another head-spinningly innovative number from the Xenomania team." The Sound of Girls Aloud has been recognised by the IFPI as a million-seller. Their fourth studio album, 2007's Tangled Up, was labelled "yet another unrelenting pop masterpiece." The Times included it at number 62 on a list of the decade's best pop albums. Xenomania also worked with Alesha Dixon (on the single "Knockdown"), Sophie Ellis-Bextor, and produced two songs for Sugababes' fifth studio album, Change. 2008–present scored her first UK top five single as a solo artist with "The Boy Does Nothing" (2008). In 2008, Xenomania's success continued. Australian singer-songwriter Gabriella Cilmi released her Xenomania-produced debut album, Lessons to Be Learned. The single "Sweet About Me", inspired by "obscure Parisian psychedelic records" that Higgins and Cooper had introduced to Cilmi, was an international success. The Independent called the song "one of the most infectious, radio-friendly pop tunes [...] of the past five years, right up there with 'Video Games' and 'American Boy'". At the ARIA Music Awards of 2009, Cilmi won six awards including Single of the Year for "Sweet About Me". In the United Kingdom, Alesha Dixon's "The Boy Does Nothing" was her first solo top five single. Higgins likened the song to "bottled happiness". Xenomania produced seven more tracks for the album The Alesha Show and an additional two for its reissue. While at work on Girls Aloud's fifth studio album, Out of Control, two members of the Xenomania house band, Jason Resch and Kieran Jones, composed the backing track for "The Promise", which they played for Higgins. He and Cooper, afraid they'd "ruin the moment", waited weeks to write the song's lyrics; they wrote the song in seven minutes. Higgins said, "We knew that was the piece of music Girls Aloud needed to announce them as a supergroup in this country, so we knew we couldn't drop the ball melodically or lyrically." "The Promise" won Best British Single at the 2009 BRIT Awards, Girls Aloud and Xenomania's first win at the ceremony. Pet Shop Boys' tenth studio album, Yes, was produced by Brian Higgins and Xenomania. Yes reached number four on the UK Albums Chart in 2009, Pet Shop Boys' highest placing since their 1996 album Bilingual. The album was nominated in the Best Electronic/Dance Album category at the 52nd Grammy Awards. ''Don't Stop, the second album by Norwegian singer Annie, was released in 2009 and includes several tracks produced and co-written by Xenomania, including the single "My Love Is Better". NME magazine called Don't Stop'' "Xenomania-abetted lipstick-pop genius". Pop duo Mini Viva's three singles—"Left My Heart in Tokyo", "I Wish" (both 2009), and "One Touch" (2010)—were produced by Xenomania. "Left My Heart in Tokyo", which charted within the top ten, was co-written by Annie and Fred Falke. The song was critically acclaimed, and all three singles were shortlisted for the annual Popjustice £20 Music Prize. Xenomania worked with a number of other new artists, such as Alex Gardner, Jessie Malakouti, and Vagabond, to varying degrees of success (see artist development). In 2011, Xenomania produced two tracks for The Saturdays' album On Your Radar, including their top five hit "All Fired Up", which was co-produced with Space Cowboy and MNEK. The same year, they produced songs for The X Factor runner-up Rebecca Ferguson, British boy band The Wanted, and girl group SoundGirl. Xenomania worked with another X Factor alumnus (and Xenomania Records signee), Amelia Lily, producing and writing an album that was subsequently shelved. Lily's debut single, "You Bring Me Joy" (2012), reached number two and was described by pop music blog MuuMuse as "110% incredible". Higgins assumed production duties for indie rock Gossip's album A Joyful Noise, a collaboration met with scepticism by Vice magazine—"This is not the first time indie artists have fallen for his [Higgins'] cred-pop charms [...] no one involved managed to work out that Gossip isn't a pop band". Also in 2012, Xenomania recorded with Mutya Keisha Siobhan—a group consisting of the first line-up of the Sugababes—and Little Mix. Xenomania contributed two new tracks—including the single "Something New"—to Girls Aloud's second compilation album, Ten, the group's first album since announcing a hiatus after Out of Control (2008). BBC Music hailed Ten as "incredible proof of how perfect pop can be in the right hands" and wrote that "Alongside the Xenomania hit machine, at their best Girls Aloud create a universe entirely of their own, standing as one of the greatest pop acts of this century". Cooper later said of Xenomania's relationship with the group, who split up in 2013, "We kind of thought of ourselves as a bit of the band, so the essence of Xeno was Girls Aloud. They were our creative muses and, therefore, a lot of the stuff was written by ourselves. They got more involved in the writing as time went on, but we were probably all a little bit guilty of having an inner pop star desperate to get out of Xeno". Also that year, Xenomania reunited with former Girls Aloud member Nadine Coyle to write and produce material for Coyle's upcoming second studio album. The sessions have so far yielded three singles, "Go to Work", "Fool for Love" and "All That I Know" as well as an EP, titled Nadine. On 23 January 2019, Xenomania launched a four-member girl group called unperfect, releasing their debut single "Gots To Give The Girl" on the following day. However, unperfect did not stay together for very long, with Xenomania moving on to produce a five-piece girl group called CuteBad by 2022. Failed collaborations Xenomania worked with American pop singer Britney Spears in 2003 during sessions for her fourth album In the Zone. The song submitted, "Graffiti My Soul", was not chosen for the album. While the record company loved the song, Spears felt that it needed more of a chorus. Higgins said that they wanted "essentially 'Sound of the Underground 2'." Franz Ferdinand's drummer Paul Thomson said, "We wrote with Higgins for a while and initially we thought we'd work more with him but it didn't really work out. We just realized that we're not really a pop group." Higgins spoke of bad experiences with bigger artists to Literally magazine in 2009: "Everything about us is about enormous enthusiasm for something. And therefore big artists can come in and they think "they're the flavour of the whatever, let's take their thing and then we'll do what we want with it..." Well, no, that's not acceptable anyway. I've had that experience happen where the big artists were fine until they got into the mix room and then they basically pulled the record to pieces. So I took my name off the record and the writing credits off the record. Because they're assholes. And they sold about 20,000 copies, and they've never been seen since. So big artists are often jerks of the biggest order. And often people say don't meet your heroes because you'll be let down, and I sort of understand why people would say that." == Members ==

Current members • Brian Higgins • Miranda Cooper • Carla Marie (2007–present) • Florrie (2010–present) Former members • Tim Powell (1997–2010) • Niara Scarlett (2000–2004) • Jon Shave == Artist development ==

, a finalist on The X Factor, signed to Xenomania Records in 2012. Xenomania spent two years looking for talent worldwide, establishing Xenomania Records. In 2009, Xenomania held a "mini festival" entitled Xenofest in which they showcased their artists to journalists, record label representatives, and PRs. Vagabond were formed through the programme. In 2012, Xenomania Records became an imprint of Sony Music Entertainment and signed Amelia Lily, a finalist from The X Factor. Xenomania's in-house drummer Florrie Arnold signed to Sony after finding Internet success. Xenomania held an open audition for recording artists in London's Shoreditch area in 2013. == Work ethic ==

Higgins told The Telegraph in August 2009, "Pop is where the cutting edge of music is but it needs to be done with total sincerity and an incredible amount of skill, otherwise it doesn't warrant its own existence. There is a science to it, but there's magic too. You have to find the space where art and commerce truly meet in the middle, with genuine feeling and sentiment." Xenomania are notable for their abnormal writing process. According to an article in Q magazine's October 2009 issue, "they each work on backing tracks, chords or beats, Higgins choosing the best bits and building up songs like jigsaws." Xenomania may also create multiple melodies over the same backing track and then select the best. Higgins said "we're just not interested in the way other people do things. [...] I've trained not just me but myself, Miranda, Tim, we've trained our minds to think that way". Australian singer Gabriella Cilmi has remarked that working with Higgins "brings out the best in me [...] He knows how to make my silliness good". According to Cooper, the artist's vocal performance on a track is "the final piece of the puzzle", and songs with "amazing" choruses have been shelved as a result of the artist not sounding adequate on them. Songwriters and producers who have worked for Xenomania include Annie, Fred Falke, Tove Lo, Edele Lynch (of Irish girl group B*Witched), MNEK, Deedee Ray, and Olivia Redmond (formerly of SoundGirl). Cooper says that high levels of quality control result from "a group of all sorts of artists, all songwriters, writing hooks on the same track [...] Brian had no worries choosing melodies from wherever they came from. He didn't mind if it was the person making tea in the office—if they came up with something, which they often did, that would be used". Xenomania work from a large English country house located in Kent, where Higgins also lives, and a flat in Shoreditch. They have also been known to write at hotels. == Influences ==

Of the production group's philosophy and outlook, Higgins says, "What we stand for [...] is everything about the interesting side of music, but with tunes the postman will whistle." Pet Shop Boys member Neil Tennant noted that Xenomania "never stick to one sound, so they're never boring. They have a big range." The varied sound of the production house is influenced by Higgin's own wide tastes growing up. Higgins says, "I discovered punk music, then New Romantic music, then dance music, which got me into the music business professionally." Higgins was a fan of punk rock groups such as the Buzzcocks and the Sex Pistols, as well as more electronic groups such as New Order. Additionally, Higgins "was obsessed with synthesisers [...] Duran Duran and the way they utilised synths, which I thought was amazingly clever, and Japan, and Depeche Mode." To stay relevant, Higgins said the team avoids "listening to the radio [or] following contemporary fashions", noting that Girls Aloud's "Call the Shots" "started as a piece of music in 2005, was written as a song in 2006 and came out [...] in November 2007." However, Paul Thomson of Franz Ferdinand said, "He has a team in the kitchen listening to Radio 1 all day, monitoring what's being played. And he has somebody watching fashion TV all day making notes on what kind of beats they're using." Cooper has mentioned that one of Xenomania's policies is to recruit young people "as Brian and I aren't out in the clubs raving it up anymore". == Critical response and recognition ==

Since their inception, Xenomania has garnered praise from all areas of the international media. Pitchfork Media, which generally focuses on independent music, praised Xenomania for their "deathless hooks and multi-genre pyrotechnics [...] songs stuffed to the gills with one, two, three, sometimes four different choruses, sounding like patchwork assemblages of the best bits of a hundred fantasy pop songs." In 2006, British pop website Popjustice stated, "This cartel of songwriters and producers are the most talented pop powerhouse since the glory days of Cheiron, and could easily become the most exciting British hit machine of all time." ", by Gabriella Cilmi (pictured), won an ARIA Award for Best Single. Xenomania has been given various accolades and recognition. British music industry trade magazine Music Week said in an October 2008 piece, "As one of song-writing and production team Xenomania, the publicity shy Brian Higgins has been responsible for some of the most life-affirming and innovative pop songs of the last decade." They were named Music Week's Producer of the Year award for 2009. Higgins won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for his work on Cher's "Believe"; it was also awarded the sales-based International Hit of the Year and Best Selling UK Single. It also won the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. Xenomania won Best British Single for Girls Aloud's "The Promise" at the 2009 BRIT Awards, while Gabriella Cilmi's "Sweet About Me" won Best Single at the ARIA Music Awards of 2009. Pet Shop Boys' Yes was nominated in the Best Electronic/Dance Album category at the 52nd Grammy Awards. The Observer placed Higgins at number thirteen in a 2008 list of the twenty most powerful "celebrity makers." The article labelled Xenomania "not only UK pop's most successful songwriting and production team, they're also its most cutting edge." Miranda Cooper was in ''Harper's Bazaar'' Power List 2007 as one of the thirty "women who shape our lives today". They wrote of Cooper, "If it's a hit you want, you'd better talk to Cooper. For the rest of us, Cooper has the power to get a tune inside our heads." ==List of artists with songs produced by Brian Higgins/Xenomania==

• Abs • Alesha Dixon • Alex Gardner • Annie • Bananarama • Cher • Chicane • Dannii Minogue • Frank • Florrie • Gabriella Cilmi • Girls Aloud • The Gossip • Jem • Jessie Malakouti • Kaiser Chiefs • Kevin McHale • Kylie Minogue • Lene Nystrøm Rasted • Little Mix • Mania • Melanie Blatt • Mini Viva • Mollie King • Moonbaby • Nadine Coyle • Natacha Atlas • Pet Shop Boys • Rachel Stevens • Rebecca Ferguson • Saint Etienne • The Saturdays • Sophie Ellis-Bextor • Sugababes • Texas • V • Vanilla • Vagabond • The Wanted ==Artists signed to Xenomania==

• Amelia Lily (2012–2014) • CuteBad (2022–2023) • Mini Viva (2008–2010) • Nadine Coyle (2019–present) == Brian Higgins/Xenomania production credits ==