Wuthering Heights soundtrack the perfect pivot for Charli XCX, says Brat co-writer

A songwriter who has worked with Charli XCX on her biggest hits says doing the Wuthering Heights soundtrack was the perfect pivot after their Brat summer.

Finn Keane has worked with the pop star on loads of previous projects and won a Grammy for producing her hit Von Dutch.

That track, along with the rest of her electro and dance-inspired Brat album, inspired a lime green cultural phenomenon that took over 2024.

Keane says it was around that time they both "fell in love" when they saw the script for Emerald Fennell's movie adaption of the Emily Brontë classic.

He tells BBC Newsbeat the darker themes of Wuthering Heights "felt like the perfect counterpoint and pivot away from Brat".

"We were really ready to do something completely different, not in the dance world.

"Charli loves working in opposites and extremes and this felt like a really exciting next step for her artistry.

"We were just so excited to try something completely different and hopefully something that was kind of surprising on some level."

Keane says the pair first started working on the soundtrack while they were touring the Brat remix album.

"Initially it was like, "Oh, should we do one song?," Finn says.

"Then Charli was like, 'Let's do a whole album. I love it so much, I'm feeling really inspired'.

"We'd play these shows and then when Charli had an hour or two off, we'd go into a studio or just work in a hotel room and make songs for the soundtrack."

Keane also worked with Charli on Speed Drive for the Barbie soundtrack, but Wuthering Heights came with a very different brief.

They used orchestral elements - recorded at Abbey Road Studios - to help with the gothic feel.

But Keane says he even picked up an instrument himself because they wanted it to "feel really rough".

"There's a lot of me playing a really cheap, small violin," he says.

"And I can't really play the violin. So it was me just doing these horrible, scratchy sounds.

"When you listen to it, if you hear some really bad raspy playing, that's going to be me rather than the amazing professionals we brought in."

Keane agrees, and says they also were inspired by 83-year-old Welsh musician John Cale, who features on House - the first single released from the soundtrack.

"When John Cale sends you this amazing spoken-word poem over music you've made, that's just unreal," he says, describing it as a "pinch me" moment.

For Keane, it was completely different to working on Brat - which was "just Charli saying, 'I want to make my album that I think is great, I don't care who's going to listen to it'."

"We wanted it to feel really emotional, like a proper film score as well as a Charli XCX song as well," he says.

"I think it was that thing of trying to balance those two things of making it feel like a really strong song but also a piece that would perfectly fit in a movie and have this emotional depth to it."

'Don't go with your parents'

Keane's excited for people to see the "visually stunning" film - which he says is "so dark and just so beautiful".

"I hope when people hear the music, and they see it with the story that they feel really moved.

"I also hope they feel it's a different part of Charli's artistry, to see that she can make this kind of music as well as do something as incredible as Brat."

Even if you've only seen the trailer, or clips on TikTok, you'll probably know two things about the film: it's gothic and it's raunchy.

So if you're planning to go and watch it, Keane's got some advice.

"Go see it in the cinema, just don't go with your parents, take a date."

Wuthering Heights opens in UK cinemas on 13 February - Charli XCX's soundtrack is out on the same day.

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