Shadowing Practice: Charli xcx - Camera | Behind the Song - Learn English Speaking with Video
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171 sentences
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This is quite a confessional and in some ways embarrassing, well for Brits I think at least,
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you know talking about your dreams and your ambitions is inherently embarrassing for a British person, maybe not so much for an American, I don't know.
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All of my albums are kind of in communication with each other even if they're sort of repelling each other.
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As an artist I think you know some artists spend years
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and years sort of like honing their sound and really digging deeper
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and deeper and deeper into it and I've definitely done
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that at points in my past but over the past five years
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or so I'd say I'm definitely more interested in being a bit more reactive to the sounds of previous records
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that I've made and And then also just like playing shows, DJing, throwing parties.
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It was very constantly within that world.
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I felt that I needed to sort of do something drastic to feel inspired personally again.
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Well you had a song didn't you?
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I think that's the thing.
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It wasn't like, oh now I'm going to make guitar music.
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You had a song that was a guitar song.
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Right.
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And that I think didn't make the album.
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Oh yeah, yeah, of course.
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But that's what I mean.
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And then you're like, oh this is quite cool as a song.
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It wasn't even really talking about the production.
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I think it was just, I like this song.
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Yeah.
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And then I think we were just fleshing out that idea, not talking about it too much, not right.
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Yeah, and then it just became like, oh, this is inspiring to us.
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Like, I think we all in ways do have some kind of a history with certain types of guitar music.
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Even though I think to some people maybe it feels extremely alien.
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I think for us, it's like, it's just another tool, really.
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It's not actually that like provocative to us.
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Like, oh my god, we're using a guitar.
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It's like not like I don't personally see it like that.
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It's just like, oh, that's just another tool that we can use in the way that only we would use it.
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In my mind, the song is about doing something that feels uncomfortable, that actually is quite jarring and awkward in one way,
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but makes you feel something.
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Every sort of part of the production I think is sort of trying to emphasize that feeling,
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you know, even if you take the initial stuttering guitar, it's like there's something quite anxious in that, but then also something quite propulsive about it.
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This is actually what I played initially, which is just this.
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And that was one snippet.
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I think that's two different guitars, two simple guitars.
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Just like going straight into the Boss Superdrive and I think that's the second one.
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The first one I think is just a DI into the Apollo, so incredibly simple.
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And then I chopped it up into individual sections and if I take off the shaper box you'll see sort of like...
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Being drawn also to those moments when I'm not quite hitting it
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and finding a weird point where you get a strange attack
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or some kind of strange artifact that's in there
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and then like leaning into that
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and then the final process was just this putting on this shaper box
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which then kind of adds this weird time and panning sequencing thing so then you get there
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and then that's adding another level of like
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because then that's hearing the chops and then adding them in at weird places
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so then it's like clicks on clicks
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and it just kind of contributes it's this feeling of it being kind of awkward and unsettling in some way.
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Like here, for example.
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And then, yeah, having this final little snippet produced quite differently.
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So then having that one be super stereo and just these kind of things, like trying to break it up and feel it,
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make it feel as fragmented as possible to sort of give it that awkward quality.
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I think this song did kind of come together in quite a free flowing type of way.
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I don't think I sat for a long time labouring over lyrics.
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It was kind of quite a sort of flow state,
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kind of a song, which I think is cool because this is quite a confessional and in some ways embarrassing,
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well, for Brits, I think at least, you know, talking about your dreams and your ambitions is inherently embarrassing for a British person,
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maybe not so much for an American, I don't know.
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So, you know, it's like there is this element of like putting yourself out there
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and saying the thing that is like coming into your mind.
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And I think that is really captured in the lyrics
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and emphasised by the fact that there isn't really like a clear rhyme pattern.
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When you went to record the idea first, I think you just did the whole thing in one take.
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Yeah.
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Because it was a really very emotional moment to hear it because I hadn't heard it before.
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You know, I've got this idea and it was all there, the whole song.
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And it was actually, I think we only did like, you know, six takes or something.
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And it was they're all complete performances.
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And that's something that we carried through the whole album.
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Yeah, I was like preserving these performances that you do.
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This is a moment where we wanted this to feel like because obviously reflects the lyrics so well.
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Like there's that sort of like dramatic step up.
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And actually, this was something that Alex had when we were mixing it.
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He had this idea to like suddenly make the vocal really, really wide at that point.
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And you wouldn't have it.
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It's like halfway through a word, I think.
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So if you hear the vocal here, this is just Charlie direct.
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The other ones in your eyes, but let's be honest, I'm talking about the ones on the pavement.
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And then suddenly there's this extra layer.
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It's like much sort of weirder and like morphing a bit more and more chorus and panned and stereo.
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And then also just preserving quite a jump up in volume as well.
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I think we even did that with the automation on the drums.
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You'll see here, we just allowed the drums to just jump up in automation here, up six, then up nine again, sorry, up another one there.
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So it's just trying to create these extreme volume shifts, I think, is the key thing.
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Suddenly the drums feel a little bit too loud you know it's like quite a strange way of mixing
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that but yeah then the final thing is just um at the end of the chorus like yeah keeping in
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that glitch and keeping in this weird lead static that we have
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that we quite liked and actually having the track come out
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so brutally to affect that lyric
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so by itself i think it's just like quite cute on its own
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so nice and then the final thing i'd also just draw attention to i think in terms of like
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that feeling of like being quite exposed
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and like vulnerable is just how we just drop everything down right at the end to just the bass
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and charlie's vocal which is also like really heavily
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and quite awkwardly gated yeah i love the gate on this i can be anything i want to be
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and i can feel like the way the gate is cutting in
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and and cutting out the breaths in a slightly strange way
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or cutting off the end of a word or the beginning of a word in an unpredictable,
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chaotic way, that I think really works really well there.
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I can be anything I wanna be and I can feel the things I don't normally feel.
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The beginning though, I feel you can really hear when there's like a breath.
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Yeah, yeah.
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I can be anything I wanna be and I can feel.
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It's like very staccato in a way.
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The ands slower than it should be and like...
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I can feel the things I don't know.
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It's subtle.
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In the choruses, I think we like, have my kind of tuned vocals lead and then we have...
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And then we have these very kind of more natural vocals.
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With no tune.
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So we did these two left right doubles
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and this has no tune on it at all and we allowed it just to sort of feel weird and drifting.
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Very lazy, you know, paired with the kind of anchoring tuned.
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And then obviously that sounds very different from how exposed the end vocal is, where it's just like...
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It can be anything, I won't be anything.
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But imagine if that, like usually you have all these breaths in there and stuff, you could hear the breathing and all that stuff
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and I think just cutting all of
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that out gives it a kind of strange uncanny quality
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or something yeah something quite puts you on edge a bit it's like someone's crying
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or something you know yeah
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when they can't like catch their breath it's like that's yeah it's kind of breathless totally we'd filmed the moment
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because we were shooting that at the beginning of 2025
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and like I'd had this really amazing experience of working on
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that film where as a cast
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and crew we were all like super super bonded Aidan Zamiri
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who's one of my best friends was the director we'd all
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sort of like fallen in love with each other in this way
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and it was the longest time i'd been on set on a film
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and had felt this new level of feeling inspired
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which to be honest i don't get as much in music anymore probably
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because i've been doing it for you know
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so long now like over 20 years apart apart from when I'm working with Finn of course.
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But actually seriously though, when I'm working with Finn and Alex, when I'm in the studio generally speaking, I will say I do feel that feeling,
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but there are other elements of being a musician now that I find less thrilling, let's say.
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But I think because, you know.. acting is kind of a newer thing for me
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and being a part of making films whether
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that be in front of the camera
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or behind the scenes is like a newer thing for me i do feel this buzz
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and so i think yeah i had felt that on the moment
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and i wanted to kind of like capture
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that in a song you know there's this moment
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which is super sort of vulnerable and like kind of sparse and then and having these prettier elements with it.
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Those kind of extreme contrasts, like for example, we have this kind of cute, quite sweet guitar riff sound,
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and then combined with this higher one,
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that's like, we sound shifted things up and down a lot to kind of create this grainier texture to it.
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So if you hear this, this is shifted up very artificially.
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But there's, it's kind of sounds like a synth is actually a guitar
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and feels quite fake in one way but has a kind of nice graininess to it.
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When we were writing we did a lot of the drums just on very very basic sort of 606 kits.
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Yeah.
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So we'd almost write to this you know, we'd just be writing to this.
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Like really really small drums, not even like worrying about how the drums sound yet
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because the most important thing is just writing the song at that point.
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There's definitely like versions of all of these songs,
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especially songs like this or maybe like Wink Wink, where I don't know, there is this like shinier,
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more perfect production that is like very crafted, like a little more electronic.
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Even like for example on rock music
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when we had we initially we didn't have the live drums right it was like doing a slightly different thing
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which was maybe a bit more sort of i don't know like immediately understandable
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or something like that and i feel like there's probably versions of like this song where it's like way more
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definitely 100 we could have definitely like 2015'd out we could have made the sound way slicker
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and and way neater and better played and better mixed and all those things.
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Yeah, but then it's not the point.
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It's just funny to think about.
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I'm like, oh, what is that version?
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Like, it's probably good.
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It's not the same thing, but it's just interesting.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Charli xcx - Camera”. This video has 171 sentences and 2136 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:22. The speaker talks at a natural 173 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| guitar noun | /ɡɪˈtɑɹ/ | A stringed musical instrument, of European origin, usually with a fretted fingerboard and six strings, played with the fingers or a plectrum (guitar pick). |
| drum noun | /ˈdɹʌm/ | A percussive musical instrument spanned with a thin covering on at least one end for striking, forming an acoustic chamber; a membranophone. |
| vocal adjective | /ˈvoʊ̯.kəl/ | Of, pertaining to, or resembling the human voice or speech. |
| tune noun | /tjuːn/ | A melody. |
| gate noun | /ˈɡeɪ̯t/ | A doorlike structure outside a house. |
| element noun | /ˈɛləmənt/ | One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based. |
| lyrics noun | /ˈlɪɹ.ɪks/ | The words to a song (or other vocal music). |
| awkward adjective | /ˈɔk.wɚd/ | Lacking dexterity in the use of the hands, or of instruments. |
| breathe verb | /bɹiːð/ | To draw air into (inhale), and expel air from (exhale), the lungs in order to extract oxygen and excrete waste gases. |
| inspire verb | /ɪnˈspaɪə(ɹ)/ | To infuse into the mind; to communicate to the spirit; to convey, as by a divine or supernatural influence; to disclose preternaturally; to produce in, as by… |
| chorus verb | /ˈkɔːɹəs/ | To sing (a song), express (a sentiment), or recite or say (words) in chorus. |
| capture verb | /ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/ | To take control of; to seize by force or stratagem. |
| pan noun | /pæn/ | A wide, flat receptacle used around the house, especially for cooking. |
| vulnerable adjective | /ˈvʌln(ə)ɹəbl̩/ | More or most likely to be exposed to the chance of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally. |
| preserve verb | /pɹəˈzɝv/ | To protect; to keep from harm or injury. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| carry through verb | To manage to execute; to perform successfully, all the way to the end. | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| cut off verb | /ˌkʌt ˈɔf/ [ˌkɐɾ ˈɔf] | To remove by cutting. |
| cut out verb | To refrain from (doing something, using something etc.), to stop or cease (doing something). | |
| step up verb | To increase, augment, or advance, especially by one or more steps. | |
| take off verb | To remove. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Well you had a song didn't you?
- I think that's the thing.
- It's not actually that like provocative to us.
- I think that's two different guitars, two simple guitars.
- I'm like, oh, what is that version?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | Being drawn · is really captured · is shifted |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've definitely done · I've made |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 47 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, I'd. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: breathe /bɹiːð/, synthetic /sɪnˈθɛtɪk/, thrill /θɹɪl/, breathless /ˈbɹɛθləs/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: capture /ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/, ambition /æmˈbɪʃ.ən/, automation /ˌɔ.təˈmeɪ.ʃən/, contrast /kənˈt(ʃ)ɹæst/, flesh /flɛʃ/
- Long words — get the stress right: automation /ˌɔ.təˈmeɪ.ʃən/, inherently /ɪnˈhɛɹəntli/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, differently /ˈdɪf.ə.ɹənt.li/, uncomfortable /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.tə.bl̩/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like guitar, drum, vocal.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.