Oliver Sim (the xx) turns out to be HIV positive in a clip directed by Yann Gonzalez (and available on Mubi)

Article updated on September 7, 2022

This is the story of a British rock band with a minimalist style that has been shaking our ears (and all the emotional sequences of reality M6) since 2005, The xx. The three members who still make it up also pursue a solo career: Romy Madley Croft, Jamie xx and Oliver Sim. The latter just made it his own come out media of HIV positive person, to accompany the release of his first single, horriblewhich transfigures serophobia (i.e. the structural discrimination of people living with HIV).

On the occasion of the release of the album horrible bastard September 9 the long version (22 minutes) of the clip fromhorrible directed by Yann Gonzalez will be available from 8 September exclusively Mubi, a streaming platform containing an astronomical amount of nuggets.

Oliver Sim reveals he has been HIV positive since he was 17

To start his solo career with a new album, horrible bastard (co-produced by Jamie xx), and first single baptized horrible, 32-year-old singer Oliver Sim has just revealed he’s been living with HIV since he was 17through a statement posted on Instagram on May 23, 2022:

“I realized I reversed one of the things that probably caused me the most fear and shame. My HIV status. I have lived with HIV since I was 17 and it depends on how I feel about myself and how I assume that others feel about me, from that age and in my adult life. So, quite impulsively I wrote about a song called Hideous. “

We can especially hear Oliver Sim singing in the last chorus of horrible :

“Radical honesty
It could set me free
If it makes me awful
I have lived with HIV
From seventeen
I’m horrible?

radical honesty
It could set me free
If it makes me awful
Living with HIV
From seventeen
I’m horrible? “

Jimmy Sommerville (Smalltown Boy), a guardian angel in the fight against HIV

This first single features a participation by Jimmy Somerville, best known for being the unforgettable voice of success. Country boyfrom the first album Age of consent (1984) by the new wave pop band Bronski Beat. This song and its clip explicitly evoke the horrors of young gay lives, especially since its singer has established itself for decades as a milestone in the fight against HIV.

Which may partly explain why Oliver Sim now sees Jimmy Somerville as a kind ofGuardian angel “And that’s what shines through in the music videohorrible.

Oliver Sim offers Hideous a monstrous music video directed by Yann Gonzalez

Shaped ” weird horror movie “, The clip of the single horrible was directed by Yann Gonzalez (The Meetings After Midnight in 2013, A knife in the heart in 2018) and was just presented as part of the Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival on May 23, 2022.

The album horrible bastardwill be released on September 9, 2022, ” in all its hideous splendor and encampment as Oliver Sim just explained in another Instagram post, adding:

“I find it difficult to write these things for fear of sounding too arrogant or serious. Much of this record is serious on paper, I wrote a lot about fear, shame and masculinity, but I created these songs as a way to free myself. So I see Hideous Bastard as not only self-deprecating, but also full of joy and humor. “

Front page photo credit: Instagram screenshot @OliverSim