G Flip at Reading & Leeds 2024 on one year of ‘Drummer’ and getting approval from Taylor Swift

NME

After playing her first Reading set on the BBC Radio 1 stage, G Flip joined NME backstage to talk about her second album ‘Drummer’, reworking songs on the ‘Drumless’ EP and her mum starting a petition for her to join Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Rhian from NME and I'm backstage at Reading with G-Flip.

00:09Hello!

00:10Hello!

00:11What's up?

00:12Not much, what's going on with you?

00:14I'm just having a good day.

00:15Yeah.

00:16Is this your first time at Reading?

00:17It's my first time at Reading.

00:18Okay.

00:19What's your first impressions then?

00:21It's fucking huge.

00:22There's heaps of people.

00:24I just went out and even the little stages are going off.

00:27Yeah.

00:28True.

00:30Everyone's rowdy.

00:31I feel like just the UK in general, everyone's rowdy.

00:34That is our reputation.

00:35It's good.

00:36It's good.

00:37How does it compare to what you were expecting then?

00:40I just didn't expect it to be so huge.

00:43It's like mega.

00:45And there's so many little installations and things going on out there.

00:50It's awesome.

00:51It's really, really cool.

00:52I'm very fortunate to be here.

00:53Yeah.

00:54Are you going to go out and have another little explore later?

00:56100%.

00:57See some other artists maybe?

00:58Yeah, for sure.

00:59I'll be frolicking later.

01:00For sure.

01:01Is there anyone in particular that you're really excited to try and check out?

01:05Obviously excited to see Travis and Blink, George Smith.

01:11Yeah.

01:12Court Chinchilla, who played before me, which is great.

01:16But God, this festival's fucked up how good the lineup is.

01:21It fucking is.

01:23You look at the lineup.

01:24It's just like everyone.

01:25Yeah.

01:27Just as well, you get two days to see everyone on this day then because you've got leads

01:30as well.

01:31I know.

01:32But the other days are jam-packed as well that I don't get to see, which I'm sad about.

01:37But next time.

01:38Yeah, next time.

01:39How did your set go then?

01:40It was great.

01:41There was more people than I expected.

01:43I always come over to places that I don't live and I'm always so surprised.

01:48I'm like, I don't think anyone knows who I am here.

01:51And then I rock up and there's thousands of people and I'm like, what the fuck?

01:55How did these people find me?

01:58So I was pleasantly surprised.

01:59It was great.

02:00Yeah.

02:01Do you think you'll ever get used to having people know you?

02:04Do you think you're always going to expect no one to turn up?

02:06Yes.

02:07Yeah, for sure.

02:09Every festival overseas, I'm like, who knows me over here?

02:14And then I'm always like, holy shit, there's people crying and singing in the front row.

02:20It's wild.

02:21It's the coolest thing ever.

02:22Yeah.

02:24What's the most rewarding thing about putting out music for you?

02:26Seeing that reaction from the people in the front rows?

02:29Yeah, definitely playing shows is a feeling like no other.

02:33You know, that's definitely one of my favourite things and also travelling the world and just

02:39trying to make an impact on the community and especially the LGBTQIA plus community

02:46and my fellow non-binary humans out there.

02:49Yeah.

02:50Nice.

02:51You recently celebrated the first anniversary of the Drummer album.

02:55I did.

02:57How has your relationship changed with that album over the last year, I guess?

03:02Well, I'm still touring it.

03:05I'm playing shows, not next week, the week after, the very last shows of the Drummer

03:11tour, which ends in the UK, the very last shows in Glasgow.

03:16So, yeah, we're still rolling on that album.

03:20And then I got to fucking write the next one.

03:22You get stuck into it.

03:24But no, like, this album's changed my life and I've had such a good time touring it and

03:31it had such a good reception and I'm just so lucky to have people that fuck with me,

03:35you know?

03:36What's the biggest way you would say it's changed your life?

03:42I think I've just got to go places that I haven't been.

03:44I've got to play like Reading and Leeds Festival.

03:47I've got to, you know, play festivals in the States that, you know, I've always wanted

03:51to play and go places that I'd never been before.

03:56So it's allowed me to see the world and connect with a whole bunch of new people that

04:02had no idea who the fuck I was and now kind of roll with me.

04:07So it's cute.

04:08Earlier this year, you gave us a different look at some of the songs on the Drumless

04:12EP.

04:13What was the idea behind that EP and kind of how did it make you yourself look at the

04:17songs in a new light?

04:19Yeah, I don't know.

04:20I just like making versions of songs.

04:23I like made a cover of a Taylor Swift song and I really love interpreting the song in

04:29different ways.

04:31So I kind of made covers of my own songs and, you know, when I made the drummer album, it

04:36was all, you know, centred around drums and kit and some of the songs are like quite deep

04:43and meaningful and if you like share them in a different light, it's pretty cool, you

04:50know, making them slower and changing the tempo and changing the key and totally changing

04:55the production.

04:56So that's how Drumless came about.

04:58It was kind of just for the fans, I guess, like, you know, giving them something else

05:03while I'm touring so much till I can get the third cheeky album out.

05:08You mentioned earlier that you do have to start work on the third album.

05:11You said on Instagram that you've already started it.

05:13Yeah.

05:14How deep into it are you?

05:15Very early stages.

05:17Very, very, very early stages.

05:20After my UK tour, I go to Australia for a little bit and then I'll be back in LA to

05:27really get stuck into it.

05:29Do you have anything that's kind of influencing you or inspiring you lately that might feed

05:33into what you're going to do on the album, do you think?

05:35Not really.

05:37It's all so early, so I'm constantly inspired by shit around me and writing lines of lyrics

05:42or song title names in my phone or singing ideas into voice memos.

05:49And I've written a few songs already that I just have on voice memos, so whether they

05:54get used or not, I don't know.

05:56I've started the very early stages.

05:58Yeah.

05:59We'll just have to wait a bit longer then.

06:01Yeah.

06:02You mentioned earlier your Taylor Swift cover as well, which your mum started a petition

06:05for you to join Taylor on the IRIS tour in Australia.

06:08She did.

06:09It didn't work.

06:10But it was cute and adorable.

06:12It was cute.

06:13And it was very sweet of mum to do that.

06:15Yeah.

06:16What was your reaction when you saw that she had first done that?

06:19Well, it was a pretty dodgy website.

06:22It's like she Googled how to make a petition and just like picked a random...

06:28It wasn't like one of the known petition websites.

06:33It had pop-ups everywhere like it was a shitty one.

06:37So it was funny.

06:38It was just really cute.

06:40And she posted it in my hardcore fan group that she talks to them every day.

06:47Cute.

06:48My core fan group, she's talking to them every day, which is so cute and it's adorable.

06:53Yeah.

06:54You did get some approval from Taylor on the Cool Summer cover, of course, even though

06:58you didn't get to join the IRIS tour.

07:00What was it like to have that approval from Taylor Swift?

07:03It brought me to tears.

07:05It was the coolest thing.

07:07Covering any artist's song and getting the tick of approval from them is...

07:12It was beyond my wildest dreams.

07:15There we go.

07:16Cheeky little...

07:17Love it.

07:20The Swifty fans will get it.

07:22But yeah, it was something that I didn't ever think would happen.

07:27I never thought that she'd see it.

07:30Maybe next tour you'll get the invite.

07:32Maybe.

07:33I went to a lot of the shows this tour, IRIS tour, and fuck, it's a good show.

07:39So good.

07:40What was your favourite bit?

07:42Reputation.

07:43When the snake...

07:44Yeah, so good.

07:46Fuck, it's cool.

07:48Amazing.

07:49Well, thank you so much.

07:50It was lovely to speak to you.

07:51No stress.

07:52Thanks for having me.

07:53Enjoy the rest of your time here.

07:54Will do, mate.

07:55See ya.

07:59Bye.

Category

Transcript

Recommended