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.
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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.