After a solid year-and-a-half of asserting herself as one of Australia’s most exceptional musicians, Melbourne’s G Flip has now released her highly-anticipated debut album, About Us.
Having risen to fame as session drummer and a member of EMPRA, 2018 saw Georgia Flipo step into the spotlight as a solo artist, uploading her first tracks to triple j’s Unearthed after a solid year of writing, recording, and producing.
Almost immediately, her profile exploded, with critics all over the world labelling G Flip as one to watch. Chuck in a performance over at SXSW, and before long, this Melbourne musician was well on the way to becoming a household name.
In the time since, it’s been almost impossible to avoid seeing G Flip’s name adorning festival bills both here and abroad, or her music being pumped out of stereos around the country.
Now, after the release of a half-dozen singles, August 30th sees About Us, the debut album from G Flip, hitting the racks in record stores around the world.
To celebrate the album’s release and its accompanying tour, we caught up with this phenomenal artist to gain an insight into everything that’s been going on in the last few years.
Check out ‘Stupid’ by G Flip:
You’ve obviously completely blown up over the last couple of years. How does it feel realising a dream that you’ve had for so long?
It’s pretty crazy, and it’s happened so quickly, and I’m so grateful. People have probably seen it unfold very quickly, but I’ve been working at this for years and years and been in so many bands that had never quite made it, so it’s awesome to finally say that I’m a full-time performer, song-writer, musician, producer, whatever I am.
I think the first time I fully felt like I did it was when… you know when you have an incoming passenger card when you come into the country and it says your occupation, and you’ve got to write it in? I got to write ‘musician’, and seriously got to write it because that’s my job, and I was fully so ecstatic, and realised that it was so cool that this was happening and this is what I do now, because it’s a dream that I worked so hard towards my entire life.
You’ve said in the past that your love of music began at a young age. So when was it that you decided that music was really what you wanted to do with your life?
I think I knew from quite a young age. I always loved music and loved collecting CDs and loved going to Sanity and buying singles, and was always interested in music. Then, I grew a love for instruments.
I used to collect the magazines from Billy Hyde and the local music shops around me, and just would look at equipment, and just want to know what all the equipment did, and even what an interface does, or what the difference between a condenser mic and dynamic mic. I was always interested in equipment from a young age.
I got my drum kit at nine years old, and then I was absolutely infatuated by the drums from that day. Then started teaching myself keyboard and guitar at about fourteen, and then I started writing my own songs around then, and teaching myself basic chords. I’ve played drums my whole life. I went and studied a bunch of music after high school, and always played drums in heaps of bands, and session work as a drummer.
I feel like in my whole life there’s always been, from as early as I can remember, this love for instruments, and music, and sounds, and emotions you feel from music.
Check out G Flip’s ‘I Am Not Afraid’:
Your whole musical story of realising what you want, going out to get it is really inspirational. Do you have any advice for aspiring musicians who hear your story and they wish to follow?
I think my advice would be that nothing comes easy. You have to work really, really, really hard for it. I think a lot of people think that I uploaded a song to Unearthed and then the rest is history, but I wrote around two-hundred songs so I could get the best song possible. I spent a year producing and writing.
I’ve always gone with this mentality that I want to work as hard as I can at this and then if it doesn’t work out, it’s okay — you’ve tried your hardest, and you can’t do any better. You can’t think twenty years down the track, “fuck, I wish I worked harder to try to get there”.
So, if you work your butt off, and try your absolute hardest, you have your best shot of it working out for you.
My advice would be that you’ve got to work really hard and go to the extra length. I guess for me, I manifested a lot and spent a lot of time with myself manifesting and working and believing that I can make this happen for myself. I had made songs of just vocal and piano or vocal and guitar and sent it out to producers at the end of 2016 and no one emailed me back.
For other people, they may be discouraged by things like that and say, “fuck this, I won’t do it anymore,” but I was just like, “fuck it, I’ll just have to do it myself,” and I started teaching myself. I’ve played the instruments, but I didn’t know how to record, and I didn’t have much knowledge about plug-ins and compressors, and EQ’s and et cetera. It’s like a never-give-up attitude, manifest, and work your arse off.
Looking at the new record, you said in the past that it was inspired by an on-again-off-again relationship. Did you find it hard to discuss heavy, personal topics in your music? Or, did it just come naturally?
It came very naturally. As a human being, I’m very open, I’m very honest, and I don’t shy away from the details in my life. If we went out for a beer, I would just tell you everything straight away. I don’t refrain from information a lot.
So, when it came to writing it was just like, “how do I feel right now? What do I have to say?” It was very quick, like I didn’t second guess. When I write, I don’t second guess anything. It just comes out very fluid.
Check out G Flip’s ‘Killing My Time’:
Was the creative process of the record in the same vein? Were all of the songs written with the intent of being a cohesive part of the album?
Every song of the story is, kind of, very different. There are some songs on the record that I just made in my room, and the songs that I find are the best are the ones that come together the quickest. Like, ‘About You’ was a couple of hours — the production isn’t that detailed. Same with the track called ‘Morning’; that came together very quickly in my bedroom.
Then, other songs I made as a demo in my bedroom I wasn’t as pleased with the production, and I thought I could use another brain on this. I would collaborate with a producer, and bring in my stems and then pull apart my stems, and maybe add some new stuff, and keep some of the parts we like, and go from there.
But every single song kind of has its different story. I’d have part of the songs that I’d finish and then I realised that if I put the songs in order, it was the story of my on-again-off-again relationship, and then put the songs in an order to tell how it went. If you listen from it from top to bottom, then by the end you can tell if we made it through the bumps, or not.
Is there any song from the record that you look back at as a personal favourite, or as one that has the most meaning to you?
Definitely my favourite is ‘Two Million’, the closing track of the record. It’s by far my favourite. By far.
Check out G Flip’s ‘Bring Me Home’:
Going on from how you were saying that in your early days, it was all about hustling and putting yourself out there. After having so much success with your early singles, was it nerve-wracking to focus on an album?
There was actually zero stress with the idea of an album. I had all of these songs that I had written in a low-stress environment because it was before I blew up, so the majority of these songs I wrote in 2017 before anyone knew me, and I was just in my bedroom.
I’ve been asked quite a lot if it was hard to get this record together, and to me it wasn’t hard at all. I feel like I had a record before I even put ‘About You’ out in the world, so it hasn’t been stressful at all. It’s been pretty chill.
For me, most people would think I’d put an EP out, but there was just this bunch of songs that really told a story, and they all feel like they’ve come from the ‘bedroom era’ of me, so it just felt right.
Have you been surprised at how well you’ve been received over in the US as well?
I have been pretty surprised. I was at Lollapalooza recently, which is a massive festival. When I saw the bill, I thought it was a joke. I thought one of my friends had copy and pasted my name onto the line-up just as a prank.
Ariana Grande, Flume, Childish Gambino were all headlining, which it is crazy to even see my name on with them. It’s something that I’ll have to get printed and put in the pool room when I’m older.
It’s been surprising. Going over to a completely unknown place, and there’s people in the audience singing your songs back to you is so amazing, but in terms of really cracking the US, I don’t think I’ve successfully done that yet. I think there’s still a lot of hard work to go.
Are there any specific songs that actually resonated better over in the US than here?
I feel like when I’m on stage I’m so into what I’m doing and just trying to perform my best that I haven’t gauged the crowd on what they’ve gone off to. I feel like when we play ‘About You’ last and I have that big drum solo, everyone sings along.
I think the thing that most audiences globally get hyped for is when I do a drum solo, whether it’s inside or outside of a song. In between my songs, I’ll just start going H.A.M. on the drums, and everyone always seems to go wild when I do that. The drum thing seems to be a huge crowd favourite.
Check out G Flip’s ‘About You’:
Once the album is out, you’ll have an album tour coming up. Already a lot of dates have sold out and the tour has gotten larger. How does that feel to have such a positive response back home and have so many people keen to see you and hear your music?
It’s so lovely and so humbling. The majority of the songs I just played to the walls in my bedroom dreaming that one day there’d be faces to play them to. To now have faces singing the words back is just the biggest dream come true and it’s so amazing.
I feel really thankful because people are literally paying their hard-earned money to let me entertain them for an evening. They’re putting themselves in my hands and it’s my job to entertain them and make them leave the gig feeling amazing.
That trust that they have in buying those tickets is just so beautiful and so lovely, and I just have to keep that trust going, and really perform my arse off so they walk away being like, “yeah, that was worth spending that forty bucks on!” I’m so thankful.
A lot of the people that come to my shows have already seen me, so them coming back is even more of a compliment and it’s so awesome and so lovely.
Is there anything special up your sleeves for the upcoming album tour?
Oh yeah! Definitely! I’m writing a few arrangements, and I’m going to make it more crazy and playing new material as well that isn’t on the record. I’m hoping for a few little surprises here and there in each show.
I can’t wait to get out there and see how the new show goes and how some of the new songs that I have coming after the record, how they’re received.
G Flip’s About Us is out now.
Check out ‘Drink Too Much’ by G Flip:
G Flip Aussie Tour Dates 2019
Thursday, November 7th (Sold Out)
(With Stellie)Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide, SA
Friday, November 8th (Sold Out)
(With Pinkish Blue)Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide, SA
Saturday, November 9th (Sold Out)
(With Dulcie)Fremantle Social, Fremantle, WA
Friday, November 15th (Sold Out)
(With Shannen James)The Croxton, Melbourne, VIC
Saturday, November 16th (Sold Out)
(With Asha Jeffries)The Triffid, Brisbane, QLD
Sunday, November 17th (Sold Out)
(With San Mei)The Triffid, Brisbane, QLD
Thursday, November 21st
(With Yuma X)
The Metro, Sydney, NSW
Friday, November 22nd (Sold Out)
(With Gauci)The Metro, Sydney, NSW
Thursday, November 28th
(With Shannen James)
The Croxton, Melbourne, VIC
Friday, November 29th (Sold Out)
(With Eilish Gilligan)The Croxton, Melbourne, VIC
Tickets on sale from 10am local time on Friday, August 2nd
Also appearing at:
Saturday, September 14th
triple j One Night Stand
Lucindale, SA
Saturday, September 21st
Sound On Festival
Perth, WA
Saturday, November 23rd
Spilt Milk Festival
Canberra, ACT
Saturday, November 30th
Spilt Milk Festival
Ballarat, VIC
