HATC was fortunate enough to sit down with singer/songwriter G Flip during their recent trip to the UK from Australia. Having risen to success internationally with over 1 million monthly Spotify listeners, G is now Number 2 on the Australian hottest 100 records with their hit single 'The Worst Person Alive', a true heartbreak ballad. Surprised at the traction they have received in the UK, the singer tells me how excited they are to perform at the Camden Venue Koko this month, performing 3 dates whilst in London.  

 

Wanting to know more about life on tour, I asked G Flip how they had found touring, having such a full-on schedule, and adjusting to new cities, especially coming from Australia. "Honestly, I fucking love touring, and I love being in two different time zones. I love rocking up to different countries. I love everything about touring. I don't know if it has to do with my ADHD, but I love moving around; I could comfortably live on the road for so long. I like being somewhere different every day."  

 

Whilst passionately detailing the highs of life on the road, G Flip discusses the hardships that accompany the lifestyle, saying, "I think the toughest thing is being away from Chrishell, being away from my wife and trying to navigate having time apart from each other. But we always make it work. We're always flying to make it work."

 

Working in such a fast-paced industry, I wanted to know more about how G Flip copes, finding balance and living with ADHD.  "I find the biggest thing I struggle with is giving myself time off. I don't give myself enough of it. I'm working all the time. I'm awake at 4 am, and I'm working. It's something that I speak about with my therapist; who's always like, this is very unhealthy, and you need to have breaks. But then, at the same time, I find it really hard to have breaks. I struggle because I'm addicted to working and making music, and I've always got something on my mind. What's the next step? What are we going to do next? And how do we make the show better? And then, I'm all over the place all the time. So it's definitely something that I've been trying to work, more downtime and how to use it."  

 

Putting work and touring aside, I wanted to know what G Flip was doing during their downtime in the UK. Wanting to explore the culture, G Flip frankly told me the good old British pubs had spiked their interest the most, stating, "I made a rule that every day I have to go to an English pub. I've been trying to make that my daily thing. I just go have one beer, sit down, and enjoy the atmosphere. I just love the little pubs here."  

 

I always find learning about a musician's origin story intriguing, tracing it back to childhood memories that sparked my interest in music. G Flip happily detailed these first experiments with music and instruments, telling me, "When I was younger, the drums were just really cool to me, and I was like smacking things with sticks; it was so dope to my little hectic child brain, and I sucked at reading. It sucked with my attention span, and nothing could really hold my attention. When I discovered the drums, I would drum for hours; it was the only thing that held my attention. I was really good at reading drum music, so the music just became my thing."

  

Hearing how G Flip's love for music started with drums, I asked them if this was still an integral part of their creative process in terms of writing. G told me,  "It's always different with writing songs; sometimes I'm like, let's start from the drums; I'll sit at the drums, start playing, and then just sing out loud. There are a couple of songs in my album where I just set up my kit, and then the whole song wrote itself through me playing the kit. Still, there are other songs on my album where I just sat at the piano. I thought, what would Adele do - like, I want a chorus that can show off my vocal range and to really fucking sing, and so I just sat at the piano and just tried to go into like Adele mindset and write a chorus like that and then just improvise melodies."

 

G Flips' creative process and the great success of their album 'DRUMMER,' have made their mark. I'm curious to know what G hopes their fans take from their music once it has been released. "One of the biggest parts of my project, G Flip, is that I am the role model I never had when I was younger. I never had anyone nonbinary making music. I never saw anyone who looked like me playing drums and singing. I never heard any music that was she/her pronouns? Same-sex pronouns? I never heard anything like that. So definitely a big part of my project is filling that space I never had as a kid."  

 

Being a big fan of Taylor Swift's 'Cruel Summer' I absolutely loved G Flips take on the song, covering it as a recent release, I asked G Flip how the idea to cover the song, especially in this rockier style, evolved. "It was our pump-up song for me and the band that we played before shows, and a lot of the boys hadn't really heard it before. They were like, this song slaps. I was like, of course, it fucking does. So, it was always our song before we played on stage. We also played it front of house so the audience would hear it before I came on. We can always tell what audience is going to be rowdy depending on how loud they sing it. Also, during my US tour, we had so much time on the bus. I went back and listened to the whole Taylor discography, so I knew that if I was going to cover a song, I wanted it to be Cruel Summer. I just knew what I wanted to do with it. I heard these cool string arrangements in my head that if I were producing the song, I would add to make it more dramatic and emotional if I made my own version. Also, the lyrics are like, 'I don't want to keep secrets just to keep you,' and you know, for queer fans, that is our song. It's a song that hits home because we've all been through relationships where we've had to keep secret being queer; it's emotional. I think the whole song is a love story, and it's just genius in the bridge; it is one of the best bridges of all time, and it's one of the best pop songs of all time, and I fucking love Taylor."  

  

Reflecting on life as a working musician, one of my final questions for G Flip is how they deal with the enormous pressures of working within the industry. They assured me it's all about a strong support system. "I've still got the same friends that I had when I was a kid. Nothing's changed. My career has gotten bigger, but in terms of my friends and family, there's no difference. I'm still friends with the same besties I had when I was eight years old; my whole life, I have had the same high school friends, and I'm still hanging out with them, and we talk every day. I'm still friends with my childhood basketball team; we catch up every time I go home. So, I feel like I've always had the same stable network, which has made me really stable. Also, I have a great team. My manager is an absolute Rockstar. I don't think I'd be able to be sane without her, and she's so organised and keeps me calm, and she's so good at her job."  

  

After hearing about G Flips' exciting current endeavours, what with their current tour, recent releases and rapid popularity on social media platforms, I was intrigued to know what was in store for the upcoming year; they told me, "I'm really excited to write my next record, getting to write the new record and in between playing heaps of shows, and in between that, you know, anything could really happen. I did a cover of 'Cruel Summer' I didn't know that would be my biggest viral moment. I didn't know Taylor Swift would see it; it's enjoyable that I have no idea what will happen." 

  

In the meantime, check out G Flip's latest album 'DRUMMER' on all major streaming platforms! Current tour dates are also available on their website, gflipmusic.com  

​

Photography Nazrin Massaro