Glittering and swirling, UK pop artist Griff welcomes in her listeners with words that soothe hearts and beats that keep them dancing.
Written by Tasha Tziakis
Starting as a bedroom producer, to sharing stages with Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, and soon to be Taylor Swift, Griff is a true multi-hyphenate that has her feet planted firmly in every aspect of her artistic identity. Not one to shy away from the big tough feelings in life, Griff writes continually throughout all of her ups and downs, creating a journal-like feeling to her work.
Off the back from touring Europe and the release of 'Vertigo Volume Two', Griff is taking a breath before embarking on her Vertigo World Tour. Landing in Auckland this August, Aotearoa audiences will get to experience Griff live for the very first time.
In preparation for her epic appearance in Aotearoa, Tasha caught up with Griff and chatted all about her Vertigo project, fashion influences, working alongside Mura Masa and much more!
The notion of growth radiates heavily from Volume Two, whether it's growth from within yourself or away from others, that sense of joy in growth is a really compelling element. Is that how you intended for Volume Two to be understood?
Yeah, definitely. I think Volume One was about the really heavy and insular songs, and they weren't particularly like the obvious big pop songs at all. And for me, Volume Two was exactly what you're saying. There's still so much [of an] element of heartache and sadness in it, but it's almost like from the voice of someone trying to find like euphoria and peace and all of that. I'm so glad you can hear that.
When producing, are there certain building blocks that you start with every time?
What does your general process look like?
The general process is [that] I usually want to have a rough concept or a rough lyric in my head. I'll have that lyric in my head and then I'll usually create some kind of chord or synth line. You can hear [with] a lot of my songs, it's a lot of repetition. Like ‘Vertigo’ has “doo doo doo doo doo”, like that was enough to loop that. To write the song ‘Pillow in My Arms’, [it] has this riff that goes throughout it, that's enough for me to start thinking of melodies. So I'll loop a bit of synth, probably do like half an hour of improvisation over it and then I'll listen back and cut up all my favorite parts of the melody and try and glue it all together, and then start building the track around that.
What was the collaboration process like with Mura Masa producing your track ‘Cycles’?
How did you all originally link up and how did he support and bolster your vision?
He's amazing. I'm like a really, really big fan of him. His first self-titled album really influenced a lot of my own music production when I was getting into stuff. So we did a few sessions last year just writing and nothing really came of it. But when I'd written Cycles, I was like, I want to try to send it to him and see if he's got any ideas. He came back and sent the track and it was amazing. And pretty much what it is now. There were two elements of the track, the kind of vocal chop thing and the drop and this vocoder line in the later bit, and I want[ed] to keep those bits in, but otherwise “do whatever you want”. And he did. And I love what he added to it.
Your lyricism really speaks to the fragility of connection and the strength that it takes to
boundlessly love. How was it having your fans sing those same lyrics back to you?
Yeah, it was pretty unreal. It's pretty fun. Also seeing what songs and lyrics actually are connecting live, there are some lyrics that you just didn't expect. Like people will just scream back at you a random verse [or] two. It's really interesting and heartwarming and surreal, for sure. And ‘Into the Walls’ was a song that I was really shocked to hear people really sing from start to finish. ‘Vertigo’ is a really fun one to sing together. I ended the set on Astronaut and that was a real emotional one to end the set on. So yeah, it's been really, really cool.
How does fashion, color and texture empower your live performance?
Oh I think texture is a big thing because I mean, again, I love these songs so much. I want to perform them with my whole body and being, so I want the clothes to almost support that. And I do a lot [on stage]. I'm notoriously [known to] run up and down and spin around a lot. So I want there to be shape, movement, drape and fabric to support all of that - like fluid movement and make me look like I'm, you know, dancing on a cloud. So that's why I think I'm always drawn to big dresses and shapes. And I think color is a big thing, especially at this level of touring. I don't know, it's maybe quite practical and not creative for me to say, but you don't have loads of money or production in these kinds of smaller venues. So really what you're wearing is what should be eye-catching. I think maybe I've been drawn to those kind of bolder colors because at least it's like you can kind of, I don't know, it sticks out maybe. And I'm drawn to a lot of feminine elements of fashion. So I think maybe that's what comes out in my palette choice and my shape choice.
Volume One had a beautiful live performance video element that took us kind of deeper into the dreamy Griff-verse aesthetics. Will you be doing something similar for volume two?
Thank you so much. Yeah, I really enjoyed doing that Volume One performance. I'd spent so long doing support and then around Volume One, I wanted to do some small underplay shows and I didn't know how they would react. And then they sold really quickly. So we were like, “oh, let's film something that kind of encapsulates this live experience for people that didn't get tickets”. So that was kind of like why we did that. I would definitely love to do that again for Volume Two. I think I feel these songs differently when I do them live and when I perform them. So yeah, I'll be planning something awesome.
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