Brit Award winner Griff joins Rebecca Judd on Apple Music 1 to discuss ‘Vertigo’, writer's block and how she has grown since working on her debut mixtape. Griff also talks inspiring young girls to learn how to produce, working with Coldplay’s Chris Martin and wanting to work with Jack Antonoff and Max Martin. She also discusses performing at London’s Wembley Stadium, opening for Taylor Swift.
Griff discusses opening for Taylor Swift and performing in front of her fans…
It's pretty terrifying. The Swifties are just a bit terrifying. I mean, we are a terrifying kind. We're so obsessed with it and we love pop music, and it felt nice because it felt like I'm such a Swiftie. It felt like I was just performing to a room of my people, do you know what I mean?
In the stadium, it's so loud and it's so boomy. Every step you take, the sound in my in-ears was losing itself, so I couldn't even hear my click. I couldn't hear anything. With every step, it was a leap of faith because I wanted to get closer and closer into the audience, but every time I did that, I couldn't hear a thing so I was just hoping I was in tune and I just walked off and I was like, "Was that any good? Who knows? But it's done now.”
Griff talks how she has grown since working on her debut mixtape…
I'm maybe more confident and excited. There's something about an album that makes you feel like... It's weird. I kind of actually feel like an artist now. It's taken me on a whole emotional journey. There's nothing like making an album to make you question yourself and you go through all those highs and lows and emotions, and I think for me, so much of my self-worth is based in songwriting. So if I feel like I haven't written a good song, I feel so lost. And so for the past two or three years, I've been in that weird mind game of like, "Is this good? Is this not good?" And so I feel like I've really forced myself to make decisions and believe in songs and believe in this whole project, so yeah.
Griff discusses inspiring young girls to learn how to produce and looking at her as a role model…
I love the idea of it. I've had a few messages, but I've never really thought of it. I never really was aware that it was such a rare thing and I didn't know it was such untrodden territory until I was only starting to make music and everyone would be like, "And she produces," and I'm like, "Is that a thing?" And it's mad that there's still such a disparity and we do need to see more girls in the studio and behind the desk, so I will be happy to be a part of that in any small way.
Griff talks working with Coldplay’s Chris Martin…
It's probably going to go down is one of the most surreal things that've ever happened to me. Being in the studio with Chris Martin's pretty mad because I don't know, there's just no one like Chris Martin. He's a songwriter of a generation.
Griff discusses wanting to work with Jack Antonoff and Max Martin…
I always think maybe working with Jack Antonoff would just be fun just to know what it's like. He's really got his hands in all of the pop spaces at the moment, so maybe just for my own personal experience to know what it's like to write a song with Jack Antonoff or Max Martin would be cool.
Griff talks why she is most proud of ‘Vertigo’...
I struggled with writer's block and it was the first song that I felt like I broke through. I was in this house and I couldn't get any ideas and it had the spiral staircase in the middle, and I was talking about how it gives you vertigo, and I think that word must've been in my mind and it's funny, I just kind of love that it went from a stupid comment about a staircase to being the title track of the album.
Griff talks ‘Vertigo’ helping her get over writer’s block…
I was still writing. Honestly, my brain was so frazzled, I wasn't sure anything was good and I would just write stuff, scrap it, write stuff, scrap it, and it really kind of tortured me a little bit. It's cheesy to say, but this song kind of saved me from that moment.
