I guess I never thought I would be like someone who really was attached to the mainstream that much, which is funny, which is why I think I found the Brits quite an amazing but like an accelerated experience, because I never thought I wrote pop songs for the charts.
Go hit it. Evening, folks, welcome to another new episode of Midnight Chats, our music interview podcast for late night listening. My name's Greg. I'm here with Stu. Stu, what is the big news in your world? Well, I've been moving house, so I've just mainly been a ball of stress. But I think I've turned a corner now now that I've moved, I'm feeling a lot better.
We've had a very busy time here on the podcast as well. Thank you to everyone who listened to our Brian Eno episode last week. I did very well, including getting some shares on David Bowie's Instagram account, which was nice to see.
This week, I've recorded.
Two new episodes, one of which is going to be next week's episode. We're going to turn that one around quickly and we're going to hold onto the other one for a bit later down the line. But let's talk about tonight's episode, Greg, because you spoke to Griff, and I'll be honest, before I listened to this, I didn't know that much about Griff myself. I didn't know much
about her background or what she's been up to. And in case there is anyone tuning in who is in a similar boat to that, tell us a bit about Griff herself, and also why you wanted to talk to her, because you've wanted to speak.
To her for a while. Well, I've wanted to speak to Griff. I've been excited to meet Griff ever since I saw her performance on the brit Awards, which was back in twenty twenty one. She played her song black Hole, which is a pop banger, and I was just flawed because I don't remember a new artist ever delivering such like an accomplished, impactful performance at the Brits. Basically, she looked like she'd been doing this for like twenty years, and I just from that was like, wow, like this
is somebody really really special. If you haven't seen that BRIT's performance, it is on YouTube. Griff says that she can't bear to watch it, but I've put a link in the show notes. If you haven't seen it and you can go and have a look at it, along with some of the other things that we mentioned in this conversation.
I do remember that performance and how amazing it was, and for someone who is still so young as she is now, when she was talking to you, it really sounded like she's someone who just knows exactly what she wants to do.
Oh definitely. I think she's twenty three now and she's super grounded. They didn't seem to be sort of you know, it wasn't anything kind of mechanical about her, if you know what I meant. So she was just really really open and just really really lovely to chat to. But the big news is that she's just announced her debut album and it's going to be coming out on the nineteenth of July, and it's called Vertigo. And she's announced a big tour later in the year, playing some massive venues.
So that's exciting because like her show is immense as well, so it's basically it's going to be a big year for Griff. Here.
It is then Greg talking with Griff on tonight's episode of Midnight Chats. If you're new to us here, welcome. If you've been here, before welcome back. Thank you for listening to Midnight Chats. We love making this podcast. If there's one thing you can really do to help us and to help the show is simply tell a friend force them to listen. That's the way that this podcast is going to grow and we're going to get more
people listening to it. So if you are enjoying the episodes, please do tell your friends who like music all about it and join us on social media. We've sort of ditch TikTok to be honest, but we are on Instagram Midnight Chats Pod. There's lots of clips there. We're put some bits of Griff, there's some stuff from the Emo episode last week. Before that we had MGMT. We're trying to ramp that up a bit and have a bit of fun with it. So join us over there Midnight
Chats Pod. For now, though, here is Griff on Tonight's episode of Midnight Chats.
This will obviously exist in the world in a future time. But today is release date. Well no, I shouldn't probably say that, actually, but anyway, it's been a hectic day, but it's good feeling.
I think we can say it's release day. It's fine. Because people will understand that we've done this in the past. We're speaking to our future selves. Yeah exactly, miss me too. You're going to be sharing it later on today.
Yeah exactly.
The release days feel exciting? Do they feel stressful?
Do they feel I'm getting better at them?
I don't love them. They're not fun.
There's no part of me that wakes up and goes, oh yeah release day because they're stressful, and there's usually lots to do and you're usually just pretty nervous about how it's going to be received, and it's the moment where as song has been sitting on your laptop forages and then is out in the world.
So yeah, fantastic, all and all. Happy to be here.
What a start of the year that you've had though, twenty twenty four, Well, we're not far into it. You've packed it in.
It's been busy. Yeah.
Yeah. So you celebrated New Year pretty much on stage in Australia, Is that right?
Well researched.
Yeah, I went to Australia twice in January, which is just suicidal.
Really my god, I know.
So what out there back again?
Yeah?
Yeah yeah yeah.
How is your jet lag?
Yeah?
Brutal I mean I did so. I did a festival out there for New Years, which was fine. It's my first time ever in Australia. Came back, finished a bunch of music, then went back out to like Asia and Australia and then America and then here I am back.
To release some music.
On the upside, you must have seen pretty much every film that, like the airline has to offer, now, do you know?
I try my best not too And I'm a sleeper.
I can sleep anywhere on anything at any time of day, so I actually don't by the time I wake up, I haven't gotten around to like seeing the entertainment.
I'm so jealous of that. So you can you could get on a pretty much and fall asleep.
Yeah yeah, Like if you gave me fifteen minutes right now, I would probably be out so.
Many artist to be listened to this going, Like, I'm so jealous because like the touring thing is had brutal and so like if you can catch a nap when you're in the airport, and.
That's fine, yeah, it helps the jet.
Like like usually I can usually be anywhere if I can just I can power up, if I can power up forty five minutes.
I'm pretty good. Yeah, that's what my days look like.
Yeah. So seeing in the New Year on stage, have you ever done anything? What's what would you have normally been doing?
I probably would have been chilling with some girlfriends. I've never done New Year's abroad, let alone in a hot place. That was kind of freaky, but it was really nice. I was out there with Holly up Well, we happened to both be on the same lineup, so I think we just were like, let's buddy up.
And be friends.
So yeah, we got wasted and pop champagne on the stage, which was really fun. The footage is actually terrible though, because you can tell we're not party girls and we're absolutely amateurs. We were like, yeah, let's pop some champagne, and then when you look back, we clearly forgot to do the thumb over the thing, so we were essentially just pouring the bottle on all these cables.
But it was nice.
It's fun, but that's something you could get used to that, I mean, learning how to pop champagne, Like, yeah, I.
Know, who would have thought I need to know that? I know.
So after that, I mean, you, like you said you were in the Far East, doing some shows, and then you went to the States.
I did Grammys, popped in not I wasn't at the actual Grammys. I went to an after party, which was like fun those things again, never been to a Grammy after party.
Lots of famous people, was there? Yeah, that's fun.
Any spots that you were like even outside of the music world, anybody who were just like, oh, I'm in the room with this person.
That room was it was mainly music people, but it was just like, who was it. I'm trying to think, Uh, it was like really famous. I mean Ed Sheeran came down, He's pretty famous. Yes, I think was there. Barry Kergan, the actor, thought he was there. The guy in Selburn, Yeah, that was that was cool.
Like Doo was there. Yeah. Lots of famous people. It's quite weird.
Yeah, and some people that you actually know.
Yeah, yeah that's true.
Yeah, yeah, nice like quickly say hi and then the music's so luge you can't even really talk.
But yeah.
Yeah. So this year has been Is this going to be kind of typical of how this year pans out? Because you've you're like heading overseas to play like some big shows. You're no doubt kind of trying to continue to write music, you're sharing music, all this stuff going on. Is that the kind of you're switching modes a lot, right?
Is that?
How?
Yeah? It does.
It's weird now, I think being an artist because I don't know. To me when I went into this, I always understood an artist's job in cycles. So you tour and then you write, and then you promo, and those those cycles last for good lengths of time, whereas now it feels like you kind of have to do all of it at the same time and there's no mercy. So yeah, it's like one day you've got your tour hair on, next day you've got your promo hair on and your social's hat on, and then next day you're
trying to write. So yeah, it's all happening at the same time. But I'm excited. It's been a while since I've released music, so it's nice to be back in the flow of it.
Definitely. Yeah, And we're going to talk about some of that music that you're you've shared recently. As we speak, it's it's Brits Week in the UK. Are you going this year? I am. I'm going to pop in, Yeah, pop in. I love what you say, popping. It's like as if we're going to sort of testa.
Yeah, we're just going to Tesco, pop in and see what the new kid, new kids on the block, you.
Know, pick up some bits.
Yeah, just wave to a few friends, take a photo, and then pop out.
Yeah. Yeah, as I was kind of looking forward to chating you to you today, I was had went back and watched your BRIT's performance from twenty twenty World and oh god, does it make you feel of it?
Like, yeah, that feels me the same nerves that I had at the time. I've never watched it since, have you not? Yeah? I think I watched it back once after my performance and then that was it.
Can I Well, I want to tell you a story about what I was watching it that night because I felt I must be honest, I don't always watch the Brits, but I was watching that night.
That seems like a choice since you're a music person, Is it because you don't go around to it because you like, I'm anti awards, I'm anti establishment?
No, oh, I'm a bit anti establishment. I'd like to think of as that was establishing. No, just like I think sometimes sometimes I'm kind of like, yeah, I want to catch it. In other times I'll want to churning out of it. And I just remember, I mean, first off, that was a weird year because it was like I was really I think we were all feeling like super hungry for music and missing it because it was twenty twenty one, so we were like emerging from lockdowns and
like COVID pandemic. So it had its own sort of surreal spin for those reasons. Yeah, but I just remember, I remember your performance. I was sat, I was sat on the sofa with my wife and you came on and I was like, my god, like you are it was so assured, and it was just so like it was amazing, like composed, and I was just considering that, like, you know, what a platform, what I like, surreal moment that must have been to find yourself in and like
probably undoubtedly super nerve wracking. Yeah, it was as if you'd played the Brits like twenty years in a row.
Oh that's really kind Yeah, so what.
So but you suggested that probably what was actually good, what was actually that.
Time is Oh, it was just so a lot because it's again I think it, like you said, it felt really extreme because of COVID. So I've sat in my bedroom for two years and then suddenly everyone was like, right, go on, like and We've all grown up watching the Brits and I've seen the most iconic performances.
So I was just like really nervous.
And then you're also performing for like a room full of everyone you look up to, and you know that there's however many people watching online and you know it's going to exist online forever. It was just it's like the worst recipe for social anxiety. I remember waking up the next day just like feeling so sick and looking like dreading looking at my phone, but also like torturing myself by like trying to look at all the feedback
on it. But no, I am proud of it and I am happy with it, but yeah, I can't watch it back.
Yeah yeah you should be. I was like, holy shit, that is incredible, Like what a performance, because I think, yeah, the Brits produces like those iconic moments, and sometimes they come from Adele and one spotlight and a piano, and other times they come from an artist that's like going to have been like new to a lot of people.
And that's that is one thing that I do appreciate about the Brits, but I think that was a particularly weird year because it was it was like not even half full, right, because it was social distancing and so like all the artists were there sat like little.
Yeah, it was really strange.
We were all really far away from a table not too much, probably the same size as this.
But I guess it's my only real experience of the Brits.
It will be interesting to go this year where we're properly free again, because I don't I haven't experienced the Brits and that kind of hey there you feeling where everyone's just getting drunk on the floor with Jack Whitehall just taking the make out of everyone, you.
Know what I mean.
I'm excited to experience that kind of Brits because it's it's been pretty covidly since so.
Yeah it has. And that that night was that when you first got to meet Taylor Swift.
Yeah it was. That was just like the cherry on the cake at the end of the night.
After I've done all the like again, first real red carpet experience, first real like press experience, did the big performance, got the award, sat down, Taylor go gets her award. She kind of like said my name in the mic,
just to say hi. That was scary enough. And then the night had ended and we were walking back to our dressing room and then my manager kind of took me on a detour and he was like, time to meet Taylor, and I was like, oh my god, and so yeah, yeah, I went into her dressing room, said hi, you chated for a bit, and she was really lovely.
Yeah, she was eating some chips.
She was eating chips.
Offered me a chip, did she Yeah?
It was lovely because people don't eat at those events, so I was relieved to see a whole rider full of chips.
It's great, yeah, amazing, and like yeah, I mean it's it's not just like big artists co signs and another emerging artist. You know, that's a night nice to have or a nice feeding because Taylor, since like your real kind of formative years of discovering music, has been like an important artist to you and something a big influence,
like her songwriting and everything else. So regardless of whether it's Taylor Swift or if Taylor Swift didn't have billions of fans, if it was just like your songwriting idol, that would have been like an important moment.
Right, definitely. Yeah.
Yeah, there are two layers to it where it's like, first you're being like recognized by someone who's completely at the peak of their game, but also yeah, being recognized by someone who I just really who raised my creative journey, I guess, And I think she's obviously renowned for raising a new generation of songwriters. But yeah, I was definitely there at eight years old listening to Fearless, So yeah, she's pretty amazing.
Yeah, she's doing about a billion gigs at Wembley Stadium.
This insane. It's like, how do you even get that big? It's wild?
Yeah, yeah, have you got ticket?
Do you know what? Confession? I don't, No, I know, I just I don't know the whole Like.
I never was never raised going to gigs, so I don't really have the gig culture in me.
And then I didn't This whole swifty cult is a new thing. I thought. I didn't realize.
I don't know, this is like a new thing, isn't it kind of the level of cult that swifties are. I was just on my way to school listening to Taylor Swift, obsessed with it. But I didn't realize there was like so much commitment with it. So and also I don't know. In my head, I just will be there.
I don't know. I'm just putting that out there. I'll find my way there, but I don't know.
I'm not organized enough to do all the cues and the pre orders and the pre sales and fight people for it.
I don't know. I'll just say a prayer and hopefully I'll make it.
You're just going to have to I'm just gonna have to be one of the supporting artists.
Well, Taylor, if you're listening, I need I need to see the show. So if you don't mind, just maybe instead of just a ticket maybe, Yeah, And anyway, I'll be there.
Yeah, I want to.
I want to talk about kind of background and your upbringing. You're from King's Langley, King's Langley, which is a sleepy village. Well, I grew up in Welling Garden City Fellow.
Half Yeah, exactly in the suburbs, Northwest Suburbs.
Exactly, not too far away for people that don't know.
For everyone that does, nobody knows exactly.
Kings Lanley kind of like punches in terms of like Anthony Joshuas from kings Lanley.
Yeah, we've got one or two claim to fames, Anthony Joshua.
I can't remember if there's any others.
And I guess we've got the Watford football team, which Alton John has made famous.
We've got Harry Potter studios.
In Watford been no, No, I've never been in. And also are they claimed to famous that?
I think?
I think tale has it that the Game of Thrones writer or something was on the train past kings Langley and that's why it's somewhere in Game of Thrones is.
Called kings Landing.
Oh okay, I could.
Be chatting absolute shit, but I think that's the rumor.
Yeah, King's Landley's doing all right. And then yeah, and so yeah, you are like one of you one of the most famous people to ever come out of Kingsland.
I mean I think that's I think the population is about five thousand people, so I don't know how impressive that is, but yeah, yeah, I'll take it.
For everyone else. Probably most people listening to this just describe your kind of King's Langley, kind of sleepy village, like very quaint, like beautiful little place.
Yeah, I mean it's pretty English countryside. I mean it's weird because it's proximity to London. It's like only forty five minutes out, but it definitely feels like countryside. There's farms, there's cows, there's old people, there's pubs, a lot of grass, and that's about it.
Like the churches.
Do you love a country walk?
Yeah? I love country walk yeaheah.
Country walk in a country pub is kind of all there is to do, to be honest, So yeah, not loads going on. Didn't actually resented it growing up. Not diverse or very white, very middle class, so we definitely and again the population is not very big, so I think as a family, we definitely stuck out when we went.
Yeah, because you're like, in terms of your family heritage, you've got like you've got Jamaican, you've got Chinese. First off, I would bet cuisine and like culture in your house is so rich with so many great things.
Yeah, I mean it's weird.
I only I only realize it when I get asked about it and talk about it in this context, because when you're growing up, it's just that's just home, so you know you're not there going oh wow.
It was such a culturally rich upbringing.
You're there going like I don't fit in and my home is weird. But yeah, I means Mum's pretty typical Chinese tiger mother. They're not quiet breeds of mothers and you know, very hard on discipline. Dad is again pretty stereotypically chilled out Jamaican Dad, two older brothers. Mum cooked most, so it's mainly a lot of Asian food. But I think Dad really brought in the music and the creativity, and I think music is such a rich part of Black culture, so I think that was ingrained in us
from a very young age. And then we also started fostering when I was about eight, so then there was a lot of yeah, kind of foster siblings in the house as well, so it was mad.
I have friends who are foster parents, and for me, it's like one of the most generous things that anybody can ever do. To be honest, I think it's such a warm hearted and generous gift to be able to like to welcome somebody into your family and make them one of your own.
It's a lot.
Yeah, I mean it's not for the week or what's the saying, not for the lighthearted. It's a twenty four hour job, do you know what I mean? It's not Yeah, it's definitely not like you a few hours of charity and then give them back. It's like they're there to live with you and be part of the family.
So yeah, yeah, you get stuck in.
Where did music become like such a big deal for you? Was it almost? Was it like something you had for you that was your time, that was like a that you could concentrate on, like a bit of a refuge. Is that how it emerged as something that you you got so engrossed with.
Yeah, I think it was that. I think I grew up. We grew up in church as well, so that was a big thing.
And like I just remember, like obviously the sermons were so boring and the music was the fun bit. So every time there was the praise and worship, it was cool and it was and I think I was fortunate to grow up in a church that had quite modern music as well, so it wasn't like hymns it was banned and it was like.
Proper pop chorus it is almost.
So I think that was like my first realization that I really enjoyed music, and then yeah, it became something that I think I felt good at doing and I enjoyed. Also, my parents were so the combination of like immigrant ethnic parents means that like, I don't know, it was very strict no TV in the week, and then also very Christian parents meant that even the TV we were allowed
to watch was very sheltered. So in terms of entertainment and like what you do with your spare time as a kid, it was like, well, I just played the piano then for hours, and so that became, yeah, like a safe place for me, I think, especially in like school, and I didn't feel that good.
About myself, and I don't think I realized.
It's only in reflection and in hindsight that I realized that I didn't really feel secure or belonging in school, and I think I kind of used music as a bit of a safe space for that.
So yeah, I think people identified that in your music as well and gravitate towards it. So like you're sharing in that respect to things really important, hope.
So yeah, I.
Want to kind of like bring things into into the present a bit more, or rather like bring things into the past couple of years a little bit more. Because we talked a bit about the Brits, like you're kind of there was. It was incredibly like accelerated everything that happened for you around like you know two thousand, two thousand and one, two thousand thousand.
And one when I was born, that was accelerated. Yeah, yeah, I wasn't in the world that I was. It was a pretty crazy experience actually, it was yeah, yeah, the world. Oh my god, here I am.
This is big. It's fast, it's fast.
Here we go and dad, yeah exactly, yeah.
No, no, yeah, I know what you're saying.
Around twenty twenty twenty one, you there was just there was so much going on, like you know, you were kind of taking your first steps in music and then very quickly like finding yourself on some like massive stages. In terms of the supporting Coldplay on tour, going on the Future Nostalgia tour, we do a leaper getting to play with they'd shearing like, how did you find those adjusting to those experiences stadiums and all that kind of stuff.
It was really intense, if I'm totally honest again, coming out a few years of COVID and then never have toured before and then straight onto a tour bus. I mean most artists will talk about how brutal touring is, and so to kind of go straight into it on that scale was a lot.
It was a lot to learn.
There's so much, so much of touring that there's no rule book on then no one gives you any warning of It's like down to the relentlessness of just being around people every day, you know, and building your team and like waking up to your like you know, your back line guy and your drama and in the tour bus, and then performing every night, and just the resilience around that and just like vocal training and performance and also to engage a crowd.
And then also like the.
Other side of it is that you don't make any money really, so then that's the whole thing. And then just being away from home and being away from family.
It was.
Yeah, I definitely felt like I was kind of in in boot camp for touring very quickly.
Did you bring any mementos back from many of those those tours?
I guess the one that came to mind is like sitting when I sat down with Chris Martin and listened to the music. I still have kind of the notes that he wrote down about all my songs and he wrote a lovely little letter just to encourage me. So that's something I'll always have. But otherwise otherwise, I don't know. It's also so lame. But because we take so much stuff on our phones, and I feel like all my memories are just like on there.
That's such a like gen Z thing to say.
But yeah, yeah, since you bring it up. Obviously, you went on tour we Coldplay. You got to spend some time with Chris Martin when you when you went to record Astronaut. I've met Chris Martin before. He's always seem very yeah, like it was very like warm and like very like humble and sensitive and quite generous guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And so what was your what was your experience liked?
Was was he encouraging? What how did he Because he's like very collaborative and I'm always interested to hear of like what artists are like in that mode, because some people are better at giving advice or encouragement or feedback than others, and like you kind of yeah, I don't know what Chris Martin's like in that scenario.
Yeah, it was pretty pretty nuts.
I mean, I I was, I mean, I constantly felt guilty that I was taking up too much of his time because it was so generous of him, Like firstly, like him offering to listen to music. I just thought he was being polite, and then it actually happened, and that whole day I just was like, oh my god, this is so not embarrassing, but like, oh my god, he's got so many things to do. He's Chris Martin. He doesn't have an evening to spend listening to my music.
But that was really he was really encouraging, and I think he.
Read me really well.
Like I was listening to the music so nervous, like I literally couldn't make any eye contact. I was staring at the ground. Stopped the music. He's like, chill, this
is amazing. Like he was so encouraging in the right moments, and I think he really it's amazing how he switches from like super social Chris Martin and then also switches straight into like music Chris Martin, and then suddenly speaking that language and giving such helpful music feedback, like that's the chorus, even though that you think that's your middle light, that's your chorus, or like that's actually the title of the song, even though you think that's the title of
the song that like that kind of perspective was really really helpful, and so yeah, it was crazy, but it's also I don't know, I felt like the whole time I was just trying to not think about the fact that I was in the studio with Chris Martin. But I'm sure then coming across like really really fucking weird. But I don't know, because I like, just be cool, be cool. But then I sometimes I'm like, maybe I was too cool and maybe I needed to be more like I don't know, I'm such a in my head person.
But no, he was I mean, yeah.
He was amazing, and he left you the message of encouragement. He wrote something for you, like a kind of like a little letter or something. Yeah.
Well, we sat down and listened to a lot of songs and so he was like, right, let's start getting getting like, you know, pen and paper. So he was like, you write down your favorite songs. I'll write my down my favorite songs. And then just at the end, he just wrote a nice little note just to say that the album's great, the music's great, and it's going to be great, which.
Is nice, amazing. That's gotta be framed somewhere right.
I know, I know, I actually found it like crumbled. I thought I'd lost it and I said, oh my god, no way have I lost the note. And then I found it like the bottom of a tope bag amongst a load of other touring shit. So no, I know, terrible. So now I've like put it on my side. I need to put it in a.
Frame, definitely. Yeah, that one needs to go in the in the memory box.
Yeah, exactly exactly.
Let's talk about your new music, miss Me Too. You released not too long ago. Love that track and it's kind of you described it as sort of something that came about in this sense of like rediscovering or questioning what it means to sort of come out of adolescents and just sort of reshaping who you are. Make it like kind of just trying to connect with that sense again.
Yeah. Yeah, it's funny.
Now when I talk about what the song's about, I'm like, oh my god, it's I hope it doesn't come across in a really cheesy way, because it wasn't. Yeah, it was a song about wanting to find yourself. I think it's it's more like.
I think along long the long old road of life. I don't know. You do kind of lose.
Fragments of yourself, whether it's in relationships or time periods, or you've lived in one place and you move, you know, you lose bits of yourself. And I think it's just about kind of retracing those steps and figuring out where it is you lost those bits. And sometimes it's good to lose a bit of yourself, and sometimes there's actually a sense of yourself that you really need to get back. And I think that's kind of what, yeah, what the
song's about. And that's why I love that the production is super high energy and hopeful, because even that the lyric is quite sad, I think there is a sense of hope where it's just like there's a sense of searching for yourself again.
Yeah, and you shared it amongst a group of songs, a collection of songs that make up Volume two of They're to goa to write those songs that might write and thinking you booked out some different airbnbs, and that's just because in the past you've done so much. You're writing at home in the space that you've created your like home studio.
Right, Yeah, So I think I think there were a few things. I suddenly felt pressure to write, which is a feeling I've never had with writing, because writing was always for me. And then like post Brits and everything, everyone was like, where's the album. I'm like, I don't know, I've been on tour, and so that dynamic was there.
So I think being in Airbnb's was me almost trying to trick my brain into feeling like I was in a low pressure environment, you know, because I didn't want the label to put me out a big, fancy studio. I'd be so conscious of how much it costs and the time and what I'm how productive it is that I almost wouldn't tell the label when I'm going away to write because it's it's better. I don't want people asking me, you know, from my homework at the end of the day.
And then also for some reason, I think I was I always used.
To be able to make music at home and make loads of noise at home, not feeling like I was being heard too much, and I think it was there was the element of just like my mum's so busy, my dad's out of work, my brothers and boys, they don't care like the screaming kids like I could just I could blast a song, and honestly, I would come out and it would be so hectic outside of the
house in the house that it just didn't matter. Whereas I think from COVID, things were so focused and intense, and Dad suddenly working from home and we had some kid changes, I suddenly just felt very self conscious about making noise in the house. So I just got I knew I couldn't right in at my family home. So that's kind of why I started just booking little airbnbs.
And there's a fun feature on it on.
The desktop version where you can, if you just scroll a little bit, you can filter in where a piano is.
Yeah, I know.
So that's all I do. Really, I just go on. When I knew when i'd get back in between tours and I knew I had like maybe two weeks, I would just put the piano filter on and find one that felt like it wasn't going to blow the budget, and then drive a few hours and then like, yeah, I hope it was tuned, and like.
Come back to the kitchen.
Yeah.
No.
I would send a message being like, HI, just checking the piano's tuned, and then yeah, I'd always like get there like immediately get there, unload my car from all my music equipment, put on some music, and then like reshuffle the house and like because if the piano is in the kitchen or whatever, I'd like move it, take a desk from somewhere, like put a lamp somewhere, like create some kind of on beance and be like, ha, this is this week's studio.
I've got visions of you like knocking on the neighbor's door just being like I'm staying. Do you mind how we get the I need to get a piano.
Yeah, no, No, I actually wouldn't try and ignore any neighbors because I knew I'd probably be making a lot of noise late at night, so I just thought I won't show my face and hopefully no one complains.
Yeah, did you find any like cozy spots? Like did you go anywhere in particular that you were like this is this is great? Like this is exactly the type of space I need to be creative.
They were all pretty kooky and pretty scary to be hones, especially because I turn up alone, So like the first night you'd be a bit eerie and like getting to know the house. But I think the first one I went in was Image in Heap's house and that was actually a studio r and her house is insane.
She was she wasn't there.
She rents it out now, but it's like I think it's one of the only roundhouses left in the UK. And it has this huge spiral staircase in the middle and all the rooms kind of circle all around it, and then the studio is in the basement and that was a pretty are in place to be.
Yeah, it's beautiful.
I've got a final couple of things I want to talk to you about before before we before we wrap up. But on YouTube you share lots of different stuff, one of which is like a series that you've been doing where you cover songs and you've been doing for this for quite a while and also done it with loads of different artists Georgia Sigrid sg Lewis like loads of people that you've kind of raped in to basically do cover versions. You set yourself an hour to uh to
basically recreate, reversion, reshape a song and share it. How has that gone? And like, in all honesty, when is it gone? What are some of your favorite times when you think it's gone really well? And what are the science times when you're gone, this has gone terribly wrong.
They're all really kind of a lot because it's quite intense. Sometimes I'm meeting the people for the first time I've messaged them or whatever, and you've got cameras on, and it is a bit like, yeah, it's real social anxiety.
I thought, what was a good one?
I thought the Birdie one became really good because the studio we'd booked was awful. It was like this horrible little box and you could tell that like people have been in their hot boxing it and like Birdie is so like quaint and gentle, and it just wasn't a beautiful studio at all. And anyways, we did Bloody by Your Lights and then I think it turned out really really nice, and a lot of people talk to me about that one. The Tom Adele one was funny because he kind of came in. I'm not even sure he
really had a concept of what it was. I mates with Tom, and he just kind of came in and quite Tom fashion was like I've got to leave in twenty minutes.
I was like, what the the idea is? One?
Tom?
So then I was like, get on the piano and then we did the Villie Eilish one, so that one was kind of funny.
I quite like the one did with Cigared was good because it sort of just all fell apart and then you were just like, Okay, knew, I We've got like fifteen minutes left.
But yeah, I'm trying to remember what song I did with cigarette Actually I can't remember.
Was it a Taylor Swift song?
Yeah, it must have been. Yeah, I think we switched.
Off with shoes and you were both really funny on that one. It was good. I think you both embraced the fact that it seemed to be just sort of going going shape.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I know.
It also depends how like I'm feeling as well, because like, I don't really produce very well under pressure. I need time and space and then suddenly I'm like ah, and then also like pulling up a terrible set synth sound and then hearing the other artists judge me it's just awful. But yes, it's fun.
It's called Against the Clock, I should say, so if anbody's going to check it out, it's on YouTube. And I guess my final question was just about like your plans and your ambitions for like the next kind of like year or two. I don't want to get like too far ahead, because you know, you've been, like, from what kind of outside perspective, you're kind of you seemingly quite prolific, Like you've been writing a lot of songs, You've shared like a quite a lot of music last
couple of years. What are you kind of like headed for, what what you're hoping for you and what kind of artists would you like to be in terms of like a level do you And it's an odd question to say, I'm just saying, like I guess I'm asking you know, is this really about like longevity? Do you really just want to like try and write as many like timeless
songs that mean something to people as possible? Are you thinking like I really want to, you know, have him shared a stage with Coldplay and do a leap and stuff. You're thinking like I want to play stadium shows or what's because you know, you're you're You're You've always said that you're so passionate about the song and songwriting, like ahead of like the kind of being an artist, being the kind of the face of it almost that I'm just really keen to know, well where you you like to take things.
Yeah, I've had to really.
Do you construct a little bit what I think is successful because I think at the beginning, I just I mean, I guess every artist is kind of their own worst critic, but I definitely thought be quicker and like an overnight thing. So that was like a brutal awakening. And then now it's like I don't even know what any I don't think anyone knows what success is, you know, like with short form, with TikTok is like even the way record labels are defining success, is it like how many creations it has?
Is it? Are we still caring about charts? Do we care about radio? Like?
I guess I never thought I would be like someone who really was attached to the mainstream that much, which is funny, which is why I think I found the Brits quite an amazing but like an accelerated experience, because I never thought I wrote pop songs for the charts, which I think I do, which isn't a bad thing at all, But yeah, I just want to write songs that I love and move people really and in terms of level, I don't know, like I'm so inspired by
the scale that I've witnessed, and I think anyone who does this is driven to some extent and wants to see and is competitive and like almost likes the sadistic challenge of like beating yourself. So I wouldn't lie by saying I didn't look at stadiums and arenas and get super inspired. I would love that one day, but I don't want to put that too much on a pedestal. Almost Chris actually said to me, He's like, do you write down what you want to do? Because he always
did that. He would write down, like I want to do Glastonbury, and then he did it, and that's one. It's a cool way of kind of I guess, manifesting your career. I would just like a nice fan base that are there whenever I'm ready to release a song.
I think, like Adele does that really well. I think.
Frank Ocean seems to have the most ideal cult following where you can just disappear and then reappear. Lord, I think does it. I don't think I desire to be this front facing, chatty person on camera, Like really, I never thought I thought I'd be a songwriter. I didn't think I'd be an artist, so I think the careers that I like the look of is like Lord and Frank and Adele and James Blake.
I could definitely see you having like watched your collaboration because you generously share it with the outside world. What an amazing producer you'd be and collaborator like for other artists when they're come to put their work together.
I would love that one day, Yeah, yeah, because that was really the goal. There's a lot of songs where I was I give it away, pitch it out, and I think I'm happy that I've landed here. But I honestly I find so much fulfillment and I get such a rush out of writing a good song that whatever happens after the day I've written a song, I honestly find so laborious. So whether it's writing a song for me or writing a song for other artists, I kind of just get gassed out of the idea of both of them.
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