"My Brain Is Really Strange": How G Flip Turned Rejection Into Success
It has been a hell of a year for G Flip.
It was only in February 2018 that the Melbourne-born singer-songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist blew up triple j Unearthed with her song "About You". Since then, she has sold out headline shows across Australia and Europe, not to mention heading to the US to play Lollapalooza.
Basically, she hasn’t stopped to catch her breath. But as Georgia Flipo tells Student Edge, that’s just how she works.
"I guess I am always on the go, but I feel like this is just what I do now," she says.
"The people around me might tell me I should have a holiday, but music excites me. I get excited to have another song under my belt."
If there is one thing you should know about G Flip, it is that she isn’t very good at doing anything half-heartedly. Oh, and apparently, she isn’t particularly good at cooking either.
"Normal mundane things like cooking, I find extremely hard, but I find singing and drumming easy," she tells us.
"My brain is really strange."
While the musical powerhouse might lack culinary skills, she certainly does not lack drive. Somewhere between the incessant performing and travelling, G Flip has had time to put together her highly anticipated debut album, About Us.
"The whole album is just an open and honest account of my up and down relationship," she says, referring to her on-and-off relationship with her girlfriend, Jemma.
While some artists are notorious for wanting to keep their relationships private, G Flip is happy to share both the good and bad details about her life. As she tells us, she has even been guilty of oversharing on many occasions.
"I definitely overshare information and tell people everything that’s going on in my life, when they don’t even want to know. I don’t hide, I don’t have any secrets. With writing, I wouldn’t know how to not write honestly."
And G Flip’s music really is refreshingly honest. But it’s not just the lyrics on About Us that reflect the turbulent nature of her relationship; it’s the drumming. The massive drum-fill in "About You" cement her commitment, while the drums in "I Am Not Afraid" set her free, empowering others to take control of their own narrative.
"I know that 'I Am Not Afraid' has touched people; they’ve sent me messages telling me that the track has empowered them to give up that toxic human being, or to overcome that illness," she tells us.
Although G Flip might seem like an overnight success, she faced rejection from producers along the way. However, instead of giving up, she decided to learn how to produce herself.
"I sent my songs to producers around Australia and overseas, and no one wanted to work with me," she says.
"People would just outright say they didn’t want to work with me, or they just wouldn’t reply.
"I just decided I’ll do it myself. I’ll make my own film clip in my room with my little brother on an iPhone, and I’ll draw all my own single artwork."
Still, going from producing songs and teaching drum lessons in your bedroom to playing at Lollapalooza is no easy feat. When we asked G Flip what advice she would give to young people hoping for a career in the music industry, she highlighted the importance of taking your time.
"I think people can tend to rush things," she says.
"I really took my time and thought about it. I had made 'About You' at the start of 2017. I didn’t release it until a whole year later, because I wanted to make sure that if it was successful, I was ready with other songs behind me. I really worked for it, and if no one liked my music and it didn’t work out as a career for me, I’d still go to sleep happy knowing that I really gave it a crack.
"My whole life, I’ve felt like I can do anything, which we can as human beings. We’re the only ones that stop us from doing something."
We know G Flip can do anything, it’s just a matter of what she will do next.
About Us drops on 30 August, 2019.
Header Image: Supplied (Reuben Moore)
