G Flip Will Be Heaps Good In Adelaide
The countdown to Heaps Good Festival is well and truly on now and one of the exciting big names on the bill is G Flip. What year G Flip has had! Four new singles, TV commercials, sold out shows everywhere and playing big Festivals has set G Flip up for a massive 2023 with talk of a new album on the radar. G Flip talks to Hi Fi Way about playing Heaps Good Festival and reflects on 2022.
It must be a great way to finish off the year and bring in the new year playing a whole bunch of summer festivals?
Oh, a hundred percent. I feel like this is, I live in LA now, but this is always my favourite time to come back here, especially with Christmas, the summer festivals and the weather. I’m very, very happy to be in Australia at the moment.
Do you feel more confident now with now touring here and overseas now that things are getting back to the way they were?
Yeah, I feel like right now it’s the closest to what it was before Covid hit us. It’s awesome getting to get on a flight nearly every day, changing states, playing a show. It really feels like we’re back and we’re thriving.
Are you pumped to be playing a new festival here in Adelaide called Heaps Good being one of the big additions to the line-up?
The line-up is pretty awesome, and I feel like the people of Adelaide are going to go absolutely off, partying and getting around it, there’s some pretty big names up there that are visiting Adelaide. It’s going to be great!
There’s plenty of love for you here in Adelaide, playing Spin Off earlier this year must have been a highlight as well?
I’ve played spinoff twice now, that festival is always a treat and the audience is always great. So can’t wait to be back in Radelaide.
Do you approach sort of festivals any differently than what you would with your own club show?
I feel like the main difference for me between your normal club show and a festival show is that you set times shorter, so you put your biggest songs back to back and kind of squash it all in there, so the set’s really punchy. I find that I run out of breath easy, like quicker, so I always have to make sure I’m feel match fit going into festival shows because it’s like a huge workout. I come off stage absolutely knackered. So, I got to make sure I’m fit and ready to run around for a good hour.
Particularly at this time of the year do you start to reflect and look back at what you have achieved in 2022 because you have had another massive year?
Yeah, definitely. I feel like it’s always around this time of year, when you start seeing all the posts on social media about people reflecting on the year that they’ve had. I haven’t done one of those posts yet, but it definitely has got me thinking about what I’ve personally accomplished this year. Some of the personal accomplishments are not the things everyone sees on social media. I feel like for me, just my mental health this year, I’ve worked through a lot of things and this year has been one of the, actually I could say this year has been the best year of my life, both mentally and with my career. Working in the United States has been really fun and I feel like I’ve ticked off a lot of things on the list that I’ve had. I’m very stoked with how this year has panned out.
Do you put a lot of that down to happy relationships and everything clicking in to place?
For sure. I’m in a very happy relationship at the moment and that’s reflected on my mental health. I think just like in general for me, when you move to a new country you’ve got to make sure that you’ve got your support system and your friends over in that new country. It was a big growing year for me to be in a new country and make my own friends that I can rely on and find my own spots I like. I feel like that’s really a key when you move to a new city, making sure that you have your own back and you have your own life there. There was a lot of things that I worked out this year and worked out. I’m feeling very confident mentally about how this year’s panned out.
What are some of the little creature comforts that we all take for granted that you miss about being at home here in Australia that you don’t have in the States?
Definitely my family and my friends. I’ve had the same best friend since I was about eight years old, so missing them, missing my family, the beach. I’ve always lived near the beach here in Melbourne. Just knowing the streets, even driving on the side of the road we drive on and there’s nothing more comforting than getting on a flight home from the United States and one of the flight attendants has an Australian accent. I always love that, and I always let my ears pick up and I’m like, yes, I’m coming home now.
What moments when you look back on 2022 stand out proudly for yourself?
Ooh, I think playing at the AFL Grand final, I think that was always something on my list that I wanted to accomplish. Selling out my headline show in the States was awesome. Doing a few commercials here and there I think was pretty great. I always wanted to play drums like on a TV commercial because I knew that when I was a little kid, if I saw anyone that looked like me thrashing on a drum kit, it probably would’ve changed my life. So, that was always on my list, playing lots of festival shows around America and here. Playing my biggest set to date at Splendour in the Grass, which is the sunset time slot on the main stage. Also did that with a broken hand because I broke my arm thirty days prior. There’s so many highlights and I bought a house, which is pretty cool.
Congratulations, technically you’re an Aussie battler now.
Yeah! That was something on the personal list that I wanted to have my own place here in Australia. So yeah, it’s been all around a great year and I’m stoked with how everything panned out.
How are you going to top it next year?
Mate? I don’t know! I got to get thinking!
In terms new music we’ve seen four singles released this year. Are there plans for an album next year or is the plan just to keep releasing more singles until you’re ready for a new album?
I’m definitely working on a record and I think next year will be the year. Pretty confident if everything works on the timeline and that we don’t have any setbacks then there should be a record out next year, which I’m very excited about.
Sonically, are you going in a different direction from what we know and love or are there a few surprises in store?
I think it’s all pretty similar in the same kind of pop rock kind of vein, but I think what I realised throughout Covid is that a lot of my music I’ve released so far, only some of the songs have live drums or there’s only some moments in the songs that have live drumming. Drums is my main instrument. So when you see like John Mayer, Jimi Hendrix release a record, their main instrument is guitar, so it’s guitar heavy music, which I found that I’m a drummer, that’s my instrument of choice, that’s the instrument I think about and play every day. So my whole record should be, all this music that I release should be pretty drum heavy because that’s my instrument. The record I’m releasing is a lot of me with wooden sticks in my hands, smashing things!
Will some of those singles make their way onto the album or do you start afresh with new ideas?
I think that’s a decision I’ll make later once I’ve got the whole record in place and you can see what fits. Sonically you want it all, the themes, the instrumentation and the production elements to be very cohesive. I think that’ll be a decision that I’ll work out later in the piece of when I’m putting the record together, if any of the singles from 2022 make it on. Right now it’s kind of up in the air.
Are any of your musical heroes and influences standing out as significant?
I feel like I’ve grown up with so many musical heroes, listened to so much music and there’s been so many different genres and stars of music that have flooded through my eardrums that influences the sound that I make, the music that I make. I feel like everything growing up that I’ve loved or been inspired by or even the songs that I taught myself on drums when I was sixteen, like every single little element of music that I’ve loved, I think, leaves a little mark on me and leaves a little mark on my creativity and I express myself through music. I feel like all of it kind of ends up coming through me in some way.
Do you get much of chance outside of these summer festivals to take a break for Christmas and New Year’s?
I kind of struggle with having days off. I think it’s a problem that I need to work on. Like even right now I had this week off, but I decided to be a Triple J radio host for the week. I do have Christmas Eve, Christmas and Boxing Day off. Then I’ll be working and then I have about three days off, like the second to the fourth of January. I’ve got five to six days off in the next two weeks, which will do me good. Then I think I’m good for a whole other year and then I might get ten days off in a years’ time!
Do you kind of get a bit twitchy around eight or nine o’clock when you’re not playing a show?
I just can’t wait to get on the stage. I actually get fidgety because I’m like, oh God, how many more hours do I have to wait till I have until I can get on.
For me what is priceless is the footage of you riding around backstage at Spin Off you’re your broken hand which sums up that energy.
Yeah, it was hanging backstage and walked past someone’s green room and saw a bike. So I might have taken that bike from the Green room and then went for a bit of a spin. I had a broken arm at the time, so I probably shouldn’t have been doing that, but, yeah, I just have a lot of energy I think.
Beyond the summer festivals here in Australia, what’s next for yourself going into 2023?
Next year I’m closing out World Pride in March, which was very high on my list. I love celebrating Mardi Gras and Pride, so closing that out is going to be great. There’s a few more festivals scattered around next year and hopefully doing a few more shows in the States and releasing a record.
Being an avid Collingwood supporter how do you rate your premiership chances?
I think 2023 is our year, mate. I think Collingwood is going to smash it. I’m so excited to see Tom Mitchell up there with Pendleberry and Sidebottom in the midfield. I’m excited about some of these new players that have been traded in and I feel like I’ll be flying back in September to celebrate with the boys and we win the flag.
Interview By Rob Lyon
Catch G Flip at Heaps Good Festival in Adelaide on January 6, tickets HERE
Also playing Falls Festival on the following dates, tickets HERE
