DRUMMER

“There’s songs on this record that I just am not sick of, which is the first time that’s ever happened to me,” G Flip—Georgia Flipo—tells Apple Music. There’s a good reason for that: They really, really like drums—and there’s a lot of them on their aptly titled sophomore album. Flipo might be an accomplished producer, multi-instrumentalist, and singer now, but it all started from behind a kit, and every track on this record was inspired by their first instrument. “When I was making *DRUMMER*, I had a list of drum grooves that I wanted to try to write songs from—or if I was working with an older song, reference a famous drum part,” they tell Apple Music. Additionally, they plan to share their love of percussion with listeners (and budding drummers) more directly. “I also want to put out a bit of a drum hook with all the notation for the songs, from the entry-level beats on ‘Love Hurts’ to the more advanced grooves on ‘Didn’t Mean To.’” Read on for Flipo’s insights into each track on *DRUMMER*. **“7 Days”** “The big reason I wanted ‘7 Days’ to open up the record is because I wanted a song that started with drums. So the very first thing you hear is a snare drum roll. As a young drummer, the first thing that you learn are snare drum parts. The first thing the teacher tells you is how to hold the sticks and then how to just do single strokes on a snare drum. So it just felt right that the whole *DRUMMER* record started with just the entry-level military snare roll.” **“The Worst Person Alive”** “It’s about me! I was in a relationship that fell apart. I think that person thinks I’m the worst person alive, or I’ve heard from other people that she does. But for me, this song, I just love the production that we did on it. We made the whole song in my house in Los Feliz, every single part of it. I wanted to incorporate a never-ending drum groove that’s like a chugging train that’s just going along, like in ‘Born to Run’ by Bruce Springsteen.” **“Rough”** “A gospel singer named Erica, who’s a friend of mine, came in to do some backing vocals on ‘7 Days.’ And I was like, ‘What the fuck? We need to get Erica singing on “Rough” with me.’ So me and Erica, we recorded a lot of vocals in the bathroom because she’s heavily pregnant. Right at the end of ‘Rough,’ you can hear Erica—she’s probably due soon, what month is it?—and she’s like, ‘I need to pee,’ and I’m still singing in the background.” **“Good Enough”** “When I was recording this song, I was like, ‘Let’s just see how hard I can hold this note.’ And it’s very much a Max Martin-style production where you hit the last chorus and you just have a backing vocal that holds the one note for as long as you can. There’s a lot of singing on this record where I’m really trying to push the limits on my vocals—which I don’t know if that is the healthiest thing to do, and I definitely need to go have a vocal lesson to make sure I’m not getting nodes.” **“Be Your Man”** “It’s a queer song about queer love—and it has my first guitar solo ever in it! I feel like for a lot of people who’ve lived queer lives, you meet someone and you’re not exactly what they planned. For me, in my relationship, I was definitely not what my partner Chrishell \[Stause, reality TV star\] had planned. She dated men her whole life and I definitely was a wild part in her life that just sprung up. I feel like that’s a storyline that happens often with queer relationships, but also for other relationships that aren’t queer. You just might not be what someone planned—whether that has to do with race, religion, anything.” **“Baked”** “It’s about being high and getting a bit naughty with a girl. I moved to LA two years ago and weed’s legal and edibles are legal, and I hadn’t experimented much with eating edibles at all. This whole song comes from being stoned and it’s kind of realizing, like: I’ve moved to LA and it’s different. It’s not like Australia. Nearly everything is rhythmic, even all the synths I added. It’s got that Pharrell Williams-style, early No Doubt kind of vibe to it.” **“Real Life”** “I’m dating a reality star—and dating someone in the public eye, when you’re apart, it’s like there’s media and there’s articles. It’s this whole thing and everyone’s asking you, ‘How’s your wife?’ And she’s getting asked, ‘How’s your husband?’ (or whatever my nonbinary partner term is). So it’s always so much talk and everyone’s invested in the relationship outside of the relationship. And it’s kind of like when we are just together, it’s just real life and we’re so normal. The question we get all the time is: ‘How is it being in the public eye dating, and all this stuff?’ It’s pretty normal. We’re like every other motherfucking couple.” **“Love Hurts”** “I actually wrote this song mid-breakup a few years ago when we were going through some tough times. I sang it into my voice memos, actually. The chorus I sang in the bathroom. This song’s just a classic heartbreak song. There’s a bit of a 4 Non Blondes reference, too. So in 4 Non Blondes, there’s this rim shot that sounds so fucking good to my ears and it’s always been like, *the best rim shot sound ever*. I was trying to replicate that for so long. I tried so many different snare drums, different heads, trying to work out how to nail it.” **“Kevin”** “It’s based off a crazy DM that I got; some man telling me about how I’m a woman, I’ve got a vagina, nonbinary is made up, hating that I’m queer, I shouldn’t be with Chrishell, I should be marrying a man, I’m going to go to hell. I got some hectic DMs! I wanted to just make this character named Kevin. It’s kind of like a little play on the dude version of Karen. I had fun with the lyrics on this and it’s a fun, groovy song—I didn’t want to play to a click-track for this one so it kind of wavers a little bit.” **“Didn’t Mean To”** “This song is all about the Jeff Porcaro \[drummer, Toto\] shuffle. It is 100 percent a reference to ‘Rosanna.’ That was the inspiration. Imagine having a song where everyone hears the drum beat and you know exactly what the song is. The best drummers in the world can do that: Dave Grohl on ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ for instance. Porcaro is one of those. And the intricacies in it, it’s a more advanced drum beat. You really have to have control of your left hand and get every single ghost note perfect—and get your accents right.” **“Made for You”** “This is me talking to my drums—and ending the record with a huge drum solo that absolutely pissed off my neighbors. If you turn it up, you can hear me say, ‘The neighbors will be really pissed now.’ I’ve had neighbors complaining my whole life and I’ve finally become a pretty successful musician. I do this for a living now and they are still fucking pissed off at me. It never ended! And I think, for any drummer, we’re continuously fighting against neighbors or people complaining because it’s too loud, and that’s the way *DRUMMER* ends. It just was fitting for me.”

G flip’s new album ‘Drummer’ is a record guided by raw feeling and the instrument that started it all for them – read the NME review