G FLIP

G Flip makes the kind of high-powered pop music that could only come from the heart and mind of a drummer. A near-lifelong musician who took up drumming at just nine-years-old, the Australian singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist crafts every track with a deep-rooted instinct for rhythm and its potential to impact the listener on a purely visceral level. As shown on their debut smash single “About You”—a 2018 release named a Best New Track by Pitchfork, with Rolling Stone soon hailing G Flip as an “Artist You Need To Know”—the L.A-based phenomenon matches that potent musicianship with equal parts sonic originality, raw emotionality, and fantastically outspoken point-of-view (an element informed by their experience as a queer nonbinary artist). After achieving major success as a DIY sensation, G Flip now ushers in a bold new era with Drummer: a sophomore album cementing their status as a truly singular force of nature.

A thrilling evolution of G Flip’s 2019 full-length debut About Us, Drummer brings a newly heightened intentionality to their songwriting and sound. In creating the album, G Flip co-produced alongside the likes of Tommy English (Billy Idol, K.Flay, Fitz and the Tantrums) and Colin Brittain (Pierce the Veil, Basement, Royal & the Serpent), dreaming up a batch of songs built on a vast kaleidoscope of rhythms. “The idea was to make a record from a drummer’s perspective, so I started out by writing up a list of drum ideas and grooves to include on the album,” says G Flip, who also plays guitar, bass, and keys throughout the LP. “I knew I wanted a song with a shuffle groove, a song with a funk/breakbeat groove, a song with cowbell (because all drummers love cowbell)—the goal was show off all these different drum ideas, but always in a way that completely serves the song.”

On “Be Your Man”—the glorious lead single to Drummer—G Flip presents a heart-on-sleeve love song with a doo-wop-inspired 6/8 time signature, lending an aching tenderness to their expression of affection. With its explosive guitar solo (a first for G Flip), the slow-burning epic finds their vocals taking on an unbridled intensity that’s nothing short of magnificent. “I wrote ‘Be Your Man’ when my partner and I first started dating,” they explain. “She’d never been in a queer relationship, and society had implanted her brain with the idea that the fairy-tale ending happens when the princess finds her prince. That song is me telling her that I may not be what she planned, but I can still be whatever she wants me to be.” Meanwhile, on “Worst Person Alive,” G Flip delivers a soaring piece of dream-pop driven by a sublimely unstoppable groove. “It’s about how when you’re the one who ends a relationship, you feel like the worst person alive,” they say. “I wanted a song that has the urgency of something like ‘Born to Run’ by Bruce Springsteen, where the drums just keep chugging along like a train.” And on “Australia,” Drummer slips into a moment of folky minimalism before bursting into a gang-vocal-fueled frenzy in the song’s final minute. “I broke up with my ex and we never spoke again, so that song’s about wondering what they’re up to now,” says G Flip, who also adorned “Australia” with field recordings of birdsong captured by their stepdad. “I wanted to tell that story in a singer/songwriter sort of way, so it felt right to leave the drums out till the very end and keep it very simple once they do come in.”

Throughout Drummer, G Flip reveals the rare balance of precision and abandon they’ve honed for almost their entire life. Raised on everything from the Rolling Stones to Rancid thanks to their dad (a part-time guitarist who gigged in local pubs), the Melbourne-area native got a drum kit for their ninth birthday and later took lessons from a life-changing teacher named Jenni Morrish (a musician who died suddenly from cancer in 2015). “Growing up I struggled with my sexuality and identity, and Jenni was the first person who seemed just like me,” they say. “She’d do things for me like hide the key to the drum room at school so I could skip class and play drums whenever I wanted, and taught me how to separate my voice from my body so that I could be a singing drummer.” After studying music at university, G Flip kept up a hectic schedule of working as a session drummer, playing in garage bands, performing at weddings, and DJ-ing—all while quietly creating their own music on the side. “I taught myself piano and guitar in high school so that I could secretly write my own songs,” they say. “A lot of those songs were about being queer and closeted, and I didn’t feel confident showing anyone my music until I finally came out. It was like the drums were a shield for me—a way to hide in back until I was ready to grab the mic and share my story.”

 When their former band broke up after a tour of the U.S., G Flip took the long-awaited leap into a solo music career. “I decided to take a year to make as much music as I could, then shortlist that to the 10 best songs,” they recall. At the end of that year—during which they taught music full-time while writing, recording, and producing their own material in their bedroom studio—G Flip’s nonstop hustle led to the breakout success of “About You” along with such triumphs as making their auspicious and widely acclaimed debut at SXSW. With About Us released in August 2019, G Flip moved to Los Angeles in September 2021 and soon set to work on Drummer, approaching their sophomore effort with even greater clarity of vision. “When I was a kid trying to find someone to identify with, I would’ve killed to see a drumming pop star on MTV,” they say. “It’s something I’d been waiting for forever, and during that year I spent making music in my bedroom I realized I had to take my best shot at becoming the person I’d been searching for.”

 Now gearing up for their first-ever U.S. headline tour, G Flip hopes that their one-of-a-kind sound and sensibilities might ultimately set off a shock wave of inspiration. “I’d love to inspire musicians to make records with real instruments, instead of making drums on a laptop like so many people do these days,” they say. “I also hope my music inspires a whole new generation of singing drummers, or even just gets them to pick up some drumsticks. But mostly I hope that by telling my story, it ends up helping anyone who’s confused about their identity or their sexuality. I know that seeing someone like me would have absolutely changed my whole life when I was younger, and so giving people that feeling of representation has become the big purpose behind everything for me.”