Getting Opinionated With Girli
Following the release of her latest album it’s just my opinion, Pleaser sat down with UK alt pop artist girli to chat about the record, her tour and everything in between
PHOTO COURTESY OF SHORE FIRE MEDIA
Over the course of her decade-long career, pink haired powerhouse girli has never shied away from sharing her opinion. Woven into her music and social media presence is a passion for feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, equality and inclusion for all. Her latest record is appropriately titled it’s just my opinion, lyrically tackling themes of empowerment, heartbreak and resilience. In the face of a bleak political climate and endless stressors in our current society, girli strives to express herself fully in her music, thus providing listeners the same outlet.
Fresh off a US headline tour, girli spent weeks in various venues across the country curating safe spaces for queer joy, celebration and tenacity. Fans donned their slogan t-shirts with hot takes or bold opinions and showed up to experience the community that girli has fostered over the years. Despite whatever they were experiencing outside of those venue walls, for the duration of her performance the audience was able to disconnect from it all and be immersed in the music.
Leading up to her next tour leg in the UK/Europe, Pleaser was able to catch up with girli to chat about this current era of her artistry.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SHORE FIRE MEDIA
Pleaser: We’re at the end of it now, but happy Pride Month! What has been the highlight of your June, of your Pride Month?
girli: It was actually genuinely a coincidence that my tour ended up being during Pride Month. It wasn’t intentional, it just happened that the album came out in May. The dates lined up. Being able to play to an audience that is predominantly LGBTQ+ felt like mini Pride celebrations. Every night was so beautiful. I did get to play my first ever Pride festivals in the US on this tour. I got to do Kentuckiana Pride, and Augusta Pride. I’d say, to have a more succinct answer, my favorite thing this Pride month was being able to play Pride celebrations in the US south. Seeing the resilience, the bravery, and the passion of queer people in the south, where I feel like they face the most discrimination in the whole country…They fight for their joy. It’s so beautiful to see.
One of the coolest things about Pride events is that they really show that there is queer community everywhere. Even if it’s just a handful of people having their own parade, the community is present everywhere. It’s been a bit since you’ve done a headline tour in America, what has it been like so far?
G: Yeah, I haven’t done a headline tour in maybe two years. I opened up for Scene Queen last summer in the US, which was so fun. That was great because we got to go to a lot of more B Market places, which I enjoy more. I think sometimes the major cities are a bit too spoilt for music, you know? They’re spoilt for choice. Whereas you go to smaller cities, and they appreciate so much that you’ve come, and they’re just so down to shake a**. That was really fun. But, yeah, there was a part of me that was a bit fearful before I announced this tour, ‘cause I sort of thought, is it time? As a really openly feminist, queer artist who’s politically outspoken, I did question it a little bit. Is this the time to come, should I stay away? I ultimately was like, no, it’s probably the most important time to keep playing shows and putting out music. It feels like people, myself included, need that space. Need to rage, need to vent. Joy, need joy as well.
I think the most important act of resilience is joy and music, yeah. Human connection. When it comes to your tour setlist, what has been your favorite song to play live on this tour?
G: I’ve loved playing loads of the new album. I love playing “Lifestyle,” which is a song that’s quite tied into pride and everything we’ve been talking about, because it’s about the pain of being with someone who isn’t as comfortable in their sexuality as you are. It’s about compulsory heterosexuality and stuff like that. So, that’s fun to play live because there’s a line that I remember when I wrote it in the studio, I was like: ‘I feel like fans are gonna want to scream this at the show.’ And I was right. They’re all just absolutely yelling. So that’s been really fun. But then there’s also some from the last album. It’s always a joy to play “More Than A Friend,” because that’s my biggest song, and it gets people going absolutely feral. There’s a song called “Nothing Hurts Like A Girl” from my last album, we play it with this really big intro and breakdown, and it’s a real icebreaker moment. If the crowd is at all stiff, it just thoroughly loosens them up.
Speaking of the new album, it’s been almost 2 months since the release of it’s just my opinion. Especially after being on this tour, how are you feeling about the fan response and reception to the record?
G: It’s been amazing. It’s always such a ‘pinch me’ moment when people are singing the lyrics to a project that you’ve just put out. That’s a crazy feeling. It’s so interesting seeing which songs people connect with, and seeing the passion. Because the album is called it’s just my opinion, for this tour I was like, ‘cool, I want to do a dress code theme around slogan t-shirts. That’s gonna be the vibe.’ I’m wearing a slogan t-shirt on the album cover, in all of the artworks. I thought it would be really fun.
I didn’t expect how hard the fans would go! It’s amazing, and people have just been wearing the most hilarious, outrageous, incredible slogan t-shirts to the shows. Every show I bring a fan up onstage and award them “best slogan tee” of the night. I think that has really felt… it solidified for me how expressive, opinionated, and loud and proud my fanbase are, which is so cool to have. That’s been a great response, you know, I see that as a response to the album in a way because people are really enjoying the theme.
I love seeing all the photos on social media of the fans with their different shirts. Some of them are so funny, I’m like, where can I buy that?! Such a fun theme. On the subject of the album, I wanted to ask about the opening track “Blue Sky,” specifically the chorus lyric “nothing but blue sky, in the place of the ceiling.” When do you feel like you are surrounded by blue sky? When are those moments that you feel the most free?
G: That song, I wrote it very specifically thinking about the overstimulation and overwhelm of technology, and living in a city. It’s almost like my digital detox song. In the last year I’ve been learning a lot more about my body and my cycles, you know, as someone with a uterus and realizing how much the modern world that we live in really disconnects us from our connection to nature, and can make us really ill and unhappy because we’re so disconnected. So I think when I feel I have the most blue skies is genuinely when I’m in a tiny little camper van, and when I take that out with my girlfriend, and we’re surrounded by trees and a creek.
But, I also feel that freedom as well when I’m surrounded by queer community, and that’s another beautiful feeling. When I’m in a room, like my shows, or I’m at an event and I’m just surrounded by gay women, and queer people. I feel my nervous system just totally relax. It’s this feeling of total comfort, and it’s funny because when I feel the most heightened and ill is if I’m in a room with no natural lights surrounded by men. If I'm on a tube train in London and I’m in a carriage and it’s like, 95% men manspreading… I feel deregulated as f*ck.
I completely get that! While you’ve been here in the US have you had a chance to check out any nature preserves or National Parks here?
G: Yeah! I’m very lucky that my touring crew loves nature. We love the nature high. We love to get a hit of nature when we can. We were driving through Pennsylvania on a day off, we all stopped by this creek and took a dip. It was amazing. I went on a hike on my day off yesterday, did a swim in a waterfall. I’m always trying to extract the nature wherever I am. Touring the US, I mean, there’s so much nature. Last year when I was touring through desert country for the first time, driving through Utah and Arizona, I was really trying to hit as much hiking as possible. I feel really lucky that I get to do that as part of my job, essentially. I get to be like, cool, I’m going to go play a show to a bunch of cuties one day, and then the next day I can drive through the desert and swim somewhere.
That’s such a nice balance, and it’s so grounding to go on a hike and just be outside. When you were writing this album, what did you find yourself inspired by?
G: I think I was definitely inspired by a lot of the music I grew up listening to. When I was a teenager, I was listening to a lot of rock and indie, and also a lot of very opinionated lyricists. I listened to Amy Winehouse, who went platinum in our household growing up. Arctic Monkeys are one of my favorite artists. I love Lily Allen. All of these artists who are very quick witted, and had real commentary on the world. I was lyrically inspired by them, but musically, the indie… I was a teenager just in the aftermath of indie sleaze, it was still having a real moment in London, where I grew up. I pretty much only exclusively listened to guitar, indie music.
Then in my later teens, I was like: pop. Pop AF. That’s always been what my music has been, but I wanted to incorporate a lot more live sounds, a lot more guitar, a lot more live drums on the album. And for the live set up, have more musicians onstage, that’s been fun. This album, I got my first rock playlist placements. I’d never been put on a rock playlist, it’s always been pop. So, “Slap On The Wrist” got put on a rock playlist, and that felt really right. This is a direction I’m really enjoying moving into more. Well, who’s to say, but I have a feeling my next record will be even more in that space, probably. It feels naturally like it’s heading in that direction.
Yeah, a natural progression into that kind of sound. Speaking of “Slap On The Wrist,” I wanted to ask you about your activism and how that ties into your work and career. With “Slap On The Wrist,” you partnered with Cheer Up Luv to raise awareness about violence and abuse against women. What inspires you to use your platform in those ways?
G: I grew up with very liberal, passionate [about] social justice parents, and a lot of my friends in school… One of my best friends in school, her parents were actual, full time activists, and I went to a lot of protests as a teenager. I was a young teenager, I remember being like,13 and going to Palestinian liberation protests, which is now like 15 years ago. I read a lot of feminist literature, and I was always passionate about that. I was in debate society at school. For a time I wanted to be a politician, when I was like, 12, when I didn’t realize politics are corrupt as f*ck. I always wanted to make change in some way.
When I started writing songs, that didn’t disappear, that always was a part of what I wanted to do. Having a platform… I’m a real believer in art is never neutral. Saying nothing is a stance, that is a choice. Choosing to be neutral is choosing to be silent. I think that’s always felt like a real responsibility for me. It just is kind of a no brainer, because luckily I grew up around a lot of really strong willed, outspoken people.
It’s cool that your music has always reflected your values, throughout the decade of you releasing music. My first introduction to you was “Girls Get Angry Too,” back in 2016. I found it so empowering and I feel like those beliefs continue to evolve and are present in your work. With being a decade into releasing music, how has your creative process evolved over time?
G: When I first started writing music, I would just find free beats online, on Youtube or SoundCloud, and kind of improvise over it. I’d play an open mic, I would just play the beat and sing whatever came to me. It was much more of just writing random words, melodies… I was a bit rap-py. I think now I’m a lot more involved. I’m super involved in the production. I write my lyrics like they’re poems. I started releasing music when I was 18 and now I’m 28, that’s an enormous period of probably the most intense period of growth we’ll have in our lives. From teens to late twenties. So I think as a person my lyrics and my delivery have matured and evolved. It’s funny, I listen to my old songs and I’m like, my voice has gotten a lot lower! It was quite squeaky.
I’m so grateful that people have been listening to my music. Every night, every show, I like to do this thing where I ask people to raise a hand, and I call out some different eras of my music, and say ‘raise a hand when you joined the girli bus’ or whatever. It’s amazing, there are some people who have just found me and they’re already so invested. They want to come to a show, buy merch, be a part of it. Then there are people who have been listening for literally 10 years, and they’re like: I’ve always loved everything you’ve put out. Both of those things feel so touching in different ways. It’s so amazing because fans are investing in your art. They are funding my career, by coming to my shows, streaming my music and buying my merch. They’re my little shareholders, my investors.
IT’S JUST MY OPINION ALBUM ART
I love that. Circling back to the album, I wanted to ask about “The Answer” which is the closing track. To me it feels like one of the most romantic and optimistic songs on the album, can you tell me a bit about the intention behind having that be the note that the album ends on?
G: I think that song, I always hear it being a really epic, closing credits song in a film or something, like a queer coming of age romance film. So, yeah, I wanted to put it last. It also feels quite 90s in its production, it feels like it would be in one of the films I grew up watching, I can imagine it in 10 Things I Hate About You or something. So I just thought it was a really epic and sweet closer. I mean, choosing an order for an album is one of my least favorite things to do, so there is also just a point where I’m like, this will do!
It does have a cinematic feel to it, and wraps up the album perfectly. My last question for you today is when it comes to that’s just my opinion, what do you hope listeners take away from it?
G: I always hope people take away a feeling of empowerment from my music, a feeling of validation that their experiences aren’t isolated. I think music has always been a way of feeling less alone in my own emotions and feelings, writing music and listening to other music. I hope people will feel that they can relate. I hope people will feel empowered. I hope people feel that they can be themselves when they’re listening, when they’re at my shows, and when they’re in whatever space my music created for them.
