Griff — the British singer-songwriter who has spent the past few years opening for the likes of Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Coldplay, and soon Sabrina Carpenter — has put her own spin on Charli XCX’s Brat breakout “Apple.
Speaking to Triple J’s Like a Version, where she delivered her dream-pop cover, Griff said, “I just think that what Charli’s done with this album and with Brat has been so inspiring.”
“It’s been such a cultural movement, and as a fellow female pop girl, I love it. I’m a big fan of it. I think pop can be so saturated with the usual, same-old lyrics but when you listen to ‘Apple’ you’re a bit like ‘hang on a second’, and then you listen to it again and you realise there’s more layers to it,” she added.
“I just think [Charli] knows how to be an artist. She doesn’t seem like she cares about what people think really in a sense that she just does what she wants to do. There’s such a style and a uniqueness to Charli’s writing and attitude that I love.”
Rolling Stone recently profiled Griff, along with Rachel Chinouriri and Raye, as part of the new wave of British women of color who are breaking the pop mold.
“I always saw myself and my career as being more of a songwriter,” the Jamaican-Chinese and British musician told Rolling Stone. “I don’t know if it was a conscious thing, but I didn’t ever see myself as someone that would be sellable or desirable in this space, because it’s just nothing I’ve ever seen.”
Griff grew up in a largely white, middle-class English suburbia, but her parents fostered children from every background. “I’ve just existed in many different pockets of culture, and I think that maybe I ran to music to give me confidence in the midst of me trying to understand where I fit in the world,” Griff added. “I knew that when I would sit at the piano and write songs, I felt at peace, and I felt good. I think often I didn’t quite know if I felt that in other social contexts.”
