G Flip’s new era is for the cowgirls, cowgays and cowtheys.
The Australian singer-songwriter and drummer dropped their new track “Big Ol’ Hammer” – an all-guns-blazing anthem – on 11 June to coincide with Pride month, after performing it at Mighty Hoopla and three European shows. The song followed on from retro-pop number “Disco Cowgirl” in May, which itself marked a departure from their previous, heavier sound.
G Flip knew they wanted to “Big Ol’ Hammer” during Pride as soon as they wrote it because it’s a fun, unapologetically sapphic and ultra campy ode to gender euphoria and queer joy.
The bold, tongue-in-cheek lyrics, “But I’m standing at Five foot five/Yeah, I round it up just like every other guy/I can be any size that you like”, leave little to the imagination, while the video is inspired by “Grease Lightnin’” and features queer favourites in a greasy auto-body shop, sweaty and performing a choreographed dance. The L Word: Generation Q‘s Jacqueline Toboni, podcaster Shannon Beveridge, DJ Kath Ebbs and comedian Fortune Feimster are just some of the faces you might recognise… if you can tear your eyes away from all the biceps on show.
G Flip, who is non-binary, says: “I wanted queer representation, non-binary representation, trans representation. Now more than ever, representation is so important but it doesn’t always have to be serious.”
Hot off of a roaring, and at some points emotional, set at Mighty Hoopla in Brockwell Park, London, G Flip sat down with PinkNews to discuss their upcoming music, homage to country and the state of trans rights.
Summarising their new era of music, G Flip says: “Butch Springsteen and masculine Madonna.
“The new record, sonically, is the world that I was living in,” they add, noting they have been going to queer line dancing in Los Angeles, and felt inspired by that as well as artwork of a cowgirl, and a disco ball, in their studio.
“Obviously country music is becoming – or is – so mainstream these days and it is having such a moment. Even just in fashion sense, like people be wearing cowboy boots, belts and hats.
“There’s definitely a lot of influence. Country music is definitely infiltrating, becoming part of a lot of pop music, or being influenced by a lot of pop music.”
The influence of country on G Flip’s new sound and aesthetic is undeniable, and they certainly aren’t the only one taking inspiration from rhinestones and leather, given Chappell Roan’s “The Giver” and Julien Baker & Torres’ album Send A Prayer My Way.
Embarking on a new era of music is daunting enough for any artist and performing new songs at a gig can so often feel like the lull of the set because concert-goers will not know the lyrics or vibe of a new track.
But that was not the case when it came to performing “Big Ol’ Hammer”. A rousing crowd-pleaser of an anthem that thrives on audience participation, “from the get go” the track has “just gone the f**k off”, G Flip said.
“Everyone’s picking up on all the cues, and everyone’s waving their bandana or t-shirts or their clap fans in the air going ‘woo!’ during the chorus. So, it’s been so fun to play, and to play a song that isn’t released, and it be kind of one of the biggest songs of the set was insane. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it and it went down really well. [I] didn’t expect that.”
Something else G Flip did not expect was the size of the crowd who came to watch them at Mighty Hoopla. After all, they “haven’t played that many festivals on this side of the world, and I wasn’t on the main stage”.
The fiercely passionate festival-goers who turned out to watch the Aussie artist, a sort of Great Sapphic Migration from all corners of the festival grounds, left the singer tearful and choked up, especially when the crowd chanted their name.
“I’m a really emotional person, even though I present maybe more tough,” G Flip admits. “I’m really soft, and cry really easily. My emotions are always at the surface.”
“And I just I didn’t expect there to be such a big crowd… I didn’t think there’d be that much of a turnout. Then, when everyone does a thing where they just cheer your name non-stop, and you don’t get a word in to talk, and you’re just about to play the last song and it just keeps going, it makes my eyes water and then I cry.
“I like being emotional, so I just let it out. I just wanted to thank everyone for showing up for me. There [were] a lot of people [who] didn’t know who the f*ck I was, and they stayed and cheered.
“So, yeah, I had a cheeky little cry.”
Having watched G Flip at Might Hoopla and stood among the crowd cheering their name so euphorically, felt like a queer little bubble, a world away from society at large, which treats trans and non-binary people like the singer, who loves “being loud and proud about being non-binary, using they/them pronouns”, with such contempt.
“I never had that representation when I was growing up,” G Flip reflects, “so I always want to be that for other people.
“If people feel they align with me, maybe they self-reflect and discover their gender, because as soon as you know exactly who you are, you know.
“When I wasn’t identifying as non-binary, I always felt different. I grew up and there was something kind of missing. As soon as I came out as non-binary, I was like: ‘Oh, I totally know exactly, to the full extent, 100 per cent, who I am’.
“[I] feel so comfortable in my skin because I feel so non-binary, so they/them. That’s exactly who I’ve been since I was little. So, now more than ever, with the current climate of the world, visibility is so important.”
Turning to current affairs – Donald Trump’s anti-trans executive orders and the UK Supreme Court gender ruling, G Flip declares: “It’s really beautiful that through these hard times, we’re having [one another’s] backs.”
Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.
The post ‘I feel so comfortable in my skin’: G-Flip on new era and having a ‘cheeky cry’ at Mighty Hoopla appeared first on PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news.