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British singer-songwriter Griff’s career has been an undeniable whirlwind. Less than two years after releasing her first single — and finishing her A-level exams — she won the Brit Award for Rising Star. Then she opened for Dua Lipa. Then Ed Sheeran. Then Coldplay. Then Taylor Swift.
In between those gigs, solo shows and music releases, she worked on the songs that make up her debut album, “Vertigo," out now.
“The usual steps that you take as a new artist have been a bit, like, upside-down,” the 23-year-old, whose full name is Sarah Faith Griffiths, told The Associated Press in an interview. “An album is such a step hitting the ground, and it’s such a milestone I’ve always wanted to get to.”
In that sense, this moment feels like a career beginning, she said. The immersive pop album tracks the emotions that come with that kind of whirlwind — alongside those that follow other destabilizing events, like growing up and experiencing heartache.
Griff said inspiration for the project came, “funnily enough,” from navigating a spiral staircase in one of the houses she wrote the album in — in this case, a cottage belonging to the musician and songwriter Imogen Heap. She said the physical reality of the experience easily lent itself to an emotional equivalent, and it's stuck with her ever since.
“That was just a very real, tangible feeling that I have had, and still have, at this stage in my life,” she said.
“Tears For Fun" and “Miss Me Too” explore that dizzying emotion through layered productions, informed by the large-scale spaces she's performed in already. “Astronaut” features piano by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, who encouraged Griff to rework an initial draft of the song into a ballad. “You said you needed space, go on then, astronaut,” she concedes in her signature belt, the grounded approach adding weight to her accusations.
“It's almost like I'm bit greedy with emotions when it comes to songs,” she said, describing her desire to pair wrenching lyrics with catchy, upbeat productions. “For me, music is all about moving people and triggering emotion.”
The catharsis is shared, then, by the artist and her listeners, she said, an approach Martin has encouraged.
“He really believes that as creatives and writers, we’re just kind of vessels, and creativity will flow through us and ideas will find their way to the right people," she said. "And I think that kind of philosophy is really reassuring.”
Griff succeeds in her mission not only with her sound, but also the visuals she and her team produce. Since the release of the album's lead single, she’s consistently worn a spiral in her hair. Song visualizers see her dancing in billowing fabrics on the same spiral drawn in sand. She, like her pop mentors, knows an album “era” is a multimedia endeavor.
Perhaps even more revealing of her inner life, however, are the more casual glimpses of Griff the creator. In preparation for her gig opening for a night of Swift’s Eras Tour in London, she documented the process of turning blue and white fabric into a dress inspired by a lyric in Swift’s “But Daddy I Love Him."
“I was always draping bedsheets around myself," she said of her childhood. "I was the only girl — I've got two older brothers and a lot of foster siblings — so that was my way of entertaining myself, playing dress up. I think I just like making things."
As Swift said from the stage: “This girl, she is so creative on every single level.”
True to that spirit, Griff says she is ready to keep creating.
“To be totally honest, I feel excited to get back in the studio," she said. "I feel like I’ve got a lot more to give.”
