Griff

As a songwriter, I have a duty to keep my heart on my sleeve because no one else will tell that story.

I think all my songs are good but that doesn't mean that everyone else does. I'm fine with that - I trust my talent enough to know that I'm a good songwriter.

I don't think I realised I was even producing my own music when I started, there's a whole generation of artists who feel in control of what they're doing and saying with tools that allow self-publishing and production.

Being half-Jamaican, half-Chinese in a very white area, it created a real identity crisis for me as a kid. But I'd travel into London and see so much diversity and clothes and everything was more creative and looked different.

I'm not the best seamstress in the world, but it's another enjoyable creative process.

A song like 'Shade of Yellow,' it was like, me turning on my Imogen Heap brain. I was listening to a lot of Imogen Heap, and getting the vocoder out.

I was being offered publishing deals, but also record deals.

The beauty industry is not up to speed yet really on how to nourish Black hair, and so I thought if I just do something consistent, at least I can rock up to set anywhere and just know that this is what I'm doing and it's a look and there's less risk of someone just cinching off my hair.

You go through so much work, making the music, writing the lyrics, finishing it, mixing it, putting visuals together for it, putting the live show together. It's almost all redundant unless you're putting something really compelling out on TikTok as well. I do think music is suffering because of it.

Music and creative stuff are such weird things that you kind of just have to be at the mercy of wherever where it may take you.

Worship songs are some of the most beautiful and oldest and most lasting songs because they think there's something to be said for just a melody that a whole group of people can sing.

I love performing, so I think there was an element of me that probably, deep down, loved parts of what the artist's life looked like, but I'm just so in love with the songwriting process, and I think that was what really gave me confidence. Even still, that process is the most sacred part to me.

I'm such a Swiftie.

I have the most creative control so nothing gets released without me feeling 100% happy about it.

I think it's so important to write from an honest place, because if I don't do that, I'll just end up writing songs that sound exactly like every other pop girl, and I don't think the world needs more conveyor-belt pop.

I started playing piano from a very young age, and I just loved it.

It would be so easy to just throw on a crop top and dance and do and look like all the other stuff that's out there. I've been really intentional about trying to make it feel different and editorial.

I kept releasing music and didn't know if anyone was listening and then I got a Brit Award, which is crazy.

I always just feel like there's like one kid in your year who's trying to promo their music and no one really rates them.

Often when you're heartbroken, it does feel like you've got emotional vertigo.

Chris Martin has been really, really generous with his time and investment in my music.

It's so surreal to be like, I've been on all these tours and been endorsed by all these crazy superstars.

As soon as I realized I could access makeup, I was like damn, I can make myself way prettier. And I loved it. I guess it was a bit of a safety thing for me.

Growing up in a very white area, I just think I didn't feel that beautiful... ever.

People say that they know Black hair, and they don't. Countless times that people don't really know how to nourish and care for curls, so I've had to go through that journey figuring out how to love my curls and look after them.

I didn't like talking about my music in school, so I was trying to keep it very undercover. I don't know if it's just the pessimist in me, but I think I knew that just because you sign a deal, it doesn't mean anything. The work begins at that point.

When someone leaves your life, you feel like there's a black hole there.

There's lots of scenarios where you can experience heartbreak. It doesn't have to be romantic. Like if a friend moves away, or you lose a family member.

If I could say 'Hi' to Taylor Swift, I'll be happy. I'll retire.

I grew up on a lot of gospel, soul and Christian music.

It's fun to make stuff and I find that you make more unique looking things that you won't find on the high street.

I think for most of my childhood I rejected a lot of my Chinese and Jamaican heritage. You just want to fit in. But now I realise it's one of my biggest assets. It's quite rare and unique. Embracing it is probably the best thing.

I want to be the sort of artist that uplifts people.

I'm never surprised when there's dark stuff in the church because the church is made up of people and people are dark, you know? It's heart-breaking when that's brought into church and the leadership. It's sad but not surprising. Humans are humans. Hillsong is Hillsong.

I guess if you grow up with Christian parents, you get to a point where you ask: 'Okay, do I actually believe or am I just going through the motions?' And from a young age I felt like it was something I actually do believe and so it's always been something that I've owned.

Chanel has always really truly empowered women.

Growing up as a person of colour in an all white area meant for a long time I didn't see a lot of my features as very beautiful. So I leaned on make-up a lot from a young age, I guess to compensate for what I thought I didn't have but other girls did.

I low-key like my own company. I love a day by myself going on walks, reading, and then maybe going to the pub with my friends in the evening. That's an ideal day for me.

I've got quite coarse hair for someone who is mixed race.

We had musical instruments at home, so when I wasn't in school, I would sing and write all the time.

I never formally studied music at all.

Just because you signed a deal, it doesn't mean anything, or that you'll be on the radio tomorrow.

School was school. I was determined to finish and get good grades.

Congee is a comfort food. It's not glamorous, but it's always on the stove at home.

I'm not really sure record labels know what they're doing. No one knows what they're doing. It's kind of amazing because it's made music a little bit more democratic. But it also is really frustrating because everyone is revolving around an algorithm that no one knows how it works.

It's an amazing platform TikTok, you have a potential to meet loads more people than would ever be in a room at once with you at shows so if you can try and enjoy it, it can be good.

Anytime there's a camera on my face I don't feel very comfortable.

There's definitely a lot of pressure every day to post more, do more, be more of a social person.

In the daytime, we can be busy and fine, and then suddenly, the moment you're asleep, things come back - whether it's your ex or your fears or anxieties. These things always seem to find a way back.

There were many times in my childhood where, because it was either chaotic or not that great at home, I'd find refuge in my best friend's house or something.