Pop singer Griff was getting ready the morning of the BRIT Awards when a bouquet of flowers appeared, mysteriously signed, “From your friend Taylor.” To her surprise, it was Taylor Swift. Her sweet friendship with the “Cardigan” singer began in November last year on Twitter, Griff says, and blossomed into a beautiful, mutual adoration (though Griff had long been a Swiftie). At the BRIT ceremony in May, their relationship hit a peak: Swift shouted-out Griff in her speech and invited her to hang out in her dressing room, where they shared fries in their sparkly and frilly gowns. Griff soaked in the moment.
“I should have probably planned loads of things I wanted to ask her, but the time went by really quickly,” the singer, born Sarah Faith Griffiths, tells BAZAAR.com over Zoom from a park in London. Still, Swift graced her with thoughtful advice on handling the “pressures of industry and business and writing my next album—just [to] take my time and do it on my own terms,” Griff recalls.
It seems like Griff is already doing things her own way. Her new seven-track mixtape One Foot in Front of the Other, which she dropped in June, features songs about healing after heartbreak that range from unique, sticky indie-pop melodies to melancholy ballads. Her style looks like a visual artist’s dream: voluminous dresses in bold hues, structural headpieces, a thick bubble ponytail that falls past her waist. She even made her own outfit for her BRIT performance. (“I used to do it all the time,” the former fashion and textiles student says of making her own clothes.)
This year, she took home the BRITs Rising Star Award, trumping burgeoning pop icon Rina Sawayama and rapper Pa Salieu for the esteemed title; past winners include Adele, Sam Smith, and Jorja Smith. Though shaken by her predecessors’ success, Griff is staying grounded. “I think with these awards, obviously they’re incredible, but they don’t change what we do. It’s not the reason why I do it.”
Griff, 20, made her breakthrough with her debut single, “Mirror Talk,” in 2019, about talking oneself through moments of insecurity. She signed a record deal before getting to college, and more buzzy releases followed, like her Mirror Talk EP, “Inside Out” with Zedd, and the ballad “Good Stuff.” But she started making music years earlier, when she was just 11.
Born to a Chinese mother and Jamaican father, Griff grew up in the English village of Kings Langley in, for the most part, a full house. Her family began fostering children when she was eight years old. “My mom’s always had her hands full, literally juggling babies,” she says. “So I think growing up made me just kind of get on with it and find my own independence. I guess that’s probably part of why I throw myself into music so much.”
Here, Griff walks us through her eye-popping wardrobe, creating One Foot in Front of the Other, and her biggest pinch-me moment.
I want to revisit the BRITs, because it was your first red carpet event and you totally nailed it. What made you decide to go with that dress and headpiece?
We accidentally went a little bit Met Gala with the BRIT Awards, and went full-on and big. I think I knew everyone was going to be wearing the big fashion houses, which is incredible and we love the Guccis and Diors, but I thought it might be cool to just support a younger designer. I think sometimes the younger, less obvious ones come up with things more interesting and things that you haven't seen before, you know? We've all seen a Gucci suit. So I actually followed Susan Fang on Instagram for a while, and I love her stuff 'cause she makes all these structural bits out of crystal clear marble beads. We went around a few different ideas of what to wear, but that was kind of the first one that felt right.
It was the right amount of dramatic, but also a bit elegant. And I think because of the colors, it wasn't too in your face, even though the actual structure of it was so in your face. So that's kind of why I went for it. She was in London and she's also Chinese, and so I think it was cool to just kind of support that side of stuff when it comes to creatives as well.
My style is not too serious but playful. I guess I have an element of drama ... which I think is was what the BRIT look was. It was obnoxiously huge, and I obviously couldn't really walk in it, and I was so stiff. But I think it was kind of fun to do, especially with my first red carpet.
Your mixtape is titled One Foot in Front of the Other, and you use a metaphor of walking a tightrope in the titular song. It's also what you're doing in your cover art. What drew you to this imagery, and what does it mean to you?
It kind of just happened. The song is just about, when you get older, your body heals a little less and things start going wrong with your body physically, and I think it's the same emotionally. When you do fall over emotionally and you have a setback, getting back up feels like you're walking a tightrope, and it feels like real vulnerability, but all you can do is put one foot in front of the other. It felt like the right sentiment for the whole mixtape.
I was like, "I kind of really want it for the artwork." And so I learned how to walk a tightrope for the photo shoot, which was quite amazing. With everything I do, there's a slight level of drama. But I think it was fun to do it that way. It felt like the right emotion of what my whole mixtape is; whether it's me writing songs about my love life, my relationship with my family, my future, whatever, it's that same kind of tightrope-walking feeling where you're a bit uncertain and you're a bit cautious, but the only thing you can do is [keep going].
Did you take tightrope-walking lessons?
Yeah. I thought I'd hold something, and then we'd end up photo shopping it out. But I got there and it turns out production has hired this, like, Cirque du Soleil dude, who actually walked tightropes in circuses for a living. And then he started doing exercises with me. I fully just went, and then fell, but there was a crash mat under it so it's fine. By the end of it, I was getting back and forth, and it was quite fun.
I feel like there were a lot of themes of healing and recovery throughout this mixtape. Was it a collection of songs that you had worked on over the years, or was there an event that spurred this writing process?
They were all kind of written over lockdown. It's not like I went through this major heartbreak, even though it kind of sounds like I did. But they were all written in that place of solitude from my front room while I was trying to get in touch with my feelings. So there wasn't any triggering event, but somehow, all of the songs are still really written from the heart, and that's that, like, tone of fragility and recovery. It somehow felt like what I was feeling at the time.
With the last song, "Walk," the mixtape does end on an encouraging, hopeful note. Was that intentional?
Definitely. I think it's funny, "One Foot in Front of the Other" is like the recovery song after "Black Hole." It's part two. I guess the mixtape goes on this journey where you're finding comfort in something else and figuring out other relationships, and then you kind of end on "Walk," where it's this optimistic thing. I was listening to it all again, and it's almost as if "Walk" is someone else telling the voice of who was singing "One Foot in Front of the Other," like, … "You've got it." So I think that's the subconscious narrative throughout the whole thing.
You wrote and produced the mixtape mostly in your room over the last year. Did you feel like you were distraction free, or was it harder to get in the zone?
Both. It was definitely hard. I was excited at first because it's how I started writing music and I [thought], It's gonna be nice because literally no one can bother me and I'm just gonna write songs. And then, I came [home] and I didn't feel inspired at all, because I guess you're just looking at the same four walls. I didn't feel inspired, so it took a second to get there. You write many bad songs for one good song. Then at the same time, it's kind of my safest place to write, and it's where I feel like I write the most unique stuff. "Earl Grey Tea," for example, I don't think I would ever have written that with other writers, because it's so personal. I think eventually I found my rhythm.
What do you hope people take away from One Foot in Front of the Other?
I hope people feel whatever kind of sadness or heartbreak or emptiness that they feel I've expressed and have almost put into words. And I hope they feel like that's been related to in the lyrics. But then, I also hope that they feel some sense of hope and that when they listen to it, there's just a warmth. … I just want people to feel emotion when they listen to it, whether it's happy or sad or warm or nostalgic. I want people to feel and relate to my songs in their own ways.
So, you met Taylor Swift. I'm sure she's a dream collaborator of yours.
Yeah. But I think it's quite scary to write with your idol. I think any song I'd write, I'll be disappointed in myself 'cause it will never live up to some of my favorite Taylor classics. I'd love to write with Taylor Swift, but I don't know if I'd want the world to hear it. It would be surreal to be in the studio with her and to see the way she writes and just, like, jam with her.
Who are any other dream collabs you have?
I'm intrigued to write with Jack Antonoff, because he's written with Taylor and he's written with Lorde and he's written with Lana Del Rey. There's something about Jack, who writes with clearly incredible pop females. I'd love to write a song with Chris Martin just because I think he's a great songwriter. I'm up for anything. Frank Ocean would obviously be a dream.
What would you say has been the biggest high of your career so far?
It has to be the BRITs. I think the performance made it really amazing. It would have been great if I just went and accepted, and did a speech, but the fact that I got to perform as well was quite fun. I felt like I proved something to myself at that moment, because I was so nervous that I was in a lineup with so many big famous people with all the bells and whistles, and 10 times the budget that I would have, to go up there and sing. It felt like I did the best I could, and I was proud of the performance.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Photos courtesy of Riccardo Castano, Kerry J Dean, Zachary Chick, and Getty Images. Design by Ingrid Frahm.
Erica Gonzales is the Senior Culture Editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com. There is a 75 percent chance she's listening to Lorde right now.
