Pop punk princess GIRLI reflects on her latest release, Matriarchy, and how she declared, “fuck this industry,” before forging her own path
GIRLI understands that now is the perfect time for her second album, Matriarchy, to be ‘born.’
The sapphic renaissance is afoot.
Never before has the joy of women who love women and every facet of sapphic identity been so vocally represented and so obvious across the arts and nightlife scene.
“I wanted this album to feel like a celebration of queer joy and rebellion. We are ready for gay messiness. There have been more queer artists, but a lot of them were gay men,” Millie, the pink-haired, bleached-eyebrows performer behind the stage name GIRLI explains.
“Boy Genius, Muna, Fletcher. Queer female artists are coming into the mainstream in all areas, women are coming out and having more public relationships.”
“I’m happy it's being birthed at this time.”
This album follows the 2019 release of Odd One Out, and maturity ripples through every note when placed next to her debut. While life has changed a lot for many of us since 2019 - the pandemic and a financial crisis will do that - GIRLI has come out of her cocoon and evolved.
“Time is a mind fuck. I am 26 and I was 21 when Odd One Out came out. Artistically, I have a lot more creative control since then,” she shares.
“I was on a major label then, I had to change some lyrics and production and the visuals were turned down. There were too many cooks in the kitchen and most of them were middle-aged men.”
With greater autonomy over her sound, GIRLI’s new release is an ode to community, female and non-binary empowerment, and feeling everything, all the time.
“This is 100% me, changes were driven by me. I am in a much better place than when I made that album; I have a far stronger sense of self.”
Tunes like Feel My Feelings and Poser show just how far the star has come since Odd One Out, both explorations of deep emotion, imposter syndrome, and the all-consuming experience of your emotions being dialled up to 100% all the time.
“When I was writing this album, I had a big break up and then fell in love again. Friendships ended. I was setting boundaries that I had never done before. There was a lot of upheaval, but I also started to feel more comfortable in myself and my sexuality,” Millie reflects.
Matriarchy album art
Queer identity is at the heart of this album, with her matriarchy really being a group of incredible women and non-binary folks that make up her touring crew, people she spends a lot of time with.
“My touring crew helped me see what matriarchy is, they are all women and non-binary, and I have seen them be such badasses. Live music is so male dominated. We have had some rough experiences at festivals and support tours. We went on tour with an artist and the crew was very patronising, they were all older men, and they were very condescending and there was a lot of microaggression, and we were made to feel we didn't deserve to be there and that we should just be grateful to be.”
“I choose my crew so I can avoid that macho bullshit,” she sighs.
With record label issues punctuating Millie’s musical career, she has found peace in her latest creation.
“Fuck this industry; I am going to make my own lane. The only people who really matter are the fans; it’s the people who listen and come to the shows who let me do this. They are the reason the industry exists.”
An incredibly vocal part of Millie’s die-hard fan base is queer, and the queer community has been a safe space for Millie to explore her identity.
“Queer community means lifting a massive middle finger up to everyone who has ever tried to isolate queer people and make them feel like the odd one out,” she explains, “there are so many of us and we are stronger when we are together and able to celebrate. It means joy.”
The so-called lesbian renaissance of London has seen an explosion of events for queer women and non-binary folks, and Millie is a regular fixture in the scene.
“I went to one of the first Pop Up Dyke Bars, and these two men walked in. It was their local pub, yet now they seemed awkward and out of place. That is how we feel all the time. These spaces are so important because we should be able to relax and be around people who understand us.”
Songs Nothing Hurts Like a Girl and Her Too are real odes to the sapphic experience, and provide a space for queer messiness on the album, and that kind of representation is only growing.
Just last week, GIRLI sat down with her girlfriend to watch BBC 3’s new LGBTQ+ dating show I Kissed A Girl.
“I was getting emotional because we deserve trashy shows too; we deserve queer trash TV, that's what heterosexual people get. I was getting emotional because this was on BBC 3,” Millie smiles.
On the show’s second episode, Georgia, a pro-football player and certified sweetheart, discussed her feelings about the word lesbian. The negative emotions she holds towards the word struck a chord with many.
“I cried seeing Georgia talk about the word lesbian. I think it is beautiful; it isn't the term for me, I am attracted to all genders, but my girlfriend is [a lesbian] and it is such a powerful word. I remember it being such a scathing insult, it felt tarnished. It’s significant that they talked about it on that show because people fought to use that word.”
As Millie asserts her position as the future of the queer pop scene in the UK, her sophomore record is a manifesto for matriarchy and a covenant for community which empowered the artist to find peace and identity and will inevitably do the same for fans established and new.
GIRLI’s new album album Matriarchy is out Friday 17th May, 2024.