Griff Explains Why Her Songwriting Style Is 'Weirdly' the Opposite of Taylor Swift's (Exclusive)

The British rising star tells PEOPLE about her new 'Ver2igo Vol. 2' EP, switching up her signature hairstyle and overcoming writer's block on tour

Griff is balancing hardships with career heights.

Fresh off a headlining world tour that followed her 2023 stint opening for Coldplay, the British singer-songwriter released her new EP, Ver2igo Vol. 2, on Friday, April 5, marking the next chapter of her current era — eventually set to culminate in her debut full-length album.

Since breaking through with her One Foot in Front of the Other mixtape in 2021, the 23-year-old rising star has earned a BRIT Award as well as Taylor Swift's stamp of approval and songwriting advice from Chris Martin.

Related: Griff Talks Writing Vertigo Vol. 1 and the Special Shoutout from Her 'Fairy Godmother' Taylor Swift (Exclusive)

While experiencing such highs in her professional life, however, Griff's also faced personal lows, from soul-crushing heartbreak to periods of writer's block — all of which inspired the four tracks on Ver2igo Vol. 2.

Griff (born Sarah Faith Griffiths) recently sat down with PEOPLE to discuss her latest project, why her songwriting style differs from Swift's and the recent decision to switch up her signature "bubble braid" hairstyle.

You previously said Vert1go Vol. 1 was "fragile and heartbroken and insular" installment of this project. How would you describe Vol. 2?

I would say it's still desperately heartbroken, but I think sonically, there's something uplifting and driven about it, and I'd say there's a new layer of euphoria in this one.

Is that reflective of the stages of heartbreak you've personally experienced?

I think so. It's a natural cycle of life, I think, whether it's heartbreak or just growing up. There are really low moments at the start, and then at some point you have to figure out your confidence and your place in all of it. That's probably what's happened over the last couple of years, and that's why the music goes in this arc.

When did you go through the heartbreak that inspired these tracks?

I don't really write songs about a specific — well, actually sometimes I do… I always try to write in a sense that I can listen and think about family, friendships, or romance. I don't think I've ever been one to specifically write about the actual detail, date, shade, taste and smell. To me, it's an overall feeling of, I don't know... there's something in growing up where you just go through a real rediscovery of yourself, and there's a lot of life blocks that happen. I think that's more what these songs are about.

Your approach is almost the opposite of Taylor Swift's ultra-specific songwriting.

Weirdly, yeah. I don't know why. I guess growing up, I never got used to writing those songs, because I would listen to Taylor, but I was too young to have really experienced some of those things. I think I developed a style of writing that was more, I guess, open for people to be able to interpret.

This series of EPs will eventually culminate in a full-length project. Were all the songs written in the same wave of songwriting, or did you write each volume separately?

No, it wasn't as tidy a process as that. In between all of my touring, I'd get back to the U.K., and I'm a bedroom producer, I guess, so I'd pack up all of my equipment, put it in my car and then go to a random Airbnb that had a piano in it and try to write. I did that maybe eight times, and I had about 100 songs in a Dropbox folder. It’s only in hindsight that I've now been trying to pick the ones I want to finish and hearing that they sit in different worlds slightly. They all have this common theme, but the feelings are all slightly different. And so that's what I've been figuring out. But the process has been almost upside down and a bit sporadic.

You've been on tour almost constantly since releasing your breakthrough mixtape, One Foot in Front of the Other, in 2021. It doesn't seem easy for you to write on the road.

I found it really difficult, to be honest. I realized that I don't write well under pressure. The mixtape was written in COVID, and I just had a lot of time with my own thoughts, and then suddenly being on tour, you're almost never alone, and you're not in any creative head space. You see those videos of Ed Sheeran, where he writes “Shape of You” in 15 minutes on a tour bus, and I'm like, "This is going to be me on tour. It's going to be amazing." It wasn't the case.

I actually had really, really bad writer's block. That's why I had to be so drastic when I came back to the U.K., where it's like, I need to almost trick my brain into a low-pressure environment. There wasn't any point of the label hiring out big, fancy studios where there's a chef and a big mixing desk because I think that would just cripple me. I just needed to be in a really s---ty cottage making myself breakfast, sitting down at the piano and just figuring out these songs. So, I definitely found the touring process hard.

Related: Griff Talks Touring with Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran and 'Generous' Chris Martin — Who Gave Her Feedback on 30 Unreleased Songs!

You've said that while on tour with Coldplay, you played 30 songs for Chris Martin. I know you co-wrote "Astronaut" together, but did you get advice from him for any songs on either volume of Vertigo?

Yeah, I played them pretty much most of it. He was so helpful. He has got such a good ear for things, and it was just nice playing music to someone who just knows exactly what I'm talking about, obviously. Also, fresh ears on something is so valuable with anything. When you're making something or in any creative process, you've either seen, heard or read it a lot of times, and so you lose sight of what makes sense, what chorus is good and what melody should go again. He gave me a lot of advice, like, "That one's great. You should do that bit again. That makes your chorus."

It was a really fun evening to sit with him because I got to a place with all of the songs where I was like, "I don't know if any of this is good" — genuinely. That's not any fake humility or anything, I was genuinely like, "I don't know what I'm doing here." It came at a time where he was suddenly like, "Just stay on the path and keep working on it. It's going to be great."

Since breaking through with singles like "Black Hole," do you feel like you've been able to take in the big moments — touring with massive artists, winning a BRIT Award — as they've come?

I don't think I have, but maybe that's also intentional, again, with the whole pressure thing. The more I think about it, the more crippling it gets. Whereas, if I just let the BRITs and “Black Hole” and everything since then just be another day in the life, it helps me just carry on in a way that I can digest. Otherwise, it all gets a bit too overwhelming for me.

One big difference in your approach to the mixtape and these EPs is your hair. The "bubble braid" became your signature look, and now you're sporting a forehead swirl. How did you decide to switch up the hair?

I don't know. I haven't said goodbye to the bubble braid forever, to be honest. I think the bubble braid became a really useful thing, just firstly, for people to be able to recognize me, and also to turn up to set and know exactly what my hair's going to look like. It's just one less thing to think about. And especially with having Afro hair, it was just a protective hairstyle that worked. With this season, the spiral has been a real symbol for this whole era. So, it's just fun to incorporate it into different things — that's the thinking behind all of the different hair choices. But I enjoy playing with all of it.

Does the spiral hold significance in this era?

Definitely, yeah. I feel like it sums up the feeling of the whole project. And even starting with “Vertigo,” the idea of things spinning and being out of balance. I think “Vertigo,” to me, resonates in an emotional sense and the idea of heartbreak feeling like emotional vertigo, this spiraling feeling. I think it encapsulates what the album is about, for sure.

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