For two weeks, Griff has been fiddling with a mix of her single “Last Night’s Mascara” like a pop-obsessed scientist searching for an impossible answer: How do you capture the raucous energy of a concert and project it into a studio session? It’s Wednesday morning as we speak, two days before the song’s scheduled release date, and the British singer-songwriter is still tweaking and tweaking the final version. She really wants to get it right, but she also doesn’t want to make thousands of people wait impatiently for it to arrive any longer.
Greif premiered a thriving and emotional version of “Last Night’s Mascara” onstage at Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis in October. This was Sabrina Carpenter’s inaugural second night on Short and sweet Tour and wanted to test the demo while having a lot of receptive pop music fans in one place. Says Grieve: “The whole thing was just an experiment that went well by accident, but I wasn’t prepared to actually receive it.” Rolling Stone on Zoom. She shared clips of the live performance on TikTok, with each new post garnering between 28,000 and 205,000 likes. “And then I literally said: Oh my God, no, it’s actually not ready.”
“Last Night’s Mascara” reaches its explosive climax during the bridge – the part of the song that had fans begging for its release – where she cries: “Sunday morning, make me look crazy / I’m on my knees at the altar, baby. /I ask God to wash you from my soul. The song came out last year, shortly after Greif finished her brilliant debut album Vertigowhich arrived in July earlier this year. She says: “I came up with the idea of makeup being a metaphor for all of your fears and worries, or being someone who hurts you completely,” she says. “It describes the period of time between Friday night or Saturday night to Sunday, and the emotional calm of what can happen on the weekend.”
The final studio version is a rumbling bass and cleansing plea to release complex emotions, with a lyrical reference to Enya’s “Orinoco Flow”. While writing and producing the record, Greif was inspired by Whitney Houston and Robyn, but also by the dark, rhythmic sounds of Banks. After taking a break from her tinkering, Greif explains why she rescued “Last Night’s Mascara” from her demo pile after being frustrated with finishing it, how she got to the finish line, and why she danced to Carpenter’s performance with fans in the pit afterward. Her collection felt like a meaningful tribute to childhood.
Why did “Last Night’s Mascara” become something she wanted to officially share after putting it aside for so long?
Putting this album together was a real struggle because I had completely lost faith. I couldn’t see the forest through the trees in terms of what was good and what wasn’t. Maybe a year and a half ago, I was letting a lot of outside opinions from bands and everything shape what this first album would sound like to me. That meant that a lot of songs were overlooked and unfinished. It was a really sad process, to be honest. Honestly, I felt like I was going crazy a lot last year because I was so sure that these songs were good. There are a lot of good songs here that, for some reason, I couldn’t get confirmation on – and I’m annoyed that I let that affect my decisions, but I still am.
On my main tour in America, I did some work in the middle where I would go to the pit and sing on acoustic guitar. I think in honor of the jump track or the surprise song that triggered the appetite, I said, “I’ve got all these songs, I’ve got nothing to lose.” I just started playing them. I’ve done a lot of support shows so far and I haven’t released music. It was almost like an experiment, wondering what the new song would sound like in the set, and just to see if there was an appetite for it. I got the old stems for it, gave them to my band at the end of my tour, and said, “Do you think we can get this ready for Sabrina?” and that’s how we did it.
It’s important that this song moved off the shelf because you didn’t feel supported in what it could have been to become something that you could take directly to the fans and receive that much enthusiasm around you.
It was the most empowering thing, if I’m being completely honest. There have been moments where I see my team members now and they’re like: “Oh, what do you think about what’s happening with Last Night’s Mascara?” And they’re like, “Yeah, you know, I guess I didn’t do it.” I really heard it that way when I first heard it. It’s great to get back to the relationship between me and my fan, and not letting that middleman control and confuse that process.
You’ve been receiving feedback from fans as well. Some thought the studio release snippet was missing the live version. How did you approach remaking the demo from where you left off?
Songs always take on a different shape live. For me, the demo was always dark and moody and it was driven by this sub-bass. It was almost like a soundtrack to that period of going home to wake up the next morning and that kind of distortion and darkness in everything. The demo was much more in that mood, but then when I did a live performance, I was so alive that there was a new euphoria in the live version. I gave my band the parts of my session and the beautiful [Blake] would play some live drums, and Jeff [James] would decorate a bit more on the pads.
Coincidentally, we did something a little more upbeat and desperate in this video that people seem to really like. I was mixing the song and I said, “Okay, let me drop the actual demo.” [online]”. That was me just running toilets in Sabrina’s locker room. And I said maybe I feel like he’s missing something. And then all the comments were like: “Girl, we need the live version.” Literally, for the last few days, I’ve been going back and trying to inject the same spirit.
The last time we spoke, you were talking about the dual role of being a performer and a producer and you said: “I almost wonder if I have to become an artist to be a producer as well, because that means I can name the shots and opportunities for songs to come out and go into rooms and see songs live in the world already higher. The way this song came together spontaneously feels like a continuation of that.
Yeah, I tweaked the whole thing. I love this, because it’s 100% me writing and producing. So it feels like the most pure form of making music, seeing if people like it, and reacting to it. It’s almost like DJs or rappers. They would go straight out of the studio and test a song in a club and see how it feels. In a way, it’s like this process in a kind of folk version.
Does having a vault track lead to that kind of reaction that makes you want to revisit other songs you may have pushed aside?
It makes me want to do more new things. I think it’s been a grieving process for a lot of these other songs. I think she gains some kind of confidence from this process and brings her back to the next record, whatever it is. I know I’m going back into the studio now with more authority and excitement. Before, I was so scared. I would go into the studio some days and say: “I don’t know where everyone wants me.” I will always write a lot of songs, so I’ve always gotten used to the ratio of songs that don’t get released.
With this being your first single since VertigoHow does last night’s mascara fit into this season?
It’s definitely a continuation of roundabout, but I don’t put it in boxing. It’s kind of in there. Again, it’s just an experiment, so it’s not defined anywhere. But I like the idea that people can discover “Last Night’s Mascara” and go back to the album and still love it the same way and hear the same emotions and feelings. I think now I’m in a place where the pressure is lower. The first album “The Strangling Cloud” is now gone.
After being in America for so long, where are you heading for your UK and European tour? First, I was the headliner and then I joined Short and sweet Journey.
The songs that I’m about to play sound like I’m going back to my tribe a little bit. And this album is ready to be sung and enjoyed with my people, which is really cool. Honestly, I can never predict which songs will be the best. Sometimes it’s a really old song, and sometimes no one knows the old songs. I like that too, because it means things are growing, it means people are finding me and discovering me. I’m excited and nervous too, because even though the arenas were big, I’m about to play in my biggest room in London, Alexandra Palace, which is huge. It’s like thousands and thousands. It feels challenging in a good way.
What was it like touring with Sabrina? There were a few nights after your set where you were dancing in the pit with the fans as well.
I loved watching the show every night. I’ve been a Sabrina fan for quite some time. But I would go up on stage at the beginning of the shoot, and people would come in completely unsure, and by the end – almost every night – everyone would turn on their lights without me asking them to. And then I felt that as each night progressed, the set would get more and more amazing and then I joined the crowd. Then I would scream these songs with any number of girls in the room. Then I would see Sabrina and hang out.
It felt like a real, powerful, empowering experience. Empowerment and childhood sound like buzzwords, but they’re real. It’s so much fun. I think it put the fun back into music for me, at a time when music can be very serious. It’s like, what’s the one? Is it artistic enough? With all the seriousness of it, I think the last few weeks have gotten rid of all that. I’m stepping up, I’m having fun. I’m singing “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” I try a new song. Then I go and dance with all the girls in the room. It’s the purest form of joy that music should bring to people.