girli talks New Album ‘It’s Just My Opinion’ and North American Tour

North London’s fearless alt-pop provocateur, girli, born Milly Toomey, is stepping into her most urgent era yet. With more than 100 million streams and a reputation for subverting stereotypes, she is set to release her third studio album, it’s just my opinion, on Friday, May 8. This new collection marks a departure from her previous glossy pop sound, embracing a grittier, indie-rock urgency fueled by live instrumentation and an in-the-moment sociopolitical insistence that is undeniable.

Ahead of her North American tour this June, which kicks off at the iconic Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn on June 11, we caught up with girli to discuss the therapeutic power of rage and why her new music feels like “group therapy.”

How are you feeling about getting back to North America, especially with this incredible batch of new material?

I’m so excited. It’s been a few years since I played my own headline shows in the States; I’ve done some really fun supporting slots opening up for people, but there’s nothing like playing my own shows for my own fans. And I’m really stoked to play the new album. I feel like there’s a lot of quite rageful songs on the album and I feel like that energy is very potent at the moment, especially for my fans in the States. So, I feel like it’s going to be quite therapeutic, kind of like group therapy.

You’re kicking off the tour at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn on June 11. I know that’s a really special venue for you.

Yeah, oh my gosh, I’m so excited. That was the first venue I ever played in the U.S., just full stop. That was the first ever show I did in the States. And, that show that I did in 2023 there, was just me and a backing track. It was very primitive and it was cute, but I’m really excited to go back with a full band and play the whole new album. I just wanted to do something really special in New York for the fans, do something really intimate and cute and kind of warm up the whole tour. 

This album has such an urgency to it. There’s such an insistency to every single second of music. This is your third album, what was driving you? 

When I was writing the album, I was feeling really chill and really happy, just kind of floating along. But I think I knew that there was a lot I wanted to say. And it’s interesting, because I don’t think I realized that I was writing a particularly angry (album). Urgency is the right way to describe it. But there was this desperation to just say so much, and I think some of the most passionate songs – “Slap on the Wrist,” for example, and “Squirm,” those are probably two of the most kind high-energy almost punk rock songs, and they actually ended up being added to the album a bit later. I wrote those last, probably because I started thinking about live (performance) and started thinking, “OK, what is missing on this record? What stuff do I still want to say?” 

And “Slap on the Wrist” was the first song that’s ever gotten me added to any rock playlists on DSPs, which was such a trippy moment for me because I’ve always been in the pop world; I am a pop artist, but it was really cool to have that recognized as a rocky song, that was really cool. 

As someone who grew up in the ’90s peak era of pop punk, it really hits a sonic sweet spot.

That was totally the goal, early 2000s/early 2010s, the U.K. was having this crazy indie explosion and that was just everything I loved and listened to as well. So, I feel like being able to – even just little things like for this record, it was the first one I’ve tracked live drums to, and this next tour is going to be the first one where I’ve had an actual guitarist on stage as well as a drummer and me, and just little things like that which don’t feel that major, but for me, I’m like, “Oh my gosh, this is so exciting.” This is morphing into a little bit more of teenage me, which is really fun.

You mentioned “Slap on the Wrist,” which is such a standout track on the record. For a song like that, how do you balance such societal urgency, to use that word again, with making a kick-ass pop song? 

I think I’ve developed a real knack for it. I feel like that’s my niche, something like, “OK, how do I write a song that’s about something actually quite serious or traumatizing and make it something that people can just absolutely go crazy for?” I think, for me, writing songs has always been therapeutic, and sometimes there’ll be little ballads thrown in there but I’m not like a sort of Phoebe Bridgers, where she makes the most beautiful, really sad songs. That’s never really been my schtick; I want my shows to be really energetic and fun and and I want people to be able to vent. 

Writing “Slap on the Wrist” was like, “OK, this is a really dark, serious topic that impacts so many people,” but the way I want to communicate that is anger and frustration and anger is action and and anger is fuel and I think for that the song needed this energy to it. And I still just love my big pop hooks and I write melodies first anyway, so I wrote the melodic part of the song and then like, OK, how do we put lyrics in that are really going to convey this message? I’m so excited to play it live, because even though it’s not a fun song, it’s really dark, because you’re like, “Why is the world like this?” but you’re also like, “Thank God that we can make art about that and hopefully people can feel empowered when hearing it.”

it’s just my opinion by girli is now streaming worldwide. For US dates, cherk girli’s official website.