FLO on Building the Ultimate Girl Group

Baby, this is Keke Palmer

In this episode of Baby, this is Keke Palmer, Flo discusses their journey as a British girl group, highlighting their rise to fame, the chal

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Every generation has that one girl group that becomes the soundtrack to your life. The group whose song gets you through your first crush, your first heartbreak, your first night out with your girls, in every messy, beautiful chapter in between. And for today's generation, that group is flow. They got the vocals, they got the harmonies, they got the style, but more importantly, they built something you can't manufacture. Genuine sisterhood. In just a few short years, Georgia, Stella, and Renee have become one. of the most exciting voices in modern R&B. But this story is about more than music. It's about three young women building a global girl group without losing themselves, their friendship, or each other. Because coming into this industry as a black girl group meant they had to kick the door down. So today, we're talking about ambition, sisterhood, success, and what it takes to create your own space when nobody's saving a seat for you. Because baby, this is Kiki Palmer. No matter what we're doing in the car, just chilling, pop on Amazon music, sit back and listen. Life, love, sex, science, covering it all. Especially the backers' money always involved. No matter what it is, we're going to make it make sense. Nothing else will do but kick it with the homies and key. So grab you a drink and a snack you enjoy and get into the vibe that only want gets to go. You know it's your girls! Baby, this is Kiki. Baby this is Kiki Poma. And this is Flo! I'm out here, girls. I'm excited. Excited to meet y'all and hang out with you, girl. You look so good. That was like emotional. Honestly, that was perfect. You know we had to give you guys your props. Thank you. You guys look fabulous. I'm absolutely fabulous. So summer. You guys live in London full time, but you were just doing the out loud festival and then you're gonna be doing some more stuff in LA. So you're getting accustomed to the LA vibe. We're definitely in LA more than at home. I don't know if my mattress is fun. Do you guys feel like you'll be living in L.A. sometimes soon? Probably like beginning of next year. Really? I know. It's so close. Oh my gosh. What part? Do you all know what type, what town? Depends how much money we've got by then. No, you ain't never lie. Because L.A. is expensive. But you know who's more expensive? New York. She needs to get her ass together. It gets to a point. You know what I mean? But I heard that London is very expensive. Yes. It is expensive. It is. It is. So I think you'll get like a little break, you know, a little release. A financial break. A little financial break with LA. I like that you guys are getting into the LA vibe. I know we're going to be very happy to have you. I would love seeing y'all in the town. Yeah. I feel like we're more known there as well. Like we just feel more familiar with it. We have a better like network of people there. Like people that we work with. It's so interesting to hear that. I was so curious of how you guys feel your fan base is in relation to back home and in America because in the US, I mean, I don't know a lot about London. I don't get a lot of time there, but I know in the U.S., we go up for you guys. Do you feel the same vibe back home? Definitely, but I think because we don't spend a lot of time there, it's hard to fill that connection. Yeah, yeah. So we always do a pre-show pull-up for our show, but obviously it's three of you girls here. So, I mean, we can just go one by one, Stella, Georgia, Renee, and just figure out. So what's your zodiac sign? Satch. Your Sagittarius. Do you know you're rising or your mom? I think, I think, I, I think, one of them, one of them is a tourist. Oh, okay. Which is interesting because tourists sometimes get on your nose. A little bit. Maybe they're a little bit of you. Maybe, maybe, maybe I'm like, projecting. And then one's a Leo, I think. Okay, okay, so it's a fire, double fire going on. What are you? She's fiery. I'm a Capricorn. Oh my gosh, that's my perfect match. I'm a Virgo. Oh, I'm here for Capricorn. Very shameless. but keeping it together. Capricorn was still engaged. Yeah. I love a Capricorn. What's your rising and your moon? No idea. What about you, Renee? I'm a Libra. Okay, the aesthetic is aesthetic-y. Oh, wow. But like I can always count on a Libra for this. Do you know your rising or your moon? I don't. I wouldn't know though. It's astrology huge in London? Not as much as it is in America. Maybe two going up for it over here. It's like the first thing people ask. It's crazy. Yeah. We're doing the most. It's high. How are you? What's your zodiac sign. Literally. Yeah. What is y'all's love language? Do you know, like a physical, I used to have a person that likes to touch. I used to have a person that likes to acts of service. Acts of service and words of affirmation. Oh come, you better affirm me. Yes, please. Yes. What about you, daughter? I would say acts of service. Acts of service, okay. It's given let me cater to you. Yes. Wait. Wait. Is it what you like to receive? Yeah, yeah, okay. Oh, it's what you like to receive. Oh, that was also what you'd like to give. Yeah, it could be, huh? Okay, I was saying for receiving. For receiving. For giving, what do you think you give most? Hmm. She just received. This. Period. Okay, I show up. This is the ticket. You're welcome. What about you, Stella? Physical touch. Okay. Which is weird because like, I don't like, I don't touch you. That's crazy. You want to touch, but you don't want to be touch. When the right person. Yeah. And quality time Polly, what is this? Quality. I thought she said in Polly time. I said, now what's Pauley time? I'm into a little Polly time. Yeah, quality time. I do love sharing the same space even if we're on our phone. Yes. Be next to me and be human beside. And let that be that. What's a question you wish you were asked more in interviews? Oh my gosh. You have the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Thank you. I don't know, I feel like we only know when it happens. Yeah, yeah. We'll get that question and we'll actually like say, this is such a good question. Thank you. But does anything like different? Well, I know when I was doing my research, I was like, I can't ask him how the group got together. Oh, thank you, Ging. I didn't want to bring y'all through it. I was like, I can tell they don't want to be asked. You don't know how many times they were asked that. I've heard too many times. Yeah. We together. We got together we met. we liked each other. Yes. Yeah. So I did take that note. Okay. Who is someone that you've met that made you feel Starstruck? Ooh. Kelly Rowland. Oh, come on Kelly Rowland. Yes. I hope I do not. They're going to get on me about constantly slipping into y'all's access. That's fun because you're good. It just makes me happy. I feel like I'm one of the girls. Yes. You are one of the girls. So Kelly Rowland. We love Kelly. Kelly hands down. Brandy. I mean, of course. Mariah Carey. Just met Stevie Wonder. Oh my God. And that was definitely like, that was like, that was quite, I don't know, it was quite different in a way. Like we went to his studio so it felt very, it felt very real, but surreal. Yeah. I feel like a lot of people like we've, it’s kind of felt a bit more like casual. Not casual. It felt intimate. Yeah. With him it felt intimate. But sometimes it will be like at. So there's kind of like this pressure. It's just like, hi, we love you, bye. But this really felt like, I was like, we was like, shit down, it's having a little shout. It was like, oh my God, the Stevie. And it honestly feels like it really matches to me. Like I could imagine y'all doing some collaboration with Stevie, because I think that's one of the things people love so much about you guys too. As a girl group is you're really singing. Y'all be into the harmonies. Y'all gonna give a whole moment and arrangement. And so I would love to see more with y'all in this Stevie vibe. What can we get in? Same. With Stevie, yeah. Definitely just the classic, like, real music. True music, yeah. A song. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. A full one with the bridge. Yes. They cut the bridges out lately because they're trying to get them streams up. Okay, so we already know how you guys got together as a girl group, but maybe I can just say, like, in the beginning, right before you made this transition, what was happening in your life at that time? Like, were you kind of figuring out what you wanted to do? Did you know you were going to be doing music full time? Like, who were you before you guys became Flo? I mean, we were studying. studying music in college. So college that's like 17, 18 years old. Yeah. And I think it was the last year of me and Georgia being in college, right, that we got in the group. And Renee was in her first year. So we knew what we wanted to do. Yeah. So it was, we didn't really have that awkward time after school where we were like. Yeah, how am I gonna make this walk? Yeah. Who do you credit for your development? Aside from obviously each other, right? But like, we definitely had access to like studio time via our label island, which definitely made the journey easier, because we didn't really have to worry about paying for it. So that... Indirectly. What about those early... Two later. Too later. Suddenly I have a 500 tour date. Like, what the hell? So who were some of those early producers that you guys worked with that you feel like really helped to develop you guys a sound? Emine Emeke, for sure. Emine Emeke. Eminie K. Come on. He literally taught us most of what we know when it comes to writing songs. And like what we want to hear in production. It was a lot of him. I love that. And like Jamal. Jamal. Like a lot of UK collaborators. Oh, I love that. Shout out to, I need to take my ass up there. Come on, Eminie K. I'm like, honestly. Oh my God, you do. Oh, no, that would be amazing. Yes. So you guys immediately knew, because I mean, look, when you're on your road to music, whether it's you yourself or you with a group, you know or you know when it's not the right situation. For sure. What let you know that this was a combination that you could really get with, that you felt like, no, no, like, I think this is going to be real for us. Like, we can actually be a group. Definitely each other. Like, I felt really comfortable with the vision of flow because I feel like we are the right type of people to be in a group. Yeah. Yeah. Also like our lives were not, we grew up the same way. Yeah. Kind of. Like we all were raised by single moms. Come on. So like we've seen the hard work. Yeah, we know what it takes. We have the ambition and so that definitely helped us to be like, okay, we're like sisters. And we're all only children. No, can't sing. Try. Now I know your mom's a, she'll in limp. Yes, she used to be. Well, she's, I guess you're always calling Olympian. Yeah, once you're Olympian, you're Olympian. So I'm sure you learned a lot about discipline for sure and determination from her. She could have helped me a little bit more. But definitely her, like, message was, like, I didn't need to be, like, traditional in terms of education. Because, like, she didn't do that. And, but if I found something that was my passion, like she did, like, athletics was her passion, then you make it a career. But like you have to make it a career. And you just got to go with the flow. No pun intended. When you guys say chemistry because you were talking about how you guys fit, I mean, who are you guys to each other in the group, right? Like it's like who's the peacemaker? Who's the comic relief? Who's the one that's, let's go outside, let's get into the town. Like, what role do y'all play or do y'all switch it up at any given time? It really does like. It depends on our cycles. Yeah. Okay. Because that can change everything. I could be the monster real fast. Okay. Come on, Master Mash. Yeah, it really depends. It depends. Hmm. I think of it all. Yeah, it does depend. It does change. Because we've all had to do every role at some point. Yeah. But that's why it's good to have three. Yeah, like we're always covered in all areas because there's three of us. Yeah. And three is a tough number though sometimes because it's like, you know, how do you guys all decide on one thing? Like, has it ever been a time where it makes a number. Honestly, any more would be too many too much. It's a majority. Two people agree then. It's a democracy. It's a democracy. Have you guys ever had a moment where it's like, Sorry, Boo, this is the song. Or hey, bull, this is the look. You know what it's like, you guys are going like, n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-h. Maybe more recently when we were deciding what songs to put on our album, that was one song that we were like quite unsure about. And it was definitely like, I was outruled. And it was like, cool. And have you been proven wrong? Well, we don't actually know if we can take it off that album. Yeah, we don't know what's happening. It might be a bit late. We're just finding it out. Everyone's the favorite song. You'll be the thing. It's so true. You really never know. That's the thing. People have said that to us. That might be our hit. Isn't that so weird how that happens? I mean, when you think about your debut single, uh, that came out in 2022, did you, were you guys like 100% unanimous on that being. Oh, yes. Y were. Yeah. You had to tell the label. Yeah. The label weren't sure. Why don't we always enough. We had to fight. Oh, yeah. We were making PowerPoints. Oh, my gosh, you guys. So, wait, no, we need that corporate process. You know, because they see the people, the fans see the creative process, but they don't know that our girls have to also be CEO. Exactly. In order to be an artist in this game, you have to have the power. I can't tell you how many times I've slaved over a deck trying to put all my insights together and why this is the correct move to make with me. So tell me the process of, like, putting your packaging together or getting your stuff together where you were confident and having to get the label to sign off and believe. Like, what were the steps? You made a presentation. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we had been making music for like two years up until we even put a song out. And there was this one so awkward ladies with me. And it was cute. It was cute. It was a fine song. But I think that they wanted us to like get to Cardboard Box. Carbobocs, everyone knew was a big song. They didn't want us to kick the door down. They were like, it's too early to put that song out. But we were like, no. We need to come out the gates. Hello. Yes, girls! Let's go. The PowerPoint actually had like a whole EP. Yeah. It was the whole song. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Carboard box. I do when I had wrote down the leg, so I had to ask you guys something about that, this one particular leg. Let me get my cards together now that we own Carboard Box. Because I need to know. Okay. So you guys say this in the song. You ain't going to change, boy. What's the point in stringing me along? We're done for real, so I'm going to put your shit in the cardboard box. Carboy box. Change your box. Change my. Changing my number and I'm changing the lock. So spill the tea. Was it based on a real experience? I wish there was some tea. We were children when we made it. I think we were like 17 and 18. It's just all about like fantasy. Especially at that age. It was just like. I can't wait to do that. Honestly, but also. Very getting little tired of your brother. Yes, exactly. Exactly. But like as a girl group, like we look to certain artists and they've always had that kind of like, I'm going to do this. I'll bust the windows out your