Girl Apocrypha is constructing her own narrative on “Thank God!”

Stepping into Girl Apocrypha, the moniker of Emia Demir’s solo project, meant inhabiting a version of herself she hadn’t fully explored until now. Following earlier single releases “Dealer” and “MADONNA,” her latest cut “Thank God!” exhibits Demir fully in command of her persona, sharpening the project’s grunge-pop sensibilities into a more theatrical and vulnerable sound.

Borrowed from the term used when referring to something that is hidden, or more commonly used when referencing excluded biblical texts, “Apocrypha” feels like an appropriate band name for Demir’s music that teeters between a revelation waiting to be discovered and concealment. “[The name] felt like a representation of what it feels like to finally front my own project,” the Brighton-based musician explains. “It’s like an exploration into something that isn’t real, or wasn’t intended to be. A song is the only place where I can control the narrative and explain a situation exactly as I truly see and feel it.”

The “Girl” came from equally revealing reference points. “I was inspired by the film Girl, Interrupted and the song ‘Girl Anachronism’ [by The Dresden Dolls], both of which are excellent summaries of what it feels like to claw your way into adulthood as a mentally ill teenage girl, something that feels like a core part of my identity.” That lineage makes itself visible in Girl Apocrypha’s aesthetic. In press images and the single artwork, Demir leans into dark glitter-smudged eyes, sharp brows, blood-red lipstick – evoking the theatrical alt-inspired style of mid-2000s MySpace culture, punk-cabaret melodrama, and the panic-stricken glamour of Amanda Palmer and A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out-era Panic! At The Disco.

At its core, “Thank God!” is a song about loss, as Demir explores the collapse of a friendship that left a deeper emotional bruise than romance often does. “For me, songwriting is almost always how I process things, and that’s especially true with this song,” she says. “I think I was surprised at how much anger came out in the lyrics.”

“A lot of the song is sarcastic,” Demir says. “The verses feel like I’m trying to say, ‘Well, good thing I expected this outcome, but the choruses contradict these thoughts in a way that feels much more real. I ended up getting out a lot of bitterness and hurt that I was feeling.” Even when Demir lyrically attempts to be nonchalant or shy away from vulnerability, there is something more wounded lying underneath with lyrics like, “Well, thank god / my eyes are primed to look away / I had such ugly things to say / Like I don’t miss you every day.”

“Thank God!” filters Demir’s melting vocals through bursts of distortion as if she’s lamenting a confession from a phone booth or cellphone with failing reception. Demir cites Charli xcx’s BRAT as an influence on the vocals, with additional influences ranging from Radiohead’s electronic instability and ‘80s goth-pop like Robert Smith.

A highlight of the track is the textured production by Jag Jago, with whom Demir first collaborated with her other band, CARNE, where she plays bass and leans more into a darker, sludgier sound. With credits spanning Matt Maltese, Jamie T, to Mastodon, his fingerprints are all over the single’s darker edges. “The choruses of ‘Thank God!’ sound a lot more gothic than I initially pictured,” she says. “Way more reminiscent of The Cure with the way he mixed the vocals and had the whisper tracks really high.”

That collision between modern pop production and throwback alternative grunge feels central to Girl Apocrypha’s appeal. Demir describes her sound as “grunge-pop”, but the project’s references are far less tidy as she pulls from Lady Gaga's The Fame (mirrored in the club-kid visuals for her single "MADONNA" that parallels "Just Dance"), Nine Inch Nails, and Interpol. What ties it together are the alternative narratives and her uncompromising relationship with songwriting itself. “I’ve always had a bit of a rule with myself, which is I’ll never leave a lyric out of a song to appease anyone,” she says. “To me, the music comes above everything.”

While we don’t know exactly who Girl Apocrypha is pointing the finger at with “Thank God!”, that ambiguity is part of what gives the song its bite. At her recent performance at The Great Escape, Demir shared how she creates her own archive by bringing a guest book for audience members to sign at every show, so she jokingly “can get her hate mail in person.” Like the meaning behind Girl Apocrypha, Demir’s music leans into non-canonical testimonies, inviting listener's to contribute to the mythology of her project. While Girl Apocrypha's story is still being written, she increasingly sounds like someone who knows exactly where she’s meant to be.