Speaker 1: Welcome to Inside the Studio presented by I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm your host Joe Levy, So like a lot of us,
Speaker 1: pretty much all of us. The guest on this episode
Speaker 1: of the home edition of the show, Gracie Abrams, started
Speaker 1: out with a totally different plan in mind. She had
Speaker 1: moved from putting her music up on SoundCloud and then
Speaker 1: Instagram and sometimes she was just sharing snippets, just pieces
Speaker 1: of a song, to signing with a major label and
Speaker 1: releasing her music that way. And she had lined up
Speaker 1: shows in London, New York and Toronto to celebrate the
Speaker 1: release of her first EP, which is called Minor and
Speaker 1: which is full of hushed pop songs that deliver really
Speaker 1: big feelings in a very quiet way. Except then and
Speaker 1: Gracie ended up playing her first ever shows is live
Speaker 1: streams from the same place that she had first started
Speaker 1: making her music, which is her bedroom in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: You know, the home edition of Inside the Studio is
Speaker 1: all about letting you know how the pandemic has impacted
Speaker 1: the lives of artists, and Gracie told our Quarantine correspondent
Speaker 1: Jordan Runtalk that she really wouldn't be writing songs like
Speaker 1: her new single brush fire if COVID hadn't happened. She
Speaker 1: also talked about how she first turned to songwriting because
Speaker 1: she had lost her journal and she needed a way
Speaker 1: to process things. Writing songs is how she figures out
Speaker 1: her feelings and expresses them, and she talked about leaving home,
Speaker 1: coming back there, and drawing power from once again being
Speaker 1: in a room alone by herself, creating as always. If
Speaker 1: you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio podcast that Jordan's hosts, which is called
Speaker 1: Rivals Music's Greatest Feuds, and which is available wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Hello everyone, My name is Jordan Runtalk.
Speaker 1: But enough about me. My guest today was preparing for
Speaker 1: her first ever concert tour in a coronavirus had other plans. Instead,
Speaker 1: She's returned to her musical root, her bedroom, where she's
Speaker 1: been thrilling fans across the globe with virtual concerts. It's
Speaker 1: a fitting homecoming for an artist who first attracted listeners
Speaker 1: with self produced songs shared online platforms. The fearlessly personal
Speaker 1: lyrics were taken directly from the pages of her own diary.
Speaker 1: Last summer, she unveiled her debut EP, Minor a deeply
Speaker 1: vulnerable collection of songs that detail the emotional peaks and
Speaker 1: valleys of romantic relationship. She says her latest single, brush Fire,
Speaker 1: there's her way of closing the book on that tumultuous
Speaker 1: chapter of her personal life, and she's looking ahead to
Speaker 1: the future in a new year. I'm so happy to
Speaker 1: welcome Gracie Abrams. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 1: It's really cool for me, So thank you well, first
Speaker 1: and foremost, how you doing? I know if I feel
Speaker 1: like every conversation I have lately has to have the
Speaker 1: prerequisite like status check, how you feeling, feeling good, feeling grounded? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: hanging in. I'm really grateful to be with my family
Speaker 1: um for the holidays, and and to just be home
Speaker 1: together is like, despite the fact that that's been this
Speaker 1: entire year, it feels a specially kind of comforting to
Speaker 1: be able to have them give me close by this time. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: how are you that, I'm good? I'm good, sort of
Speaker 1: deal with the same thing, kind of We at our
Speaker 1: first Thanksgiving without our family for the first time. So
Speaker 1: cook the turkey first time, didn't set it on fire.
Speaker 1: That's a plus. As far as I'm okay, that was
Speaker 1: me too, exactly exactly where we were doing all right,
Speaker 1: small small winds these days exactly. Yeah. Well, you have
Speaker 1: a new song out in that brush Fire, and it
Speaker 1: is absolutely exquisite. I mean the words are vulnerable and
Speaker 1: brave and at times brutal. I want to ask you,
Speaker 1: what does that song mean mean to you? Thank you? Um?
Speaker 1: It felt like a book and song kind of for
Speaker 1: what I released this year and having put out Minor,
Speaker 1: which is like the first body of work that I've
Speaker 1: ever made, and it was kind of about the same
Speaker 1: theme in terms of like a different stages of a relationship,
Speaker 1: and I feel like brush Fire leaves it kind of
Speaker 1: a bit of a cliffhanger in terms of returning to
Speaker 1: bad habits in a relationship and kind of like fueling
Speaker 1: the fire of of like treating somebody else poorly and
Speaker 1: then them doing the same to you. And it's just
Speaker 1: kind of a bit of a cycle. But you really
Speaker 1: do feel a kind of since your love, So it's
Speaker 1: a challenging I just was trying to like leave it
Speaker 1: on a note that I felt good about and and
Speaker 1: you know, the Tobias Jesso Jr. And Blake slackin wom
Speaker 1: I wrote the song that they're both like so unbelievable,
Speaker 1: So to be able to work with with them made
Speaker 1: it a really seamless process, and so I'm super grateful
Speaker 1: for that. I'm a huge fan of Tobias is work.
Speaker 1: I I love his contribution incredible. Yeah, do you feel much?
Speaker 1: Fire sort of closes the chapter that that you had
Speaker 1: written on on Minor in a way, Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1: I think, like I mean, it definitely sounds super different
Speaker 1: from the rest of the music that I'm making right now,
Speaker 1: which I'm relieved about because I wanted my to feel
Speaker 1: like a foundation that was honest and super true to
Speaker 1: the kind of music that I write when I'm alone,
Speaker 1: which is just like super stripped back and it's like
Speaker 1: guitar or piano and you know, the lyrics and that's it.
Speaker 1: And I feel like I'm working now a little bit
Speaker 1: differently in terms of of writing to track sometimes, and
Speaker 1: that's just changing the way that I'm right. I'm just
Speaker 1: really learning every single day, and I'm trying to step
Speaker 1: outside of the little world that Minor was because I
Speaker 1: would love to be somebody that can grow as they
Speaker 1: like age. So I'm trying to like step outside my
Speaker 1: incredible quote you gave recently where you said, I'm more
Speaker 1: scared to put out a song, but I don't feel
Speaker 1: as honest than put out a song that's oversharing. I
Speaker 1: thought that was just such an incredible sentiment and a
Speaker 1: really admirably high standard that I feel like an artist
Speaker 1: should have. I just want to ask you more about that,
Speaker 1: like why do you feel that way? The reason that
Speaker 1: I love songwriting is because I like need it to
Speaker 1: feel like saying and can died to myself and like
Speaker 1: I it's just the way that I've always um processed
Speaker 1: feelings and like I'm an introverted person, so I don't
Speaker 1: necessarily shared like how I'm really doing with people in
Speaker 1: my life all the time. And that's fine because I
Speaker 1: have songwriting. But if I ever like contaminated that practice
Speaker 1: by being dishonest, then I would be like fully betraying myself.
Speaker 1: I feel like I don't know what I would like
Speaker 1: really have if I weren't being like entirely transparent, And
Speaker 1: I also like would feel shitty weird about like I
Speaker 1: wouldn't know how to kind of like like look at
Speaker 1: myself if I if I because you know when you're
Speaker 1: not telling the truth, like it's you know, so I
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, I mean, it's it's an incredible thing
Speaker 1: to feel. I'm always fascinated by people who are able
Speaker 1: to write songs, and I'm sort of blessed without ability.
Speaker 1: At what point did they start thinking about other people?
Speaker 1: When you sit down? Is it primarily to to get
Speaker 1: a song out of you and get feelings out of you?
Speaker 1: Or are you trying to connect with somebody else or
Speaker 1: is it a mix above When I'm releasing music, you mean,
Speaker 1: or when you're when you're writing it. At what point
Speaker 1: in the creative process do you actually start thinking about, oh,
Speaker 1: people are going to hear this, and do you adjust accordingly?
Speaker 1: Or I never think about it. No, I don't think
Speaker 1: about it. It was It's interesting because I I um,
Speaker 1: because this is the first year that I've ever released
Speaker 1: anything on like a streaming service. I am realized that
Speaker 1: I don't really get the like a wave of emotion
Speaker 1: when a song is being released. It's just when I've
Speaker 1: finished writing it that I'm like feeling all the things.
Speaker 1: And because because again, like it is a really it's
Speaker 1: just such a personal thing for me, which I am
Speaker 1: super grateful for um, they're definitely like I don't I
Speaker 1: I don't ever read comments really because I because of
Speaker 1: how personal it is, and I try to have thick
Speaker 1: skin about everything owned me all the time. But like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm I I feel so excited when
Speaker 1: I see that anyone is either listening or connecting to
Speaker 1: the to the words. But um, I I don't think
Speaker 1: I even have enough experience yet to really be able
Speaker 1: to think about, like, how are people going to receive it? Weirdly,
Speaker 1: because I've never I've never even played a show yet,
Speaker 1: so I don't even know what that like in person
Speaker 1: reception looks like. And and so I I'm sure my
Speaker 1: like answer would change in a year after shows are
Speaker 1: are up and running again hopefully, but um, you know,
Speaker 1: we'll see. When did you first know that music was
Speaker 1: a way that you wanted to express yourself and express
Speaker 1: these feelings? What was you remember? Your first song? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's so stupid, but I like I had
Speaker 1: been journaling for really the first song that I ever
Speaker 1: wrote was a result of losing my journal, which was
Speaker 1: my like everything, and I had only my first instrument
Speaker 1: was rock drums, So like, it's not even you can't
Speaker 1: really write a song over that. But I like managed
Speaker 1: and it was it was just like a pretty like brutal.
Speaker 1: I was kind of like resorting to songwriting because I
Speaker 1: lost what was incredibly important to me. So, yeah, what
Speaker 1: about you started journaling in the first place. Is It's
Speaker 1: always something I wish I was able to do, was
Speaker 1: more disciplined than doing but I've never been able to
Speaker 1: my Well, I I was kind of just like raised
Speaker 1: around um like people who loved poetry and storytelling, and
Speaker 1: I felt like someone that like I just wanted to
Speaker 1: document my I don't know why. I just really wanted
Speaker 1: to document my feelings I had. I think I liked
Speaker 1: the drama of it. I think I liked feeling like
Speaker 1: I had something secret, and I think um that once
Speaker 1: I started doing it, it really became like a safe space.
Speaker 1: And then that was kind of it. Like I still
Speaker 1: I mean, like I do not like leave this anywhere
Speaker 1: far away from me, Like it's always with me, and
Speaker 1: it makes me feel safe and it makes me feel
Speaker 1: like I have kind of like a touchstone of like
Speaker 1: different chapters of my life. And it's the most useful
Speaker 1: tool in my songwriting that I've found, so far besides
Speaker 1: like referencing people that I am incredibly close to or
Speaker 1: like have had you know, detailed conversations with about you know,
Speaker 1: stuff that sticks out to me because I just I
Speaker 1: just try to write everything down. What has it been
Speaker 1: like working with producers on these recent Bastlord songs, with
Speaker 1: songs that are so personal and it was that a
Speaker 1: big adjustment from working on them sort of privately in
Speaker 1: your room and putting them directly on on streaming platforms. Yeah. Originally, yes,
Speaker 1: um for sure. When it was like before I before
Speaker 1: I signed to Interscope, I was kind of when I
Speaker 1: was sixteen, I was allowed to have like my first
Speaker 1: meeting with um, you know, anyone from anywhere, and it
Speaker 1: was my parents are like super protective, but a very
Speaker 1: kind woman had reached out and I think they felt
Speaker 1: safer because she was a woman and they were not
Speaker 1: just like some like dude anyway, So I I had
Speaker 1: a meeting and she kind of helped. Originally when I
Speaker 1: was sixteen, hooked me up with like speed dating kind
Speaker 1: of like trial with different producers, and that was weird.
Speaker 1: But it also like interestingly, I didn't feel as strange
Speaker 1: as it does now because I didn't know, kind of
Speaker 1: like what I wanted to say as much as I
Speaker 1: do today. So I didn't really feel like I was
Speaker 1: entering every session with like the most extreme amount of vulnerability.
Speaker 1: And I feel that way now, which is why I
Speaker 1: feel really lucky to have kind of like met a
Speaker 1: handful of people that I love and trust entirely, and
Speaker 1: so it doesn't feel like there's a like they have
Speaker 1: walls up um And at the same time, like if
Speaker 1: I do feel scared for whatever reason to be vulnerable,
Speaker 1: it's like the power that I feel I have is
Speaker 1: to be able to be in my room alone and
Speaker 1: write a song and then bring it in and I
Speaker 1: don't feel like I'm working through the language and the
Speaker 1: vocabulary in front of them, where I'm like there's a
Speaker 1: you know, a clock running out and we have until
Speaker 1: eight pm, and like I don't. I think it's like
Speaker 1: the pressure to write is not something that I have
Speaker 1: I've been familiar with until this year, just like being
Speaker 1: signed to a label, knowing like what I need to
Speaker 1: deliver and also wanting to never release anything that doesn't
Speaker 1: feel true and honest. So it's like an interesting but
Speaker 1: it also doesn't really take up too much space. I
Speaker 1: feel really lucky to have such a supportive UM team
Speaker 1: around me and everyone is I feel lucky to be
Speaker 1: like working with them. So it's it's a it's a
Speaker 1: cool situation. Yeah, Now that you sort of closed the
Speaker 1: book on the on the minor chapter and process those emotions,
Speaker 1: what themes are you looking to touch on in your
Speaker 1: and your work that you're in the songs that you're
Speaker 1: working on Now, I think that I would not have
Speaker 1: been writing about the same stuff had COVID not happened, honestly, because, um,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I've only really ever been used to writing
Speaker 1: about what is in front of me, and like if
Speaker 1: I'm meeting someone new or if I'm going to a
Speaker 1: new place and kind of like experiencing things for the
Speaker 1: first time in some capacity like that is has always
Speaker 1: been attractive to me and kind of like writing about
Speaker 1: first experiences and feelings. Um, But now, because of how
Speaker 1: isolated we've all been and kind of like stuck in
Speaker 1: one place, I've been thinking back to the year that
Speaker 1: I lived in New York because that same year was
Speaker 1: was when I had my first like like real breakup
Speaker 1: and that's what miners about. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: like in hindsight, as important as that event was, like
Speaker 1: the year itself that I was there was filled with
Speaker 1: so much more life than just like you know, being
Speaker 1: sad at the end of the day and like you know,
Speaker 1: journaling about how much you might miss someone or how
Speaker 1: much you might hate them. It's like I met the
Speaker 1: most amazing people that year. I like had kind of
Speaker 1: my first experiences as as an adult, like not living
Speaker 1: at home and feeling that freedom is such a specific thing.
Speaker 1: And and so I'm kind of writing in with like
Speaker 1: a sense of nostalgia that I, um, I'm only now,
Speaker 1: like I think finally just barely old enough to be
Speaker 1: able to feel nostalgic about something, and it's just that
Speaker 1: city and and having had the opportunity to live there. Um,
Speaker 1: so I'm kind of exploring that at the moment. It's
Speaker 1: funny because I also went to school in New York
Speaker 1: and leaving a a sort of more suburban area, and
Speaker 1: I remember that that moment, and when you leave to
Speaker 1: go to New York, you could come back home. It
Speaker 1: could be three weeks later, and everything still feels so
Speaker 1: different being back home. It's just this huge dividing point
Speaker 1: in your life. And I know that sounds dramatic, but
Speaker 1: I remember feeling that too immediately. No, exactly it is.
Speaker 1: It's also interesting, like because I am I'm writing about
Speaker 1: this a lot to you and kind of trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how to say it because it is such
Speaker 1: a strange thing. But like, I love school so much.
Speaker 1: I never dropped out. I'm like technically on a leaf
Speaker 1: about since, but I I love it and the fact
Speaker 1: that like all of my best friends, all of my
Speaker 1: peers for the most part, are still there and I'm
Speaker 1: doing this thing that I love. But it is really different,
Speaker 1: Like it's not there's not a day to day like
Speaker 1: locked in schedule. It's like everything's up in the air,
Speaker 1: and you know, touring could have been a reality this year,
Speaker 1: but it will be next year, knock on wood, and
Speaker 1: like that is a whole other, like kind of experience
Speaker 1: that I can't necessarily like call my roommate from school
Speaker 1: and like be like over, you know, tell me how
Speaker 1: you got through that, because it's a new thing. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I just like so, I'm I'm kind of
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how to write about that, like separation,
Speaker 1: and that's been a super emotional part of of like
Speaker 1: doing music. At all in a great way and in
Speaker 1: a hard way. But it's it's, um, yeah, it's fascinating.
Speaker 1: And you're also at this moment on world tour, a
Speaker 1: very different kind of world tour. I mean, you're in
Speaker 1: a world tour in your bedroom. Tell me about how
Speaker 1: that's going. How are these digital concerts going. It's like
Speaker 1: the coolest thing I've ever done, I think because I
Speaker 1: having or played a show, um, and also being introverted, uh,
Speaker 1: and having like my entire like experience in terms of
Speaker 1: sharing music with people. It's been on Instagram except you
Speaker 1: know until this past year. But so I have like
Speaker 1: or had the worst stage fright ever, like I was.
Speaker 1: It made me yeah, yeah, like I thinking about it
Speaker 1: when I was younger, because I would think about it
Speaker 1: when I was writing songs in like middle school, in
Speaker 1: high school and whatever. Like I would sometimes think about
Speaker 1: it so hard that I would cry because it freaked
Speaker 1: me out. I was like, I don't want this thing
Speaker 1: to be the reason I can't pursue music, because it
Speaker 1: was like so debilitating and weird. Um. And yet that
Speaker 1: was clearly a spawn of like my crippling anxiety, like
Speaker 1: not being able to even I was basing that fear
Speaker 1: on nothing. But um so, these shows have been unbelievable
Speaker 1: because it's like the most dream me version of like
Speaker 1: a transition between playing stuff for no one in my
Speaker 1: room and playing things on a stage for people. It's
Speaker 1: like I am in my room, but I see their
Speaker 1: faces and their live reactions and we're talking throughout the show,
Speaker 1: and it's like crazy. It's like a really weird thing
Speaker 1: that's like possible and like manageable and amazing. And so
Speaker 1: I'm now just like revved up and excited for shows.
Speaker 1: Um So, I can't believe that, like that's the thing
Speaker 1: that we can do today. But it's amazing. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: has to be so surreal being in the very place
Speaker 1: in your bedroom where you would you know, write these
Speaker 1: songs years ago. It must be so just that juxtaposition
Speaker 1: of being sort of where it began and also performing
Speaker 1: for people and being sort of where you want to be.
Speaker 1: That must be really incredible. It's cool. It's like I
Speaker 1: was nervous for the first like two or three shows,
Speaker 1: and then I I kind of realized how comfortable I
Speaker 1: was not because of like just the ability to like
Speaker 1: sing in front of people, which was a new discovery.
Speaker 1: But like I know so many of the faces that
Speaker 1: were at these shows because of how many years I've
Speaker 1: been interacting with a lot of these people all over
Speaker 1: the place, and like that's a crazy thing in and
Speaker 1: of itself, but like I feel like a really strong
Speaker 1: sense of community with the people that for some reason
Speaker 1: listen to my music. Like it's like it's a really
Speaker 1: um special thing that like they've allowed me to have.
Speaker 1: And especially during the pandemic, Like the most amount of
Speaker 1: faces that I've seen at one time where have been
Speaker 1: during these shows, Like and it feels it's like it's
Speaker 1: really it's like serotonin. I'm like I can get through
Speaker 1: the following month because I just got to have a
Speaker 1: conversation with like a hundred fifty people and it was
Speaker 1: weird and funny and like they're in Germany, but like
Speaker 1: it was so fucking fun and like it was amazing.
Speaker 1: It's just like the best. So I'm I love it
Speaker 1: more than anything. Well music for you, it seems to
Speaker 1: have always been I have this element of social media
Speaker 1: to it, as you said, putting songs on Instagram and
Speaker 1: also back in like SoundCloud. It wasn't just a way
Speaker 1: to listen to music. It was a way to connect
Speaker 1: and almost have a dialogue with the audience, how you
Speaker 1: could comment on specific points in the song and SoundCloud
Speaker 1: to tell me more about like just sort of the
Speaker 1: funny blend of of social media and music for you, Well,
Speaker 1: I mean it like is you said, but like yeah,
Speaker 1: so I wasn't allowed to have social media in middle
Speaker 1: school when everyone else was getting it for the first time,
Speaker 1: and I felt, uh kind of like a bit of
Speaker 1: an outsider obviously, being like in sixth grade and like
Speaker 1: insecure already, and my uh just like I was, I
Speaker 1: was using the internet to discover new music anyway, found
Speaker 1: SoundCloud and and just like kind of went off there
Speaker 1: and was one of the people that was commenting like
Speaker 1: four times a song at like every section that made
Speaker 1: me emotional, and then like reply to people's comments who
Speaker 1: also felt the same. And so I was like really
Speaker 1: interacting with people there. And then by the time I
Speaker 1: got on Instagram, it was like just a really obvious
Speaker 1: kind of like bridge. I was like I'm already posting,
Speaker 1: you know, like this is like this is how I'm
Speaker 1: I'm comfortable using the internet is to share music and
Speaker 1: to to do it that way, and um, so it
Speaker 1: felt it felt obvious to me and at the same time,
Speaker 1: like it's an interesting instinct, I guess, to be able
Speaker 1: to like hit a button and then walk away from
Speaker 1: your computer and like not be scared, despite the fact
Speaker 1: that like that lives forever versus like a live show,
Speaker 1: you know, if people aren't documenting it is there for
Speaker 1: you know, an hour and then never again. So I
Speaker 1: don't know what my psychology is behind that, but um,
Speaker 1: that's that's how I started posting stuff anywhere. Did you
Speaker 1: ever use their comments to sort of refine your songs,
Speaker 1: refine track lists or anything like that? Is it is
Speaker 1: almost like a collaborative process. I wouldn't stay on I honestly,
Speaker 1: I don't spend too much time on SoundCloud anymore. Sadly,
Speaker 1: Like I think my because of like the community that
Speaker 1: I've found on Instagram, Like I feel really personally connected
Speaker 1: to all of them, um, and so I probably should
Speaker 1: read comments elsewhere, but I definitely feel like a sense
Speaker 1: of like it is a bit of a collaborative process
Speaker 1: with strangers. It's cool being able to test out clips
Speaker 1: of songs on Instagram too and see like how is
Speaker 1: it received, even in like, you know, a hundred comments
Speaker 1: like is this a song that I should finish and
Speaker 1: release or is it only worth the thirty seconds that
Speaker 1: I wrote? And then I'll leave it casually like it's
Speaker 1: not a big deal. So that part is nice. Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean I also like definitely reference the
Speaker 1: people who listen to my music. They'll send me songs
Speaker 1: a lot be like I think you might like this.
Speaker 1: I think. So there's like even in that way, it's
Speaker 1: like I can pull production elements from you know, references
Speaker 1: that you know strangers send me, And that's amazing. Also,
Speaker 1: who are some of your musical heroes when you were
Speaker 1: in those days when you were first starting listening to SoundCloud?
Speaker 1: Who are the voices that really got you through? Phoebe
Speaker 1: Bridgers is like the one and she um her. When
Speaker 1: I was thirteen, I found her stuff on SoundCloud and
Speaker 1: like YouTube and um, the first piece of music I
Speaker 1: ever posted to the Internet ever was a cover of
Speaker 1: her song called Waiting Room and it I remember like
Speaker 1: finding the cover photo that I ended up uploading like
Speaker 1: from tumbler, Like it was like all of that like
Speaker 1: I could not have like so so Phoebe yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: like she really she really like shaped a lot of
Speaker 1: like what I started caring about in terms of she was.
Speaker 1: She was the first artist that I listened to where
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, I think that I want to
Speaker 1: be singing my own songs because until that point I
Speaker 1: just loved songwriting. And I was like, I it's singing
Speaker 1: is nice because I can hear these songs coming to life.
Speaker 1: But like, I'm not a good like I can't do
Speaker 1: that myself. And I was so scared of people, so
Speaker 1: I was like, this isn't gonna work, um, but Phoebe
Speaker 1: made it feel doable somehow, like just I was like,
Speaker 1: your you are literally reading me your diary in these songs,
Speaker 1: and so if you can do it, I can do it.
Speaker 1: And and so I owe her a lot of like
Speaker 1: weird confidence. But yeah, well so it's so it's so bizarre.
Speaker 1: There's some like weird. I actually like I've known her
Speaker 1: since I was thirteen because I went to a middle
Speaker 1: high school and when I was in sixth grade, there
Speaker 1: was like a senior or something at the school who
Speaker 1: had seen that I posted that cover somehow, and he
Speaker 1: was like, I know her. She comes through sometimes. So
Speaker 1: I met her at school and then we've just like
Speaker 1: we've known each other ever since then, and I don't
Speaker 1: see her often at all, and she I'm I'm like,
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm just still her biggest fan from Afar.
Speaker 1: But you know, it's like she's like so supportive of
Speaker 1: me and so kind and generous, and she doesn't need
Speaker 1: to spend any of her time like even thinking that
Speaker 1: I exist anymore, but like she's just really really she's
Speaker 1: just like the greatest. She's like the best artist ever
Speaker 1: and she's just like the best. You've got some great
Speaker 1: feedback from that for some reason. But she, I mean,
Speaker 1: every I I am just like I'm everyone's biggest fan.
Speaker 1: So I don't nothing else makes sense to me. Just
Speaker 1: I'm like, I just like stay in this room and
Speaker 1: I like listen to music all day want. I mean
Speaker 1: this as somebody like me who loves music with all
Speaker 1: my heart and has never been able to write song,
Speaker 1: and just the way that people do it it just
Speaker 1: it still seems like magic even after all these years.
Speaker 1: To me, you've been writing songs for what twelve ten
Speaker 1: years now, a very long time. I know this is
Speaker 1: probably a strange question, but what makes you a better songwriter?
Speaker 1: How does that process work? Is it getting better at
Speaker 1: articulating your feelings. Is it being able to come up
Speaker 1: with more complex melodies? Is it just mastering song structures
Speaker 1: and mechanics? Like what is it that to you feels
Speaker 1: like how have you progressed? Do you feel? Um, I'm
Speaker 1: actively trying to right now because because it is really
Speaker 1: important to me that the music I released next does
Speaker 1: feel like there's a bit of an evolution, Like I'm not,
Speaker 1: you know, literally stuck in this room because I think,
Speaker 1: um that like I could make another project that sounds
Speaker 1: like minor because that's what really does come so naturally
Speaker 1: to me, is like that kind of songwriting, that kind
Speaker 1: of like production. I'm like, I can see this whole thing,
Speaker 1: but I want to step out of that. And I
Speaker 1: think what's been amazing, uh for me to watch is
Speaker 1: specifically working with Blake Slatkin, who is my boyfriend but
Speaker 1: like also works with so many different kinds of artists,
Speaker 1: and he is like a sponge when he's in a
Speaker 1: room with someone in like a really amazing way where
Speaker 1: he's so hyper aware of of like intricacies that every
Speaker 1: single time we get back in the studio together, he'll
Speaker 1: like say one thing or play me one drum sound
Speaker 1: from like a previous session that he had in the week,
Speaker 1: and like it will it will like spark something that
Speaker 1: if I hadn't heard that sound, I would not have
Speaker 1: otherwise like written, So does that make sense? Like I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm it's it's surrounding myself. Yeah, it's like
Speaker 1: I mean it's just like I I think exposure two
Speaker 1: music that you don't make is so important, and I
Speaker 1: think that's just like what I found. Um, I'm like
Speaker 1: really listening to people, like just like shutting your mouth
Speaker 1: and like listening to the people that are around you,
Speaker 1: or like listening to conversations that you might over hear
Speaker 1: on the street and like and then of course like
Speaker 1: just practice. But there are so many I feel like
Speaker 1: there are methods in terms of like how many syllables
Speaker 1: you should use, or like what like mouth sounds make
Speaker 1: it easy for a song to like roll off the
Speaker 1: tongue and then therefore be more catchy. And there's all
Speaker 1: that stuff I am really less capable of, Like like
Speaker 1: those details are less obvious to me. I think, like
Speaker 1: as someone who is not touching all the buttons when
Speaker 1: we're producing, it's like I'm thinking more about like what's
Speaker 1: the feeling what do I want to feel at the
Speaker 1: end of the song? Like, what am I feeling right now?
Speaker 1: I'm like, that's where my head is mostly, but I'm
Speaker 1: trying to like step out of that a little bit
Speaker 1: because I think I have to in order to get better.
Speaker 1: Something I've noticed with a lot of writers, either songwriters
Speaker 1: or novelists or pretty much anyone who writes, is they
Speaker 1: almost have a hard time shutting the camera off in
Speaker 1: a way that there's sort of they could be going
Speaker 1: through the most you know, being broken up within that
Speaker 1: very moment, and there's still a part of them in
Speaker 1: the back of their mind that's thinking, oh, wait, this
Speaker 1: is going to make a really great song, a really
Speaker 1: great do you find yourself almost having a hard time
Speaker 1: being present because there's that little piece of you in
Speaker 1: the back that's recording at all sometimes and that like sucks,
Speaker 1: like that can like that looks like that's like exhausting
Speaker 1: because I think, um, I think, like you want to
Speaker 1: be able to do both things and I don't think
Speaker 1: I like live there all the time, but for sure
Speaker 1: like and also that's what like, it's more so annoying
Speaker 1: when the people in your life if you're like saying
Speaker 1: this day was hard or like this person made me
Speaker 1: feel x y Z for like a friend or a
Speaker 1: family member, but like that's going to be a great song,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's like yeah, or it
Speaker 1: just sucks. Yeah, so but you know, I think it's
Speaker 1: like it kind of goes, it goes both ways. What
Speaker 1: does one look like for you? Right now? I'm writing
Speaker 1: my album right now, which feels different and like exciting, genuinely,
Speaker 1: like for the first time, like the past month, it's
Speaker 1: finally started to feel exciting because I was struggling to
Speaker 1: right for a lot of quarantine, which was also like
Speaker 1: stressing me out and making me feel like I actually
Speaker 1: I don't really know how to do anything, like it
Speaker 1: was a very weirdly like in terms of writing, like
Speaker 1: a debilitating year. Um, and I still don't know exactly why,
Speaker 1: but obviously just like based on circumstance, like A is
Speaker 1: different right now. So I've started to become more patient
Speaker 1: with myself in that way. And as I've done that,
Speaker 1: the songs have actually started to come. So I'm relieved
Speaker 1: and they'refore excited and um, if everything goes to plan
Speaker 1: and if people stay safe and if we as a country,
Speaker 1: like get our Ship Together tour will be a thing. Um,
Speaker 1: not just here but in I think May, I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to be in Europe, which would be amazing, and um,
Speaker 1: I just I don't know. I'm like, I just am stoked.
Speaker 1: I was feeling super kind of stressed about a lot
Speaker 1: of unnecessary things a month ago, and having had the
Speaker 1: opportunity to release brush Fire at the end of this
Speaker 1: year made me feel like almost like I could reflect
Speaker 1: on on the music that I that I released and
Speaker 1: wrote this year and made me excited and like motivated
Speaker 1: to move forward. And I for a moment was not
Speaker 1: feeling that way. So I just feel very like overwhelming
Speaker 1: sense of gratitude and uh and I yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: more than anything. I hope that everyone's just safe next year,
Speaker 1: but well, we'll see what happens. Learning to be good
Speaker 1: to yourself in times like this and accepting that, you know,
Speaker 1: the the anxiety and just everything else that surrounds us
Speaker 1: is I think something I think everybody's working on. It's
Speaker 1: be like, Okay, today today I'm not feeling that, but
Speaker 1: you know what tomorrow could be better exactly. Yeah, fully,
Speaker 1: it's such a day by day thank for everyone and
Speaker 1: especially considering like all of our experiences this year are
Speaker 1: so so are there it's they're as wildly different as
Speaker 1: we all are as people, based on our backgrounds and
Speaker 1: what we have access to or don't. And so I think,
Speaker 1: like more than it really is, I just feel I
Speaker 1: feel so um lucky for absolutely everything um and and
Speaker 1: excited and hopeful that like all of us like as
Speaker 1: people will will continue to support each other because there's
Speaker 1: there's a lot of kindness that exists, but like I
Speaker 1: just hope that we can like lean on that. And
Speaker 1: and my my last question, if you could snaff your
Speaker 1: fingers and have everything go back to I'll say normal
Speaker 1: and quotes whatever your definition of normal is this time
Speaker 1: last year, Say what would be the first thing that
Speaker 1: you would do? Places you'd go, people you'd hug, things
Speaker 1: you'd do. I um, I it's such a like the
Speaker 1: specific like personal one. But my mom's whole family is
Speaker 1: from Maine, and um, that is like a really important
Speaker 1: place for me, like being in in the woods and
Speaker 1: by the water. UM. Feeling that connected to to like
Speaker 1: nature every year of my life like has been something
Speaker 1: that I feel like, um really like actually for writing
Speaker 1: is like a really helpful thing for my head and
Speaker 1: getting out of l a which um I love but
Speaker 1: like can feel like really exhausting and kind of loud.
Speaker 1: Um And so I wish I or I would go
Speaker 1: there if I could snap, I would just go there alone,
Speaker 1: frankly and and and be like in the trees um
Speaker 1: and you know, hug my cousins and all the things.
Speaker 1: But fingers crossed that happened. Really, I'm a New England
Speaker 1: boy myself. I totally get it. Oh are you? Where
Speaker 1: are you from? I'm from about an hour west of Boston,
Speaker 1: a little town called so Jealous and so jealous helping
Speaker 1: me get there so hopefully, yeah, I hope, I hope
Speaker 1: for you. Oh yeah, exactly. Gracie, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for your time today, your music. You're the best. Thank
Speaker 1: you very much, thank you, thank you for everything. Thank
Speaker 1: you for having me. Inside the Studio is a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: check out the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.