FEATURE: Spotlight: GRACEY — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

GRACEY

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FOR this outing of Spotlight…

I am shining a light on Grace Baker, a.k.a. GRACEY. The Brighton-born artist is one of the most promising Pop acts around, and I think she will be very big in 2021. At this time of year, many people are listing their names to watch in 2021. I think GRACEY is going to among those you need to keep an eye out for. I think it is best to introduce some interview segments, just so we can get a better idea of who GRACEY is and why she is such a fantastic talent. Her fanbase is growing all of the time and, with music that is both personal but able to be absorbed and felt by everyone who listens, her work is getting a lot of love. I want to start by quoting from an interview GRACEY conducted with The Line of Best Fit last year. The interview was conducted just before her E.P., Imposter Syndrome, was about to come out – and she expressed her feelings regarding putting her introduction statement into the world:

“I’m actually quite scared to release it because it's a part of me that I'm not really used to talking about with my closest friends, let alone random people that might actually hate it.” London-based artist GRACEY is airing her anxieties about releasing her debut EP Imposter Syndrome.

It’s a leap for the 21-year-old who until now has had a fruitful career writing songs for other artists (Jonas Blue, RAYE, Olly Murs). Discovered at the age of 16 by Xenomania—the UK-based pop factory whose writers have penned songs for Kylie, Pet Shop Boys, Cher, Sugababes and others—GRACEY became accustomed to “putting myself in someone else's shoes” instead of fronting her own creations. Now, she’s about to face the world solo.

Imposter Syndrome, however, is GRACEY’s proper introduction. The title, she explains, arose amid the transition from writing songs for other people to writing songs for herself. “It was way harder than I thought it was going to be,” she admits. “It's really hard when you’re writing songs for closure. Usually, my songs will be fronted by someone so I can be outside of them. But when you're singing about yourself and the video is essentially you crying and being rained on by a watering can,” she says in reference to the video for the EP’s heartbreak lead single “Different Things”, “it's pretty hard to then go, 'I'm not into you, literally I'm fine.' That’s what I always say.”

Her mother, she reveals, is one of the reasons she’s so driven. “I grew up in a household where my mum and my dad both earned the same—if not my mum was the breadwinner [her mother has worked in production at the BBC, her father in advertising]. I have two older brothers. My mum taught me that I should never be submissive to a guy because my ideas are equally as good.”

“Now, I'm way more like, 'Nope, this is how it is’ and I hope that with my artist career I can be like that too and stop having imposter syndrome. But I'm not quite there yet. I'm still a bit like, 'Eeeeeeee!' It's still early on”.

I would urge people to listen to Imposter Syndrome, as E.P.s don’t get as much acclaim and focus as albums. I feel there is a lot of great music on Imposter Syndrome. One of GRACEY’s key strengths is her voice. It carries so much experience and age, despite the fact she is still very young. As this interview from the BBC highlights, GRACEY’s voice was under threat just as her career was getting started:

“Pop singer Gracey had always had a rasp in her voice - a distinctive, leonine quality that brought her songs of heartache and unrequited love to vivid life.

But then something went wrong.

This time last year, she was in Los Angeles writing new music when her larynx locked up.

"I didn't speak the entire trip unless I was in a writing session and I still lost my voice," says the 22-year-old.

"I remember being with my manager at breakfast, and nothing she could say could make it better. And I just cried my eyes out because I was like, 'I'm gonna have to get surgery.'"

The Brighton-born singer, whose full name is Grace Barker, was quickly diagnosed with vocal nodules - small hard growths on the vocal cords - and went under the surgeon's knife.

For the next two months she was forbidden from speaking and singing. For a natural chatterbox, it was an intensely uncomfortable experience.

"I mean, I was such a mess," she says. "I'm someone that would just talk for days - but imagine if you're at the dinner table and everyone's cracking jokes and you can't join in because you're trying to write out a joke on your whiteboard - and then you're dyslexic, so no-one can read it”.

Empty Love is one of this year’s best Pop songs - and it features Australian singer, Ruel. I have been converted to a style of Pop that I am not an overly-big fan of by GRACEY’s skills and vocal prowess! I have been compelled to dig deeper into her catalogue and discover an artist that is very much on a route to stardom. I want to bring in an interview feature from MTV, who asked her about musical influences; the subject of Empty Love came up:

“3) who inspired you to start a career in music?

I always think I first fell in love with music in the backseat of the car on long journeys when I was a kid, and I’d say I was inspired a lot from those memories. It just fascinated me how quickly time would pass when listening to my favourite artists/albums and I think that made me realise how much I loved it. In terms of actually going for it myself, I really have to thank my family for not straight up laughing at all my horrendous first attempts of songwriting and for also never telling me to ‘get a real job’… well yet haha.

4) who are your biggest musical influences?

Any artist that makes me FEEL. Music is such a powerful tool - I think it’s so special that someone who might be on the other side of the world, who you may have never met before, can write a song and so perfectly articulate how you’re feeling. For me those artists are Joni Mitchell, Lorde, Sia, Robyn, The 1975 (to name a few)! I also absolutely adore how these artists create such worlds around them - when you’re listening to their music/going to their live shows, I feel like you’re really seeing the world through their lens. I’d love for my fans to feel that way about me!

5) tell us about the writing and recording process for your new single/album…

I actually just released my next single since being in isolation! It was a song I began writing back in October, after having to take a three months off due to a surgery on my vocal cords. It was a pretty rough time - I wasn’t allowed speak or sing, which felt so alien after four years of writing five/six days a week. However, it didn’t really give me time to look in the mirror and understand myself more. I realised how much I was letting other people’s opinions define me and how frivolous the online world is. I wasn’t okay, yet there I was posting selfies, smiling pretending that everything was dandy, something I think a lot of us do now a days. So the song surrounds that - it’s called ‘Empty Love’, and I’m really excited about it! And it’s also featuring the lovely Ruel, who is an amazing Australian artist I’ve written with before - I think he just elevated it to a new level!’

Last month, GRACEY released the new E.P., The Art of Closure (where Empty Love is taken from), and it is another terrific listen. This is what Music Talkers wrote about the E.P. and its strengths:

“Brighton-born Gracey is clearly enjoying her breakout year. After the runaway success of her collaboration with 220 Kid on the single Don’t Need Love, which reached a peak of number nine for two weeks in the UK singles chart, as well as songwriting credits for the likes of Sub Focus, Lorde, and Kylie Minogue and another smash collaboration with Alexander 23, the young singer-songwriter is back with her new seven-track EP The Art Of Closure.

It’s an incredibly confident and varied collection. 99% comes screaming out of the gates, a minimalist slice of industrial pop with the first chance here to savour Gracey’s stunning vocals, which she unleashes to maximum effect on the song’s verses, while Empty Love is a sweet and sparse affair that discusses social media and it’s addictive nature.

On Don’t, she showcases her lyrical skill further as she sings: “You’re just telling me lies and lies to try and get back in my sheets / Careful what you say cause babe I might believe / You come inside we don’t need the conversation or the coffee / Don’t say you miss me if you don’t / Don’t say you’ll love me when you won’t / I always know when you lie to me / So please, let me go”.

Like That raises the tempo, the smooth project she completed with fellow rising star Alexander 23 that has racked up the streams, before Care Less slows things down again, an almost acoustic little interlude in the middle of The Art Of Closure. Alone In My Room (Gone) is another great example of Gracey’s vocal prowess, while closing track Don’t Need Love is the blistering number that sparked so much of her success to date and has already racked up almost fifty million streams on Spotify”.

99%, and Care Less are among my favourite tracks of the year; I wonder whether there are any plans to put out a debut album next year. It is clear that, between E.P.s, GRACEY has grown and has incorporated more into her music. It has been a hard time for GRACEY regarding her voice and the fact she has not been able to perform and record as she might have liked this year. I am sure she will be keen to get back on the road and to the fans when things start to open up. I am glad things are better for her and she is still putting music out. I wonder whether a GRACEY album might come out in 2021 because, with some hotly-tipped artists planning their debut albums for next year, I am certain that she is concocting and plotting. Her sound is malleable enough to appeal to a wide demographic and, whilst some of her lyrical content is downbeat and lost, I don’t think the music makes you feel low or exhausted. There is plenty of physicality and energy in her music, and one can easily become engrossed in her words. Go and investigate GRACEY, as I think she will grow next year. She is one of the freshest and best voices in the modern Pop landscape. Although 2020 has provided some hurdles and bleak days, I do feel that 2021 will be a…