Introducing Emerging Pop Powerhouse GRACEY
In-demand singer/songwriter GRACEY is taking the music world by storm with her emotional and relatable music. At the age of 16, the emerging artist was recruited by the prolific songwriting and production team Xenomania. After a few years of writing for some of music’s biggest acts, the 21-year-old songstress has moved from behind the scenes to center stage to start her solo career. Her EP Imposter Syndrome – a record about heartbreak and the highs and lows that come with it – sets the stage for her upward trajectory, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for this talented artist!
We were able to chat with GRACEY and got a look into the making of her EP, her writing process, and so much more!
Your EP Imposter Syndrome is such a solid body of work. Can you take us into the making of the record?
The process started very organically. I never went into a room with the mindset I was going to write ’the next single’ or anything, I would just start messing around until a found chord sequence or a lyric that made me instantly feel something – and for this EP, I quickly found the common theme was heartache. I usually know pretty instantly into starting an idea, whether it’s special or not, and with all of these songs, I really felt it. All of them were lyrically written within a couple of hours – it was like I was venting out all of these emotions I had stored up and suppressed down. I find it mad how music still remains to be the one thing that can actually bring these emotions out of me.
Your track Easy For You is such an emotional banger, what inspired the idea for the song?
Thank you! The idea actually came whilst having a conversation with one of my closest mates. She was going through a really tough time trying to get over a recent ex and couldn’t get her head around how her ex could possibly be ‘okay and carrying on as normal’ after their relationship ended when she was feeling so low and broken. It completely resonated with me, and it was from that conversation I got the line ‘I wish I paid attention to the way you treated your ex’. Two days later, I sent her the finished song – safe to say it’s her fav of the EP.
When did you realise you wanted to pursue music?
I’ve always been super drawn to music, I think. When I was younger, my idea of fun would be getting instrumentals of songs I liked up on youtube and then putting my own little jingles over them – one of my oldest mates still remembers one I wrote called ‘Pinky Finger’ haha. I never assumed I would actually have a career in music, and I just did it because I really loved and enjoyed it. I started putting up these little snippets of songs I’d written on Soundcloud (I recorded them onto my phone in my bathroom… gotta get those good acoustics lol) and they got a really positive response – I think that was the moment I decided to go for it and began finding other songwriters/producers on there to start working with!
What’s the creative process when you’re collaborating with artists songwriting wise?
It varies a lot depending on who I’m working with, but writing for other artists is a very different process to writing for myself – my concerns are on how it relates and connects to that person, as opposed to myself. It’s more about accommodating and helping them find what they want to say and how they hear the track, so it’s usually a lot of chatting and picking their brain to figure it out! I absolutely love it, it means l, for however long, I can write about completely different emotions to mine, even in completely different styles/genres!
Do you find it challenging to write tracks about your personal experiences?
I don’t think I find it hard to writing about them actually, if anything, I find it easy as it’s a means of getting it all off my chest and helps with giving me closure. However, writing this EP highlighted to me that I’m someone who really suppress’ my feelings down a lot. I think from how I am everyday, people would expect my tunes to be more upbeat and positive, so when I played these songs off the Imposter Syndrome to some close ones, I think they were quite surprised, as I’d never properly let on how I was feeling when it was all happening – I’m so bad at that. So I’ve found the most challenging bit being more the actual releasing of the songs – It almost feels like I’m showing everyone my secret diary.
What are your top five goals you want to achieve as an artist?
Ooh! I’m quite an ambitious person, so I defiantly do have lots of goals I’d like to achieve in music, but I think my main one at the moment would be to sell out my own show and to hear people singing my own songs I’ve written back to me. That’s something I’ve always dreamed about. I’ve seen other artists that I’ve written for do it with our songs and even that really hit me so I think if it was my own tunes, that would be very special!
What plans do you have musically for the rest of 2019?
I’m back in the studio writing away, and I’m already absolutely buzzing about what’s to come! I think the rest of the year, I’ll mainly focus on exploring and developing the next phase of my project!
Make sure to check out GRACEY debut EP Imposter Syndrome below!
