INTERVIEW: Gracie Abrams releases debut EP 'Minor': "I'm more scared to put out a song that I don't feel is honest than to put out a song that's oversharing"
Image: Vince Aung
Interview: Jett Tattersall
Gracie Abrams today releases her debut EP Minor and with it confirms her status as one of the premier artists in the next wave of young artists emerging on the music scene.
Although she has only been releasing music for less than a year, Abrams has already notched up close to 90 million global streams, with Vogue UK and singer-songwriter Lorde some of her notable fans. She also attracted some of the industry’s behind the scenes heavy hitters to work with her on Minor, including acclaimed Australian songwriter Sarah Aarons, who has written for artists such as Mabel, Jessie Ware and Halsey, and producer Joel Little, who has worked with Taylor Swift, Lorde and Ellie Goulding.
Abrams music is infused with deeply personal and intimate stories about relationships and is remarkably mature for her young age. Moody, warm, emotive and engrossing it is also utterly captivating. We recently spoke with Gracie to find out more about her career and the creation of Minor.
Hi Gracie. How are you keeping these days?
Relatively well! I feel very lucky for my health and my family. Compared to the rest of the entire world, I feel like I am definitely really hanging in.
Congratulations on the release of Minor. It is stunning.
Thank you so much. I'm really excited. I'm nervous. But I'm excited ultimately.
I mean how good are you? You were set to go on tour, but then you just had a kick arse tour in your bedroom Talk about handling a situation well. How was that for you?
Well, I have still never played a show live before ever. So right before stay at home orders were put in place, I'd been rehearsing for the tour but that's still the extent of my experience. It's really just being tested by this new equipment and figuring out how to sing live like period. That is a completely new thing. It's funny, the fact that my first tour is in my bedroom - obviously it wasn't the plan it kind of feels like an extension of what I've been doing every day of my entire life since I started writing and singing. So if anything I think it's just going to be fun to be able to, in a more intimate way than I already have in a smaller group, bring people into my space and just get to have a one on one. Being in person is my dream and I can't wait to finally meet all the people I've been talking to for so long through Instagram but this is just going to have to do for now. But it'll be fun. I think it’s going to be really fun honestly.
And you know what, you're keeping it real because everyone's tour does begin in the bedroom as a tot - most of us just don't go onto musical stardom
Exactly. I hope everyone shows up in pyjamas. That's my dream!
Everyone has to show up in their pjs and hairbrush to sing into! I want to talk to you about the single ‘21’ that you released earlier this year. It is such an eloquent track with this gorgeous sort of desire and hope and sentiment. It is just incredible, the poetry here. Where did the story and the creation for this one come from?
The story is pretty directly in the lyrics honestly, but that's because of the fact that in the session I had my brought my journal and I was pulling direct quotes that I'd written down when I was angry or sad or whatever about the relationship. The song itself, when it kind of unfolded in the way it did, I had only had the first two lyrics figured out and then I got in a session with Sarah Aarons and Joel Little who are two heroes of mine and it still feels like a weird fever dream that I was ever in the same room with both of them at once and even more of a fever dream that they touched anything that has to do with my music. When I got in the room with them, we just got into conversation about the story behind the song and their ability to actively listen in a way that challenged me to think even deeper than I already had is what helped develop the story because it really is such a direct recounting of the situation but I credit them entirely for being able to get that out of me.
I want to go back to that very first release ‘Mean It’. Again, an incredible song with that gorgeous lingering piano with the lyrics telling this story of this relationship that’s just so on its last legs. Are you at all ever apprehensive to release such very personal songs, particularly right off the gate as a recording artist or are you just like ‘no, this is me, I’m here now, let's just do it?’
Yeah, I think I don't know how to write if it's not entirely vulnerable to be honest. Because my influences and inspirations sonically are all writers and artists that have no fear in terms of just expressing what is entirely real for them, and because that was the music I was listening to when I really started caring about song writing as much as I do, it almost feels like those artists trained me to not think about making something sound pretty for the sake of saving face. I feel like I will never be able to enjoy a piece of music if I write it unless it's entirely authentic and I will always know if I'm not telling the truth. My only job is just saying what's real for me. The nicest part about putting music out thus far has been that kind of communication with people that I've never met before on the internet relating to experiences. It makes me feel so much more validated in my own relationships. So that part's been amazing. But with ‘Mean It’ for example, I didn't think twice about it. I think I'm more scared to put out a song that I don't feel is honest than to put out a song that's oversharing.
I guess you'd have to find the meaning in there for you. Your social media activity is incredible. Your listeners really do get a chance to know you. You have this kind of constant thread of newness offering up all these nuggets of your experience in life. What is the comfort you find in revealing yourself to, like you said, the friends you've never met or the faceless masses this way and how does it change you differently from the face to face emotional interaction that you get one on one?
That's a really good question. I feel like the only reason I'm comfortable talking about my feelings and experiences on the internet is because halfway through middle school is when I got a phone and when I started feeling what I thought was the most intense kind of sadness or whatever in middle school was also the same time that I had access to the internet. It was when I found out what Soundcloud was. I wasn't allowed to have social media until much later than the rest of my friends because my parents were so strict, but I had access to the Soundcloud, and on Soundcloud, I don't even know if they still do this but on songs you could comment wherever you wanted and all the little comments would show up on the timeline of the song and so instead of having an Instagram because i wasn't allowed to I would go on Soundcloud and read every single comment on a song I loved and see strangers connecting to music that was uploaded by someone they had never met. So it was kind of like my first introduction to social media was directly connected to people in conversation about how music was making them feel. By the time i did get to Instagram, sharing my music only felt like an extension of what I had already known. And the reason that I feel so comfortable and safe doing it is partly because I am being validated by these strangers that I desperately love. People that I have never met and might never meet telling me that they've gone through the same thing or that they feel seen through my lyrics. That's a big thing. Also I can be really shy and so there's something weirdly comforting about being able to hit a button and then walk away from it and not look if I don’t want to. I know that I'm probably very alone in thinking about the internet in that way, but I think that's why I'm more nervous for live shows than I am for anything that I have direct control over, but that's me being like a crazy person!
It's a wonderful place for introverts to feel safe to express their emotions. You’ve put that perfectly. As a female artist, songwriter, creating your own music, you're going up against all these negative walls of ‘she's young, she's a woman’, but you're such a powerhouse. I wanted to know your thoughts on gender equality in the music industry? What have your experiences been and do you think we're changing?
No one's ever asked me a question like that before, so I appreciate that you just did. Thank you. There is blatant inequality in the music industry. There's blatant inequality in every single industry. There's blatant inequality in every single structure under the sun in this country and for me as a young woman who has been lucky enough to have the kind of education that I have had, who's been lucky enough to have as supportive a family as I've had, I feel like my radar is almost maybe heightened by the fact that I can really quickly identify when I walk into a room and there are no women in it. And for me, when I was trying to decide what label I wanted to sign to, something that I paid attention to was how are these rooms populated. Something that I feel like Interscope has implemented in a way where it was noticeable is - and by no means are they perfect, by no means is any company perfect right now - the inclusivity felt a lot more palpable than any other room that I had been into up until that point. I feel as a young female artist, it's my job to choose what rooms I want to be in because I feel I only want to be on the side of supporting groups that are ultimately looking to do the right thing. Another example was when I met Sarah Aarons, it was only this past year, and she was the first female co-writer that I had ever worked with. Before I was only ever being put in rooms with men. They were always white and again that was a learning experience for me. There are certain kinds of people that seem like the obvious choice because that's what history has said is right - and it's not right. And I think I'm constantly looking to be working with people that are just kind of on the right side of all this right now because historically it's been really really dark. Straight white dudes.
That's so true. The ideas and thoughts of these older white dudes are being sung out of the mouths of young beautiful women and it's time to make a change.
Oh yeah.
Lastly, we’ve got the EP out today. It’s incredible, but I just want to know what else is on the horizon for you?
I'm just writing every single day and I'm thrilled about it and I kind of am thinking maybe too far in the future, but really really been spending a lot of my time thinking about the next project and it already feels very different to Minor. So I'm really just excited about that and I’m really excited to vote in November.
Minor is out now via Interscope/Universal Music. You can download on iTunes and stream on Apple Music and Spotify.
To keep up with all things Gracie Abrams, you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
