WITH GRAACE
ASTROPHE chats to GRAACE about creativity, Isolation, mental health, Animal crossing & more:
Styled, directed & captured on film by Hunter Blue
How are you going, Grace?
I think I'm dealing the best I can with everything happening in the world right now. Self Isolating, as are all of my friends, so Im finding comfort knowing we're all in it together.
How are you keeping yourself busy at the moment? (we are trying our best to stay motivated and inspired during isolation, it's tough!)
I’m allowing myself to find joy in all the small things and small achievements. To be honest I can't really pick and choose when I'm creative and motivated to write which is usually my outlet so I'm accepting that even 30 seconds of a new song at the moment is a step in the right direction. I also just bought some paints and am half way through a 1000 piece puzzle of Italy (its definitely not easy haha feels like a full time job)
What's your process like for song writing? How does collaboration work best for you?
When I write alone I often start at my piano that I've grown up playing from when I was about 6. I find comfort and a tonne of emotion whenever I'm sitting at the seat. I usually find a little piano melody and often turn that into a vocal melody then play some simple chords and let the words flow out after. I see what words come out and if any of it makes sense when I listen back to voice memos I'll jot it down, but I more so like to just feel out the emotion and let it all spill out and can make sense of the gibberish later.
Collaborations I love to do in person. It’s really beautiful to me being able to connect through a story and be open and honest in the writing rooms and be open to their ideas too, that’s when it works best for me.
Do you play a large creative role in your overall concepts including cover art/video?
Yeah for sure. My last cover art was an idea I had to shed light on the beauty of vulnerability. It's pretty easy to look at an attractive 20 something man that works out and categorize him as the 'tough guy'. I wanted to have I.E. hugging me and leaning on me to show that all of that is just a tonne of bullshit. It's beautiful to be open and emotional, in my eyes it actually shows strength being able to read yourself like that.
Hard to say is such a beautiful song, it explores themes of mental health & grief, was it a cathartic experience to release this single? What were the challenges you faced when writing & releasing something so close to you?
Yeah, it felt like a weight off my shoulders when it was finally released. I often find that with all of my songs too. ‘Hard To Say’ in particular took me so long to write because it was a subject I didn't know how to emote. Losing my friend took a toll on my mental health and instead of talking about it and being open I closed up and felt like I couldn't talk about it which maybe my friend was going through as well when he was dealing with his mental health.
Do you have a favourite self-love routine for the good and bad days?
I like to always have at least one 'self-love night' a week. It usually involves some yummy food, a bath, animal crossing and candles.
Tell us who inspires your musically & visually, do you have any favourite music videos?
Musically I pretty much just like to write about my own personal experiences. But I LOVE watching peoples music videos and getting inspired from them, not even to use the concepts but just to inspire me to be more creative. I love Benee's music videos especially.
What's coming up for you next musically? What themes are you hoping to explore?
Well with everything happening it’s definitely changed things for me, as well as most musicians. But I have one of my favourite songs I've ever written still coming out this year which is really making me see the light at the end of the tunnel. I've been writing in self isolation which has been the theme amongst all of the new songs I'm writing though, so who knows I might have enough to release an album next year of all sad songs haha.
Thanks for talking to us GRAACE <3
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