Artist Of The Week #211 - Grace Grundy
This week’s Artist of the Week is rising star Grace Grundy - who has just released her new EP ‘With You In Mind’.
Grace has been cutting her teeth over the last few years releasing her own cover versions of hit songs, which have surpassed millions of streams across platforms and landed her on some of the biggest editorial playlists, on the likes of Spotify and Apple. The pop artist's beautifully stripped-back version of Martin Garrix and Dua Lina’s single Scared To Be Lonely, has racked up a whopping 40 million streams on Spotify alone! Further to this, Grace's cover of Cheat Codes and Kiiara’s Put Me Back Together was played on ITV’s hit reality show, Love Island in 2019 which has garnered 64k+ Shazams where it peaked at Number 1, and over 10 million streams on Spotify.
She took a moment to talk to us about how the EP came together.
Hey there Grace - how are you? So your EP is out now - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
Hi! I’m really good thanks, it feels so exciting to finally get to share these songs with everyone. It’s the first set of original songs I’ve put out and I’ve been writing and making this EP since 2018. It feels very long-awaited and I am just so happy and almost peaceful in a way, that it’s out there finally.
It is called ‘With You In Mind’ - what is the meaning behind that?
No one has asked this yet!! I am so happy you have as it’s got a little story behind it.. It’s part of a lyric from a song that isn’t on this EP.. which goes ‘I’m moving on with you in mind’. I tend to write from a personal place; all the songs are about my life and real feelings so all the songs mark a moment in time, a place or a person.. so ‘with you in mind’ felt like the perfect title for these songs, somehow personal and also universal all at once. I also love that it’s nodding to a song that might come out in the future.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative process you are happy to share with us?
I wrote the songs over 4 years with lots of amazing people.. I was studying Illustration at art college in Bristol whilst I made it so was often travelling back and forth from London to Bristol to different studios. Some were written on zoom during the lockdowns, some above my parents garage.. one during a snow storm in London, so lots of different times and places make up the bones of the songs.
Then I finished the production and re-cut vocals with Jason Elliott and Simon Cripps at Jase’s studio in West London. It was a real lifeboat for me finishing this EP as it was during the pandemic in between lockdowns, so travelling to the studio and working with Jase and Si who I respect and love so much, was something I felt really lucky to be doing.
We’d put movies on the TV on mute whilst we recorded vocals and would pick the movie or TV series we thought each song could soundtrack.. ate lots of peanut butter cups and drank lots of tea… and often had breaks to air drum to Blink 182! I loved driving home really late playing whatever we’d worked on that day and watching all the motorway lights.. it was such a magical time looking back!
What are the key themes and influences on the EP?
Whilst writing this EP I was growing up from being a teenager at home to moving out and becoming a young adult, so it’s definitely got a lot of coming of the themes.. heartbreak, having to leave things behind .. grief, nostalgia, falling in love and friendship.. all those sticky and deep feelings and experiences you go through when you’re growing and trying to make sense of the world! [I still haven't figured it out!]
If the EP could be the soundtrack to any film - which one would it be and why?
Such a great question.. I said earlier weirdly we loved playing this game for each song.. Happy Without Me was always The Notebook, Losers Together was Stranger Things.. Boys On Posters was Clueless.. so many! I think the EP as a whole in my dream world would be the soundtrack to a coming of age kind of film like The Perks Of Being a Wallflower.. for the outsiders and kids who feel a bit different.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the EP - if so, which one and why?
This definitely changes depending on my mood and where my head is at but at the moment it’s,
If you ever feel it differently and hold my hand means hold you back… [go be happy without me]’
I love this idea that you can love someone enough to be willing to let them go if it means they could be happier. I think there’s so much romance in holding someone freely enough to let them be who they are and live their life to the fullest.
Now the EP is out there - what next?
I can’t wait to get back into the studio and write more.. making ‘With You In Mind’ has massively formed who I want to be as an artist, and I learnt so much through the whole process. I can’t wait to see what comes next now I have more of an idea of who I am and how I want to sound.
I also cant wait to build a live show and play some gigs and meet people who listen to the music. I’ve always loved seeing artists I listen to live, it shows you the music in a totally different light and I’d absolutely love to get out there and do this!
