Having penned songs for pop royalty, Gracey’s now claiming the crown for herself
This is A HOT MINUTE WITH, a quick-fire interview series championing all the rising talent catapulting into fashion, art and music’s fickle stratosphere. From pinch-me moments to bad dates and even worse chat-up lines, think of it as an overindulgent conversation – like the ones you have in sticky club toilets at 4.A.M. Except these guests don’t regret the overshare…
NAME GRACEY
AGE 23
LOCATION Brighton, now London, England
STAR SIGN Pisces bby
GUILTY PLEASURE Watching funniest moment compilations of This Morning at 3am.
Not everyone can say they’ve written songs for Girls Aloud before they can legally drink a vodka mixer. That’s unless your name is GRACEY, the Brighton-born brunette putting a zesty twist on pop music. When life gives her lemons, she squeezes its sweet trials and bitter tribulations into feel-good modern love songs. Her latest offering, Got You Covered, was penned for a heartsore friend-in-need, the sort that underscores mutual support between besties, “when you’re going through extremes,” she sings. Stirred by catchy melodies, the single is an optimistic salve aimed at the lovelorn and the lonely, that will get feet grooving when the dancefloors light back up. Featuring electro-duo BILLEN TED, it riffs on garage sounds that emulate the carefree days of being young; soaking in pebble-beach sunsets with mates or losing pocket money at the seafront arcades.
GRACEY is testament to girls everywhere that have small plastic microphones and big superstar dreams. At age 16 she was discovered on SoundCloud by hit record factory Xenomenia, whose production alumnus - from the Sugababes to Kylie Minogue - reads something like the playlist of your favourite primary school disco. “I want to keep growing and trying new things! I’m one of the pandemic-pop-people who hasn’t ever toured – I’ve done a grand total of two live shows (cries) so I cannot wait for that adventure.” She’ll be a household name when she can leave the house, surely.
Unlike the weather in Brighton, her fame ascension hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows. Graduating the BRIT School, GRACEY wrote dance-driven bop By Your Side for JONAS BLUE and RAYE, but when the spotlight settled on her in 2019, GRACEY suffered with severe vocal nodules, losing her voice entirely as well as most hopes for the future. After surgery and the subsequent top ten release of Don’t Need Love – that scored a nomination for Best British Single – the singer is radiating a newfound confidence: “I’m much more self-assured in my life now, I’m ready to spread good, honest energy with the world.” GRACEY’s lovable vibes position her as the part-time TikTok comedian and breakup agony aunt everyone needs. Until she takes the throne as a future pop princess, we’ll dream of the tequila-spilling nights out when GRACEY can, well, grace the club speakers.
Alice May Stenson: If you could put together your own five-piece girl band, who would make the cut?
Grace Barker: GWEN STEFANI, RIHANNA, BILLIE EILISH, 070 SHAKE and HAYLEY WILLIAMS would be FIRE!
AMS: How did your early life contribute to GRACEY’s musical evolution?
GB: I always gravitated towards songwriting and music as a kid. I’d come home from school and get instrumentals up of favourite Gwen Stefani tunes on YouTube and attempt to re-write my own melody and lyrics about the stresses of year five (laughs) eventually, after learning guitar and over-analysing every song I had downloaded on my iPod Nano, I got to a point where I was brave enough to share it with the internet. My family aren’t really musical, but are still massive fans, and some of my earliest memories are sitting in the back of the car listening to Motown legends – just being completely in awe.
Credit: @samuel.ibram
AMS: Best advice for when you’re feeling heartbroken?
GB: BE KIND TO YOURSELF. Tell yourself that you are enough and you are worthy, because you are. It’s NOT easy, and if you’re reading this and going through it, just know you are growing into the person you are meant to be – and I’m proud of you.
AMS: Do you have any regrets?
GB: My eyebrows for the entirety of 2012.
AMS: When did you last feel starstruck?
GB: Philip Schofield walked past me once so that’s a big highlight.
AMS: What do you want people to think and feel when they listen to you?
GB: I want people to know they’re not alone – happy, sad or anxious – whatever it is. Everything I write, every lyric in my songs has come from a very real place. I try and be as honest as I can, even though it can feel fucking terrifying at times, because It makes it real. To me music is about connection with other people, and when I think of all the songs and artists that perfectly articulate my emotions when I can’t quite put it into words, it makes me want to do the same.
AMS: What’s a Brighton experience everyone should have at least once?
GB: Trash Monday at Coalition as a teen.
AMS: The next day we’re hitting the beach. Fish and chips or ice cream cone?
GB: It’s a Mr Whippy not a Mr Chippy for me.
AMS: Can you describe any wild dreams you’ve had?
GB: Dude my dreams are always so vivid and so weird. It’s the reason I can’t watch anything scary or intense before bed – crime dramas have a strict 9pm curfew cut off in the GRACEY household. I need to start writing them down!
AMS: Most embarrassing moment?
GB: The first time I met my first boyfriend’s parents as a teen, I knelt… not stepped, KNELT in dog shit!
AMS: Any bad habits we should know about?
GB: I procrastinate really badly when I’m feeling anxious.
AMS: Away from creative ventures, how do you spend your time?
GB: I’m doing this online course, The Science of Wellbeing, at the minute, which is so interesting and has been really good for my mental health.
AMS: I’ve had Got You Covered on repeat. How did it come about? Talk me through the details and development.
GB: I wrote the song for my best mate, who’s been struggling with an eating disorder and a breakup. With this pandemic stopping us from actually seeing each other, it was a way of showing her she’s not on her own and I’ve always got her back. It was a message Billen Ted and I felt we wanted to share with the world too, after the year we’ve all gone through. It’s wicked getting to release it together too, they’ve been a huge part of my songs behind the scenes; they helped co-produce Don’t Need Love and they’re honestly just amazing, talented, lovely humans.
AMS: Before you became GRACEY, which other names were on the shortlist?
GB: GRACEY was my OG name when I first uploaded to Soundcloud at 15, then I over-thought it – classic me – then I tried to go by Barker, which my last name, for a bit and tried a range of other girl names that didn’t suit me and landed back at GRACEY. Makes sense.
AMS: A genie grants you three wishes for 2021. What are they?
GB: I’d probably start panicking and ask for something stupid. But I would just ask for more good vibes – oh and no more ‘rona please.
AMS: What has love taught you?
GB: That I am a very loyal person who’ll do absolutely anything for the people I love.
AMS: You can become any fictional character. Who will you pick and why?
GB: Katniss Everdeen because she’s a bad bitch.
AMS: Well done on your first BRIT award nomination! What were you doing when you initially heard about it and how did it feel?
GB: Thank you! I was actually in the studio with Billen Ted when 220KID FaceTimed us. I immediately burst into tears, I got so emotional because it's genuinely been such a dream for my whole life, I’m so grateful.
AMS: Your latest release is about having someone’s back. With that in mind, what does friendship mean to you?
GB: It’s everything. A friend said to me the other day that love isn’t just a romantic thing, it’s in all relationships, and my best mates really are my ride-or-die’s, always.
AMS: What is something that you’re proud of?
GB: I’m really proud of the music video for Empty Love with RUEL. We did it during lockdown in our bedrooms on the other sides of the planet from each other, and it really showed me that anything is possible if you put in the work.
AMS: Finish the sentence. I want to be remembered for...
GB: That one banana bread I made that one time in lockdown.
Credit: @samuel.ibram