Gracie Abrams’ new music to take dark turn
Gracie Abrams also opened up about the U.S. elections and her dating life
Gracie Abrams sat down for an interview with The Guardian where she opened up about her recent success, making new music and the recent U.S. election.
Being rumoured to be in a relationship with actor Paul Mescal, she discussed keeping her dating life personal, “Sharing versus not sharing. I’m lucky to have this avenue, where, in my songs, I talk very openly about how I feel. It’s like when I’m writing, I’m talking to myself. Talking to strangers, there are naturally things you hope to protect a bit more. Some things feel sacred.”
She also opened up about battling her fear of performing, saying, “I remember signing my deal and feeling really nauseous about it. Well, I see a therapist. And it hasn’t been some overnight thing. The first shows I ever played were over Zoom during the pandemic, so that was like a baby step versus truly facing my fear head-on. Then I played the tiniest rooms so it’s almost like these tiny moments of exposure therapy.”
Discussing the U.S. elections after showing passionate support for candidate Kamala Harris, she claimed, “Trump has only been in office for a month and has already done everything in his power to make every marginalised community feel smaller, to make everybody more at risk, to overwhelm us with information, or disinformation, so that we feel powerless and hopeless. And what I felt at that rally in Wisconsin that day was the opposite of hopelessness: I felt real strength in gathering.”
“That’s the antidote right now. Obviously, there’s got to be so much more we do when we gather in that way. But I feel really lucky to have witnessed in person what that kind of light feels like, especially now in the face of this quality of darkness. It’s unprecedented, it’s global,” the singer added.
Working on new music after the outcome, Abrams admitted that she saw a change, “I was just like: shit, I don’t even know how to articulate the degree to which I feel sick inside about everything. Most of those songs from that week are not about relationships. They’re about the fact that LA just burned down, about the fact that I don’t understand how we’re supposed to really carry on. Of course those subjects will show up, it’s life, but they’re … different themes than I anticipated.”
