INTERVIEW: Alyssa Grace on her debut EP 'spilling my guts': "It helps me realise a lot of things that I feel I wouldn't realise if I didn't write the music."
California’s Alyssa Grace is arguably the definition of a music sensation. Barely seven months after releasing her debut single ‘dog with a bone’, the indie-folk-pop singer-songwriter has racked up more than 4.5 million monthly Spotify listeners, with her songs accumulating streams in the tens of millions.
In June, Grace’s third single ‘bloodstream’ crossed over onto the mainstream charts, becoming a massive international hit. Peaking at number 12 in the UK, 17 in Australia and 45 in the US, it has close to 140 million streams on Spotify alone.
At the end of July, Grace released her debut EP spilling my guts. Containing seven tracks, all co-written by Grace, the EP is a beautiful collection of gentle yet raw songs with Grace’s signature soundscape that merges indie, folk pop and country paired with her emotive vocal. Although she is only 19, her music and lyrics show a maturity and deepness beyond her years.
Opener ‘bones’ begins with a piano and subdued vocals from Grace, with the emotion in her voice becoming more and more distressed as she sings of being betrayed by a lover: ‘Now I'm six feet undеr and I'm buried alive…and I'm watching from below, you loving her better.’
‘somebody to somebody’ has a foundation of acoustic guitar and is almost a companion song to ‘bones’, with Grace accepting the relationship is over and knowing she has to move on: ‘I know you can't give me exactly what I need.’ Second single ‘picking petals’ has a poignant contradiction between the initial calmness of the music with the almost tortured inflections in Grace’s vocal as she sings of a collapsing relationship that she doesn’t want to be a part of but cannot break free: ‘ I don't want this / I don't want you / This is nothing I prayed for.’ The song builds in intensity until it reaches a moody climax in the last minute, with an almost military beat as Grace repeats ‘over again’.
‘spilling guts’ explores the pain of realising someone doesn’t love you, but is just using you, with the devastation Grace feels portrayed with heartbreaking honesty through an at times imperfect vocal showcasing her pain: ‘I love you, but I hate you for not loving me.’ After the slow burn of international hit ‘bloodstream’, the EP closes with ‘baby swim’. a collaboration with Andrew Lucier. The most acoustic track on the EP, it’s warm guitar base closes the EP on an uplifting note as Grace and Lucier sing of bringing comfort to someone struggling with their own pain: ‘So hold me close, and I'll bring you in…I'll clean your sins and keep you warm.’
‘spilling my guts’ is a powerful debut from an artist that is quickly becoming the next big thing in music. Grace is an assured performer who can deliver moving, relatable stories alongside music that stirs you in a way rarely seen from artists so young. To find out more about her music and creative process, we recently met with Grace on her visit to Australia touring with Alex Warren.
Alyssa Grace (R) with Women In Pop’s Shalane Connors
Hey Alyssa, so good to meet you! You are only just into your music career, and you are already playing arena shows, which is amazing. Tell me about that feeling of performing in front of thousands of people.
We've been doing 9000 cap rooms, so it's been crazy but it's very rewarding, you know. I get super stressed before I go on, and then once I'm on stage, I actually calm down. It’s complete opposite of what you would think it is! It's been super nice to finally be able to play the songs because I've been waiting so long.
You're supporting Alex Warren. How did that union come about?
I don't know! I was talking to his wife, and I guess she liked the music, and she showed Alex and the team, and then they sent me an offer. I feel like his music and his artistry really resonates with my music and artistry, so it was a good match. I was really stoked to take the tour.
You've just released your debut EP spilling my guts. You seem to be quite drawn to the melancholy, the EP dabbles a lot in toxic relationships and vulnerability, in needing and wanting to be needed. What's the draw towards that when it comes to your music and songwriting in particular?
I feel like my songs are more about mental health and relationships. I talk about relationships, but I talk more about how they affect mental health. That's the most important thing to me, to talk about how I got through the mental health part aspect of it, not as much so as the relationships.
It's just super important to write about my experiences. Hopefully, I can help other people realise that they can get through their mental health challenges as well. That was my biggest goal in writing the EP.
Is songwriting for you processing your emotions?
Yeah, it helps me realise what I'm thinking. It helps me realise a lot of things that I feel I wouldn't realise if I didn't write the music. Listening back to what I was thinking about in that moment of time makes me reflect and learn for next time. What I can and can't do to feel better in those kinds of situations. It definitely does help
What sort of impact do you hope that your songs have for your fans when they listen to them?
I think it’s super Important to hear songs about mental health and coping strategies. It's also important to know that other teenage girls are going through it too. It gives hope that if other teenage girls can get through the same things then they can get through it too. It can feel very lonely, so when you hear about it from another girl of the same age, it just feels less lonely.
Let's talk about your early influences because you have a quite an interesting vocal quality. You play a lot with the vocal flip, the register change. Is that something that you've always done, or is that something that you came upon recently?
I used to sing very falsetto and very soft because I listened to a lot of Lizzie McAlpine and Phoebe Bridgers, soft guitar, that was kind of in for a while. Then when I had written the first song on the EP ‘dog with a bone’, that was when I really discovered my sound. As soon as I started singing that, the music started to resonate with not just me but other people too. For the longest time, I felt like I was singing very uncomfortably, I wasn't happy with the way that I was sounding, and I didn't really like to sing anymore because it wasn't very comfortable. Once I started just singing however the way I wanted to, and not trying to fit a certain genre, a certain standard, I was writing a lot more, and I felt a lot more important to me.
It’s not, I guess, the easiest vocal technique to employ so it's interesting that you feel more comfortable doing that.
To me, it's easier to do that than to just sing softly. I just feel so uncomfortable. I've tried to tone it down a little bit because I've realised that some people aren't the biggest fan of it, but I'm still learning how to do that!
It's your first time in Australia. What are you looking forward most about being here?
To go to the beach. I know it's winter and super cold, but I love the beach. I feel happiest at the beach. I'm super excited to see all the clear water because the waters in LA aren't very clear.
Your EP finishes with a gorgeous duo with Andrew Lucier called ‘baby swim’. How did that collaboration come about?
I had seen a post of his song ‘Flowers’, and I felt like the music was super similar to mine. I had sent him a DM on TikTok of me singing his song on an iPad, and he didn't think I was crazy, so he DM-ed me back! I had written ‘baby swim’, just the chorus of it, and I had no idea what to do with it. Everybody kept asking me for it, so I just gave it to Andrew. I was like, ‘Can you just do something with this?’ I flew out to Nashville, we had a session and we just finished it together in a session. It was super, super fun to write it with him. He's such a great writer. We're very similar writers, it was super fun. He's a great buddy.
Are you usually quite a solitary writer when it comes to your music?
I'm not the biggest fan of co-writes. I feel like that's why I was so open to co-writing with Andrew because those were his words that he's gonna sing, so they had to be important to him. But I find it hard to co-write because when people come up with an amazing lyric, I feel so guilty singing it because it wasn't my words. I feel the music a lot more knowing where it came from and what part of my life it came from. Because as soon as I sing the lyrics, I'm just taken back to when I had written them, and it just makes me feel the song a lot more. So I have a hard time co-writing. I love to just figure out what I want to say by myself. I do enjoy co-writing with certain writers, so I'm learning!
You’ve come into the industry at a time where you have to constantly put content out there on social media .You were lucky enough to go viral, which I imagine an absolute mind flip. How was that feeling for you, that process of putting yourself out there, and then something resonating to such an extreme that it goes viral?Honestly, when my videos went viral, I didn't really freak out and be like, ‘oh my god, my videos are going viral’. It kind of felt like it was naturally meant to happen. I was just excited to be able to finally record music and put it out there and see how it resonates with other people. Seeing people share their stories with my music and how it also resonates with them and having people tell me that it's helped them get through certain situations, that has been the most rewarding thing, not so much the virality of it. Having other people also go through some of these things and me knowing that I'm not alone, that has changed my life more than a viral moment.
Who have been the pop queens that have inspired you?
I'm a super big fan of Gigi Perez and Phoebe Bridgers, and Noah Kahan, I guess he's a king though. They all have been my biggest inspirations throughout this whole process for sure.
Amazing! And what's coming up for you next?
I have my own tour coming up, and maybe some more show dates. I'm finally able to play for hopefully the rest of the year. And just, you know, keep writing, come home for about a month, and just keep writing and recording.
spilling my guts is out now via Warner Music. You can download and stream here.
Follow Alyssa Grace on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
