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November 25th 2024

2016

Frankie in personal protection training
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2017

Arriving in Tokyo
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2021

Thanksgiving with the family
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Featured in Mission Magazine

Photographers: Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, a Dutch-American fashion photographer duo. They have shot campaigns for Chanel, Calvin Klein, Louis Vuitton, and Miu Miu, shot the single cover for "Only One", a collaboration between Kanye West and Paul McCartney and In 2023, they shot Taylor Swift for Time magazine’s Person of the Year covers (Wikipedia Nov. 27 2024).

Interview

The interview was done by Nile Rodgers, a celebrity in his own right: He is “an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. The co-founder of Chic, he has written, produced, and performed on records that have sold more than 500 million albums and 75 million singles worldwide.” (Wikipedia Nov 26, 2024). Usually, when we edit the excerpts from Grace’s interviews, we only include the bare minimum necessary from the interviewer. But many of Nile’s comments about Grace are worth including in their own right.

In the introduction to the interview, he writes: "Every now and then in my rich musical life, I come across talent that genuinely fascinates me. They have a complex mystique that feels like it's hiding a Fort Knox of artistry that's yet to be found, no matter how big they get. There's been Bowie, Diana, Madonna, Grace Jones, George Michael, Miles Davis and countless others in my world. Now the enigmatic Grace VanderWaal steps into my life."

The AGT audition and I Don’t Know My Name
Nile Rodgers: "I was so damn happy that I heard you before I saw any video of that performance with Simon Cowell, who I know fairly well. When I heard him say, ‘You’re going to be the next Taylor Swift,’ I’m listening to your lyric content, and I’m going like, ‘no disrespect to Taylor, but what if she doesn’t want to be?’ The thing I love about great artists is the fact that sometimes the message seems direct, but what you did is what I love. You had a message that seemed direct, and then the very next sentence was ambiguous. And I have to be honest with you, what really interested me was where you were coming from and what was your motivation at that age?"

Grace: "I don’t want to shoot this down for you. I love what you’re saying so much [but] you are really just giving me way too much credit for in-depth thinking. I wrote this song when I was 11 years old, and I basically was just filling up the stanzas and syllables. I actually started writing that song as a jingle in my room. It was never supposed to be a structured-out entire song. I didn’t know anything about that. I had a small subliminal skeleton of a song just from listening to music my whole life."

The new album
Grace: "… I grew up in a very unemotional household, so I was never taught to talk about my feelings or even be in touch with them myself. So, I think that’s why I was so drawn into writing as such a young age, because it was the only time that I could hear myself. And I would write things down, and literally, I’d be like, ‘Oh, I didn’t even know that I felt that way.’- It’s almost like tapping into your subconscious, I guess. I have faced a lot of trauma just being a girl and growing up and then becoming a woman in the public eye, and it just really exposed a lot of hatred to me very early on. With social media and all … I was granted an exposure that's hard to even comprehend. I felt like, in many ways, I lost innocence in that sense. I Also I also took on a lot very young. And I think, with my artistic direction, I felt with this album that I kind of had nothing to lose, and then it made me create my favorite thing I've ever made, because I wasn't thinking about selling things. I was like, I need to do this for my mental sanity and extract this pain out of my body. And that's what always made me feel better, to make something physical that I like, and I think is cool, rather than just feeling it brew inside."

Collaborating with others when writing
Grace: "I love collaboration. And with that, I never feel like the songs aren't my own. If I'm not walking out of [a production session] feeling [like] I can proudly say to someone that I wrote this song, it will never make it onto an album or anything like that. I'll never release it. … I think that I've always liked music because it's kind of my version, my comfortable version of describing things. I'm a writer because I can't talk and I can't share, so yeah, I guess I prefer to write music. It's the only way I can be real."

Inspiration for the new music
Grace: "I mean, I've always loved production. That was the first thing I was super interested in. And I feel like the songs I have always really adored... like, I have always felt like Frank Ocean did this really well. You can tell he wrote the music and then the production was to emphasize certain words or phrases. Like you can tell the music is made based off of the lyrics. And I would say that's what we tried to achieve with the new album. I'm inspired by FKA twigs, Bjork, and Juha Fox. It's a crazy list. but I admire their individuality and motivation to represent themselves unapologetically. I'm still evolving and finding myself, but the sound is very ambient and immersive, I would say."

Nile Rodgers: "I've read that your new themes are going to challenge people. What was happening in your he that reshaped that intensity in your songwriting?"

Grace: "With social media and all, it's interesting what I've been through. I was granted an exposure that's hard to even comprehend. I felt like, in many ways, I lost innocence. I also took on a lot very young, I felt this responsibility to never take any space to be heard because I should be so grateful for my life. I think that a lot of people walk around with an inherent guilt, especially men. and I think that there's too much defensiveness in the world rather than an open ear. I think that people immediately think of anger as being pointed [toward them] when they hear pain that they would otherwise like to not hear, because it's more comfortable to not hear. I mean, what I'm prepared to say, and what else I continue to say in the process of releasing this, is that it's just simply my story, and no one did anything wrong. It's just my truth and it's my feelings that I felt like I needed to release. But I think that it will hit some sore spots for some people, to be sure."

Handling fan reactions to change
Nile Rodgers: "I'm wondering if people who like your music feel like they already know you. With your new musical approach, are you worried that you could burst people's bubbles?"

Grace: "I think that the fluctuation of public perception, or any of that stuff, especially when you get to online and really big masses, I feel like you really can't bet too much on it. I think you'll drive yourself crazy trying to control that. One day, everyone can be saying they hate you and think you're a joke, and then the next, they like you, and maybe they think you're some next big thing. And so, I kind of kissed goodbye to my longing for having any sort of control a long time ago. And I'm very happy to hear that there were some positive things, but yeah, dude, that's totally up to people, you know?"

Being a child star
"I don't think it's a coincidence that most child stars reveal later that so much was fucked up in their personal lives alongside the fame. It's not normal to be able to handle that grueling job. It takes a strength that's not natural to have that young. So, in that way, it's taken advantage of. For example, for a lot of my life I was so massively commended for being "good." Like, "Wow, you never cry or crack. You can handle so many adult issues at once on your shoulders!" Instead of [addressing] the obvious concern there - why can this child do that?"

On speaking her mind in public
Nile Rodgers: "As a young person and a public figure, you're expected to have an opinion on everything at a time when you’re still learning and understanding the world around you. It requires a lot of courage to speak up. How do you decide when you want to voice your opinion?"

Grace: "It's scary because there is very little grace given in this area. Once you say something, it's cemented. I simply don't accept that. I will never be afraid to straight up say I don't feel like that anymore, or that's changed, and if you don't get that you're dumb. I also feel that, when it comes to revealing emotional things, that's dangerous as well because it can open up trauma that's not healed or been thought over enough. So, I stay patient with myself and listen closely."

Conclusion: Nile really digs Grace
Nile Rodgers: "I think you're very cool, G. I'm really happy to know you, and I just think you're awesome. You've got something special."