Interview with Zach Sang
Grace did a lengthy interview (more than one hour long) on the Zach Sang; with Zach and Danny Zolot. This was the second time Grace was on the show. The first was back in March 2019. The interview touched on a range of topics. A lot was about the new album and the inspirations and drivers of that. They also talked about Megalopolis – and making films in general, about AGT and about the break with Columbia. (You can find the parts of the interview that addressed the album and specific songs on the relevant catalogue pages for those items)
The break with Columbia
"Columbia didn’t steal my music I don’t own anything. Does it suck? Yes. Did I sign a literal contract saying that that would happen – also, yes! No one did anything wrong; it’s just that life sucks sometimes, it’s just the way it goes. No one was the big bad wolf. But I obviously freaked out for a second. This is all I have ever done my whole life. So, I was dropped by Columbia, I also separated from my management, and before that, we pretty much fired everyone on the team. So that [losing ownership of the music] was the cherry on top. Luckily, the one person I had hired before this crazy tsunami was a manager. So, I called him and said, ‘Dude, I am writing well; fly me out one or two weeks, and I can write an album’. I always felt like I wasn’t reaching my potential, and I know what I want to do, and I know the people I look up to, so that’s when I realised – you can keep all the songs, I am going to make something better, and we are going to do it right. Finally, we're going to write an actual concept album and do this the right way."
Movies and Megalopolis
"Movies are hard to make – but they make money, and you do not make money off of music. But it's strenuous for me because it’s not my passion. And you’ve got to love it to it because it's torturous. I didn’t audition for Megalopolis. My manager at the time got a call – Francis Ford Coppola wants to meet you. I went to his home, and there were all these executives and producers, and I didn’t know why I was there. I just sat down with him, and he started telling me about the movie he was making and he told me about this character, and we discussed the character - he really likes to have discussions, luckily! And he was referring to songs in the movie, and I jokingly said – are you thinking I am going to write these songs? And he said yes. So, apparently, I was already in the movie and writing two songs now.
Before that, I swore off acting. I was never going to do anything again, but it was a Coppola film, so we said yes. But it was the easiest movie I ever made, and it completely reformed my view of the process because before that, I never ‘got it’. I didn’t understand acting; I didn’t understand it as an art, I didn’t feel any artistic connection to this at all. But then Francis came along, and the way he makes movies is exactly how a musician would make a song. He would rewrite on napkins, the whole scene in the moment. And this influenced my approach to music. There are huge visual components in the new album. I got very fascinated naturally, and then he also fed into it, with the use of multimedia storytelling. I have always loved production – partnering with melody and words. I think it’s an incredible thing that I can make you feel something that words can’t describe. I think that there is almost an immersive, subliminal aspect to that with production. This grew into an interest in colour, symbols and world-building in storytelling; I wanted to make something incredibly intentional, almost like a movie, that people could decipher. And pic apparat, and even if you don’t pick it apparat, your brain is picking it apart, and you don’t realise it."
Going on tour again
"Touring is the happiest thing in my life". [She will not be performing her old stuff] "That would be almost embarrassing. Maybe if I was doing a small acoustic fans thing, I would revisit some greatest hits, but on tour."