A Chat with Grace McLean (16.06.24)
Described as a sophisticated type of avant-garde pop, singer-songwriter Grace McLean is one of the more distinctive, eclectic and experimental artists to cross our path. Focusing on the intellectual and existential side of reality, instead of just putting some musical notes that sound good in the conservative sense – although this isn’t a bad thing – McLean adds profoundness to her soul-stirring melodies. We speak with Grace McLean about her new album My Lovely Enemy, fashion trends, what music means to her and much more!
OSR: What drew you to music? Why did you decide to become a musician?
McLean: My parents were musicians, so I grew up around a variety of music. Pop, country, funk, jazz, Latin music. I wanted to play the drums as a kid but my dad offered me his old tenor sax so I played that instead. I studied jazz voice with Carmen Bradford in LA and later with her mother Melba Joyce in NY.
I am not great at accompanying myself on any instruments so when I discovered looping it changed everything. I first saw Reggie Watts do it, and when I decided to get a looping station for myself I just googled “What kind of looping station does Reggie Watts use” (it’s an electroharmonix model). I just got that kind and taught myself how to use it. Music and particularly the voice are my preferred modes of expression – I remain curious about the expressive potential of the human voice and the ordered framework of music, its math and numbers and also its mystery.
OSR: What does music mean to you?
McLean: Music is a universal language, and while there are continually new dialects it’s something we can all understand and relate to.
OSR: You recently released your debut album My Lovely Enemy. What can you tell us about the album? Is there any particular theme or concept?
McLean: This is essentially a break-up album because it is a collection of songs about loss or lack or absence. But it is not a sad boohoo break-up album – it is a look the loss in the face and make friends with it, celebrate it, question it, poke at it, ignite it and use it as kindling album. I wrote many of these songs during the reconstruction era after a break-up and they contain the searching, yearning, and fervent meaning-making I found myself chasing during that time. I remember I felt like a plant who’d outgrown her pot and needed to find a new place to root. Some of the old dirt still clung to me, some of it I wiped away and some of it continued to nourish so it made the journey with me. It’s a delicate, vital and vibrant time when a little plantheart wrenches itself from a comfortable world and for a time must be totally exposed and vulnerable, underbelly showing, raw but determined to survive. And then it finds new soil to explore, new rocks in its path to navigate around or under or through, new folly and new friends.
OSR: I see you have released several critically acclaimed EPs over the years. This may seem a silly question, but what was the production experience like for the full-length album as compared to the EPs? Did you have any additional challenges?
McLean: I’ve gotten to work with incredible collaborators to bring this music to life, my producer Justin Goldner, the mixes by Jack DeBoe and mastering by Blake Morgan. I write following emotional logic more than pop logic and I’m so lucky to work with people who are willing to go on that journey with me and who are excited by that challenge. We took our time with this album. As opposed to going into the studio and figuring things out from scratch there, the band and I work out the music in front of an audience much in the way comedians work out their material in clubs before doing the big special. The audience helps us understand the journey of a song and how it hits. We then translate that special alchemical live experience into something that can be experienced intimately and privately.
OSR: Do you think your album My Lovely Enemy is a good representation of you and your sound at the moment?
McLean: I do – I think it speaks to the bold theatricality and the personal intimacy I’m interested in bringing to my work.
OSR: What do you hope people take from your music?
McLean: I hope people dance, sing along, take this music with them to the gym or the grocery store or play it late at night in their rooms. I hope it feels both friendly and challenging, like a new friend you want to get to know more.
OSR: What has been your greatest accomplishment, and it doesn’t have to be music-related.
McLean: I think it’s keeping my plants alive! I love working in my yard. Getting to know it in all its seasons, tending to it and keeping it healthy brings me great joy. Witnessing and participating in cycles of growth and decay and growth is an amazing teacher.
OSR: What is something you do that you don’t like doing?
McLean: My husband has been out of town for the past few months doing a gig on the other side of the country and he’s an excellent cook, so I’ve been doing all the cooking for myself which is FINE. I miss him for many reasons, but truly I’m so excited for him to get back in the kitchen.
OSR: What fashion trend needs to end now?
McLean: I’m so not the person to ask! My mother is the fashionable one and anything I have that’s cute most likely came from her. I will say: I don’t understand Crocs as fashion. I love wearing them in the garden but like…out in the real world??
OSR: What can we expect from you in the future?
McLean: I’m working on a musical about a woman turning into a wolf, also a one-woman chamber piece about Penelope (Odysseus’ wife), a concert of an adaptation of the novel A Short History of Women by Kate Walbert in September. I’ll be putting out a few more music videos for the My Lovely Enemy album. And I’m gathering material for another recording project!
OSR: Do you have a message for our readers?
McLean: The advice I always give to creative folks is: lean into your weird. Whatever the odd thing is that you’re obsessed with, indulge. You never know where it will take you or what it will teach you. And also, develop your craft. It doesn’t have to adhere to a particular school, it should work for you, but diligence, practice and play will deepen your work.
Many thanks to Grace McLean for speaking with us! Find out more about Grace McLean on her official website, Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
