A Chat with Grace & Moji (27.06.23)
Beautifully capturing the essence of self-discovery, growth and a deeper emotional connection, indie-folk duo Grace & Moji intoxicate listeners with their debut single ‘Our Love’. We speak with Grace Hong and Martin Wave (Grace & Moji) about ‘Our Love’, cultural differences, bad habits and much more!
OSR: Cliché question, but what drew both of you to music?
Martin: I’ve been making music for as long as I can remember. I come from a musical family and we had a piano, guitar and my dad even had recording equipment and synths. So it was a perfect environment for getting into music. It’s completely fused with my sense of self at this point!
Grace: Some of my earliest memories have to do with my obsession with the piano, and I eventually got a piano, even auditioned at Carnegie Hall and sang in choirs growing up. I loved music, but it was also linked to some traumatic experiences. My childhood was tough with a lot of violence at home and I ended up spending a lot of my energy trying to figure out how I was going to get out of there. I ended up leaving home when I was 14 and went to boarding school and college, and ultimately pursued a more secure path in the corporate world and left music behind. I didn’t sing or play any instruments for two decades and came back to it a few years ago during a nomadic period of my life when I was doing some soul-searching around my passions and purpose. It started with singing and then learning instruments, writing, producing, etc. It’s been a journey.
OSR: ‘Our Love’ is your debut single, what can you tell us about it? Is there a backstory or theme to the track?
Martin: Yes. Well, actually the whole project Grace & Moji has a backstory. We got married right at the start of the pandemic after dating for only 3 months and we moved in with each other. Being a creative couple with vastly different backgrounds was hard and we struggled to communicate. It led to us writing a song (that is not out yet) together about how we were feeling, which in turn led to it turning into a full project once we realized we couldn’t stop making more songs! ‘Our Love’ is on the sweeter side, showcasing the beauty of love and acceptance, but the project as a whole will talk about the struggle a lot. It gets very real!
Grace: ‘Our Love’ was actually the last song we wrote on the EP. After writing a bunch of songs about the darker and more difficult sides of our relationship and personalities, I wanted to write a song that felt transcendent and beautiful, one that captured how amazing our relationship truly is and how we’ve grown so much through navigating life together. It inspired the concept and vibe of the chorus, and it came together organically from there.
OSR: Each of you has many years of experience in various fields. How do you think your multi-faceted careers influence who you are as Grace & Moji?
Martin: I’d say we are a bit of a power couple when it comes to most things. I am very project-oriented and do well when I can sit down and focus on one track or one album or EP and have a clear deadline. Grace is insanely good at juggling countless things at the same time. Like, it’s insane. So we have found ourselves having different roles in this project and our relationship. But at the same time, we also are very close to each other due to our shared strive for self-improvement and growth, which is what Grace & Moji is all about.
Grace: Aw, Moji 🙂
I think this project has allowed us to explore our identities as individuals, as a couple, and as creators, and it’s been so amazing to work together on bringing it to life. We’re both really intense and serious about anything we put our energy into, and we both share a love of the creative process and writing. The fact that we’re so close and have such an intimate bond, we were able to bring our personalities into the project in ways we haven’t been able to do in other realms of our lives. The range of perspectives and experiences has informed the music. I tend to be a lyric- and concept-generating machine as well as a bit of a taskmaster, and Martin is obviously a super-producer but also so talented in many domains. It’s hard to say exactly how our multifacetedness informs our identity as a duo, but I can definitely say that I know myself a lot better as a result of this project and have been able to unlock aspects of myself that have allowed me to be more creative and courageous in other areas of my life.
OSR: You each have diverse cultural backgrounds (Grace being raised by a Korean family in New York and Martin hailing from Sweden). How do you believe these cultural differences inspire your work? Also, do you think the differences could be difficult to manage or affect your relationship as musicians and a couple?
Martin: I think it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how it inspires our work, but I would say that, for me, I grew up just loving (and making) many different types of music. Both American and Swedish. I was never really shaped by a person or mentor and I let the music influence me the most. I went through many phases and took something with me from each one. Other than that, culturally Swedes can come off as being very direct even when intentions are good. And that is something that has been a challenge to navigate sometimes. But the better you try to understand each other, the better it gets.
Grace: It’s funny because I feel like there are some surprising commonalities or at least compatibilities between Swedish and Korean culture. There’s a love of music, melody, and storytelling as well as a communitarian orientation towards society. I grew up with Korean folk and contemporary music blasting at all times as well as Top 40 and alternative music while Martin was more influenced by European music, both mainstream and also stemming from his love of trance and death metal.
I’m 7 years older, and so there’s a generational difference at play as well. In essence, though, we really see more of the commonalities than the differences. We both share a desire to go deeper into understanding ourselves, an urge that extends into our lineage and heritage, and we both share an awareness of our “otherness” in American society stemming from our backgrounds. We have similar tastes as well, so it’s really pretty harmonious and effortless, which is surprising and beautiful.
OSR: What do you hope to take from your music?
Martin: For us, this project is all about healing and growing together. And playing together. And kind of putting it all out there for people to see. It’s something that I feel very proud of and it’s not trying to be anything other than what it is. It’s not trying to fit in, it’s just us.
Grace: It’s also about growing together and having fun in the process, exploring the beautiful and shadow sides of our relationship and exploring how we can express ourselves in different ways. Honestly, I’m just excited to create and share our songs with the world.
OSR: What do you hope people take from ‘Our Love’?
Martin: I hope it makes them feel a bit floaty and dreamy and makes them stick around for what’s to come because we have some really awesome songs coming out!
Grace: I think our songs are pretty unique and break the mould. ‘Our Love’ is a beautiful love song with layers, but it’s also quirky and peculiar, and I hope people can feel our personalities while relating to experiences in their relationships. I hope they connect to it emotionally.
OSR: We have some random questions: what is something you predict will exist in 10 years that doesn’t exist today?
Martin: Obvious answer, but I think AI will have changed the world more than anyone could ever imagine. Not just in entertainment, where you probably can just generate your own movie or forever-shows with a simple text prompt, but also just the way of life, politics and everything. Also brain enhancements. And 5 Grace & Moji albums.
Grace: I agree with the impact of AI, and I think there will be a whole economy and set of tools that will help us discern what is really real vs. generated. My hope is that the advancements in technology will allow us to eradicate poverty and address issues like climate change, and other ways that we’re destroying ourselves and our planet.
OSR: What is something you thought would be a great idea but was terrible when you did it?
Martin: When I had just moved to Stockholm as a 20-year-old, I came home drunk one night and decided to put a Snickers bar with a banana on top in the oven. Because warm melted chocolate and banana sounded delicious to me. Turns out it just becomes really burnt and disgusting. Bonus answer: most of my musical ideas.
Grace: Mm, I have a lot of mixed travel experiences. Hitchhiking in Colombia so that I could make it to a remote location I felt like I had to visit. Insisting that I had to hike the Inca Trail in Peru even though I had altitude sickness and then continuing on even after passing out.
OSR: What is your worst habit?
Martin: Probably that I get so swept up in work that I literally forget to eat. And then that backfires and I get frustrated that I didn’t eat.
Grace: I never check the mail.
OSR: What advice do you have for upcoming artists?
Martin: Make whatever YOU want to make and don’t try too hard to make people like it. Feedback is great but sometimes you also just have to listen to your own intuition about your art. If you ask 10 people what they think while you’re working on something, you’ll get 10 different perspectives and advice that can make the whole process incredibly confusing. Sometimes you have to shut the world out and just trust that what you like is good.
Grace: Surround yourself with other amazing supportive artists and creatives. Community is so important!
OSR: Do you have future plans as Grace & Moji?
Martin: Oh yes. We have more songs coming out throughout the year, and then an EP that is already done. And we’re already halfway through writing an album as well. There is a lot to come!
Grace: Yes, excited for all of it!
Many thanks to Martin and Grace for speaking with us. For more from Grace & Moji, check out their official website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
