Grace Amos
In this day and age there is an immense pressure placed on teenagers to decide on their life trajectory by the time they finish high school. For Sydney singer-songwriter Grace Amos this pressure inspired both her latest single, Decide, & altered the way she goes about pursuing her career in music.
Speaking to Pario recently reflected on her mindset when developing the idea for Decide.
"I wrote the song during of the lockdowns while I was at boarding," recalled Grace. "I didn't get to go home for about 2 months in the term before we started our HSC, so it was such a very scary time period because we had so many big things coming up. I wanted to write a song that reflected that idea of being scared to grow into yourself... Deciding your entire life trajectory at the end of high school is not really something you can do as a 17-18 year old because you are going to continue to grow & change."
Upon further discussion Grace revealed to Pario that the song had a duality in its underlying meaning. Not only does Decide refer to deciding a career path as teen - do you attend Uni? Do you go to TAFE? Or do you immediately enter the workforce? The song also has an undercurrent of a queer story, which Grace says came as a result of witnessing media coverage & discussions among her peers at an all-girl boarding school.
"The themes in Decide arose from a lot of different things," explained Grace. "I myself identify as unlabelled because I believe that you haven't experience everything yet as an 18 year old. You haven't experienced everything yet so you don't know who you are & I think it's important not to rush those things."
Having spent time ruminating on these themes & ideas before then beginning study at the Sydney Conservatorium Of Music in Newtown this years Mardi Gras had a greater significance for Grace.
"Being at college in Newtown it was really amazing to just walk down the streets & see everyone celebrating who they are. I had never really experience Mardi Gras in that way before so it had a whole new light to it which was amazing."
As she now looks to the future an exciting piece of news in the past couple of weeks further heightened Grace's excitement for the year ahead in 2022. That piece of news being the announce that that the Foo Fighters will be returning to Australia for a run of concerts in November-December. You might ask, 'why would this news excite Grace?' Well it's exciting for her because only a short time before the announcement Grace actually released a cover version of the Foo Fighters iconic track Everlong & they are one of the bands Grace grew up listening to with her dad.
"The Foo Fighters are Dad's favourite band & he always gets so excited when they come back to Australia because he says it was one of the best concerts he's ever been to," said Grace. "I grew up on rock music with artists like the Foo Fighters & The Killers. I love all of their music & find it so interesting listening to how they write their songs."
Having grown up listening to the Foo Fighters with her dad Grace was quick to say if she was ever given the opportunity to support them she would jump at it because, "It would be such a surreal experience to do that. That type of opportunity comes around once in a life time."
When asked why she had chosen to release a cover of Everlong Grace said it was something that "needed to be done" as soon as she heard the stripped back arrangement of the track.
"I was approached by the producer of Decide who told me that he had made a stripped back piano arrangement of Everlong & I immediately knew that was something that I wanted to jump... I think stripping the song back to just piano & strings really lends itself to what the song is trying to say... I was so confused as to why nobody had ever done this before."
Much like the inspiration behind Decide the release of these two recent songs shows the growth & maturation of Grace as an artists. When Grace first began writing music she was very clearly in the country singer-songwriter realm, drawing on the likes of Kacey Musgraves, Kasey Chambers & Maren Morris as inspiration. However, as Grace has continued to explore music & grow as an artist her sound has begun to move more towards the rock realm.
"My music is very focused on personal experiences, explained Grace. "My aim with my music is to say something & every word has a purpose. A lot of my music so far has been in a very country kind of space but we're now going into a bit more of a rock vibe. That transition is something that I've always wanted to do because that was the music that I grew up listening to... My new music is really exciting & upbeat, whereas a lot of my previous songs haven't been in that space so I'm really excited to release this new music."
For those interested in catching the first glimpses of this direction in her music Grace will be playing at the Valleyways Festival in her hometown of Camden in September.
Follow Grace Amos' Creative Journey on Social Media @GraceAmosMusic
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