WORDS // EMILY WHITCHURCH
PHOTOGRAPHY // MALLORY TURNER
STYLING // GEMMA CROSS
From posting covers on YouTube during high school to building an extensive global community of fans – or friends, as she affectionately refers to them – 23-year-old singer-songwriter Rachel Grae invites listeners back into her head and heart on her upcoming sophomore record, “Turned Into Me.” It’s a fitting title as she embraces new-found feelings of empowerment, celebrating her personal growth while honoring the journey it took to get there. Despite the millions of streams and followers Grae has racked up across platforms, she maintains a directness and emotional intimacy in her lyrics that make it feel as though she’s singing to you, for you, with you.
Speaking with Grae, it’s no surprise that her music is so deeply rooted in authenticity and vulnerability, as she chats openly about her relationships with social media, her listeners, and herself.
For people who aren’t familiar with your music, can you share a bit about your journey as an artist so far?
I’ve been singing my entire life. The first cover I ever made that I can remember was when I was ten years old so I’ve been at it for a pretty long time! When I was younger, all I wanted to do was help people. I thought I was going to go into psychology or therapy because I craved healing people, and when I realised I could do it through music, that’s when I started taking it seriously. I’ve been taking vocal lessons since I was 12 and writing in my diary until I learned how to actually start writing.
When I was a senior in high school, I started posting covers every Tuesday on YouTube. It was like a homework assignment for me, and that’s how my manager found me. I flew out to LA and that was my first time actually writing in a studio and it was a dream. I’d go on this [anonymous video posting] app called YouNow and I would live my best Hannah Montana life and go live on that during high school to sing for people.
You’ve only been releasing music for a few years but have already gained almost 300 million streams on Spotify. With the next album and the singles we’ve heard so far, is there a pressure to keep that initial momentum going or are you happy to just ride the wave?
I think I felt more pressure when I first started because I honestly cared more about the numbers, and the more I do it, the more honest I feel like I can be in my music. I’ve learned that what resonates with people is what I want to resonate with people, and there’s always a life for a song. Like the whole idea that when you put out a song, you want it to blow up immediately from social media and you’re expecting instant gratification. But the song’s out forever and it could blow up in a year, it could blow up in two, and that’s perfectly fine. I just want it to hit the correct people, and for the people who hear it to love it. That’s my main priority, and just to be authentic.
TikTok has played a huge role in your career so far – I love that it’s not just about promoting your music but also showing your personality and interacting with people. Do you ever feel any kind of obligation or need to write things with TikTok virality in mind or, like you suggested earlier, are you happy playing the longer game?
The longer game! I feel like I would definitely be lying if I said I didn’t play into it a little bit just because that’s what I knew. I started writing and releasing music in that time when TikTok was huge, and it still is. Now, with this album, I put my phone away and stopped listening to the top 100. I asked my parents what music they listen to, I completely cleansed my brain and just went in with exactly what I wanted to write with the people I wanted to write it with. I honestly didn’t think for a second about TikTok or socials or how other people would feel, but I think that’s why I wrote some of my best music.
Beyond TikTok too, your music seems to have real global resonance – looking at your Spotify profile, you have huge audiences across Indonesia, Singapore, Australia etc. What do you think it is that pulls people from around the world into your music?
I think music is a universal language. That’s the coolest part – you could speak to every single person in this world and it doesn’t matter what language you speak or where you come from. If people hear my song and it resonates because they’re going through a breakup or they’re having family problems or a friendship breakup, it’s just a universal feeling that everybody latches onto. I think it’s so special and that’s half the reason why I love writing.
A lot of your songs last year leaned into sadder, ballad territory. “Raised by a Woman” and “Safe With Me” definitely sound more carefree and empowering. Does this shift in sound reflect a personal shift for you too?
One hundred percent. Like, one million percent. I try to be authentic with what I write and when I release it based on where I am mentally. I’ve released songs when I was sad and in the exact moment, and I’ve released songs after writing them and feeling the courage to actually release them. Now, I’m in this phase of my life where I feel confident and I feel more empowered than I do sad. I see things differently and my perspective has shifted so it only felt natural for my perspective to shift in my music as well and the message that I’m trying to get across. At first, I needed to write those sad songs. Now, I wish that there were more songs to empower people and I’m happy to be one of those people to do that.
“Journal No.1” was so personal and vulnerable, which I think allowed a lot of listeners to connect with you as an artist and also as a person. Has your songwriting process changed from that era to “Safe With Me” and the rest of the new record?
Sad girl Rachel will never leave! I’ll always have a little ballad girl in me. I think the process has somewhat stayed the same – I’ve always gone into sessions trying to be authentic and real and just say what’s on my mind. Have I become a better writer? One hundred percent, practice makes perfect. So I’m sure that I will change a million other times, but the way I write hasn’t really changed.
Something that does seem to have changed is the visual aesthetic. The cover art for the singles feels very corporate chic! The colour scheme is so strong and powerful too. Can you tell me a bit about the inspiration behind the visual side of things for this new chapter?
With the growth of the music, everything else is growing with it. That’s how I feel when I listen to my songs, very empowered and like a girlboss in a way, so that’s where the inspiration comes from. My music also leans a little more soulful and deeper now, so that’s where I got the colour from, it’s just how it made me feel. All the visuals stem from who I am and how my music makes me feel.
You’ll be performing at Lollapalooza next week and then back on tour in a few months too – how are you feeling about playing “Safe With Me” and “Raised by a Woman” live for the first time since its release?
I feel amazing about it. There’s a difference in writing for my current self versus singing songs for my past self – it’s less about having to step into where I was when I wrote them, and more about singing exactly how I feel now. I think that’s so special because it comes off so authentic, just because that’s exactly where I’m at in life. I’m so excited and this new era of music feels so me.
Does it feel harder playing those older, sadder songs now compared to when you were actually feeling those feelings? Or does it become easier now that you’re in a different headspace?
That’s a good question – I wrote this new album for younger me and current me and future me at the same time. It’s a conceptual album where every other song is younger me versus older me and the different perspectives I have on the same things. Almost like a manifestation type of thing. So it feels in-theme to hint back to who I was, and still who I am, but I always feel every song deeply just because I know when I wrote it and who I wrote it for. Sometimes singing for younger me is even sadder! So it does help sometimes that I’m not completely feeling that way in the moment.
Do you have a vision for the live shows? What kind of atmosphere are you hoping to create?
I just want to have fun and I want to meet everybody. That’s my biggest goal! I call my fanbase my “friendbase” because that’s genuinely how I feel and all I want to do is just hang out with my friends. We all feel the same things so I just want it to be a celebration. And because it’s a tour for my album, it kind of feels like a release party every single night and that’s the energy I want to bring to it.
I love the idea of a “friendbase” and that also reminds me of what we were discussing earlier with the way you use TikTok to engage with people.
I love going live, I love the whole FaceTime feel. I don’t even text my friends, I FaceTime them. I think it just accidentally happens that way, where I just enjoy talking rather than posting something and having no face-to-face contact. If I’m not on the road, I’d like to get as close as I possibly can to face-to-face, even if I can just see mine!
What’s the reaction to “Safe With Me” been like within your community online?
It’s been incredible. People have been calling it the older sister of “Outsider,” which is my biggest song. I think that’s so beautiful because when I wrote it, I didn’t write it for that purpose. It came from a different perspective, but when I listened back, it really felt like it. It was pretty cool to hear people resonate with that and call “Safe With Me” a more mature version of “Outsider” because we’re all kind of growing up together too.
That’s so special that you have a space where people feel like they can share their own perspectives and interpretations of your work too.
I love hearing everybody else’s stories. I like to see the different angles that people come at it with. Sometimes people think I’m just writing about boys but half the time, I’m not! There are times where I can understand where people are coming from. Like with all breakups, no matter who it’s with, that feeling of hurt can come across in so many ways.
To wrap things up, what do you hope listeners take away from the new album, and what have you taken away from the process of creating it?
The process of creating it for myself was incredibly healing. I wrote the whole album about younger me and older me, like I said, and I think when I was writing about current me, I was accidentally writing about future me at the same time. I almost feel like it sets a goal for me to get to and I love that because it’s so powerful for me to have to step into that person.
For the people that listen, I wrote it that way so that you have both frames. If you’re in the ‘before’ phase right now, you have the song after that as a future phase as well. I think there’s a song for everybody on the album. I just want people to get what they need out of it. I don’t expect them to feel a certain emotion, I just want them to be able to feel something and to connect with it and find healing.
CONNECT WITH RACHEL GRAE:
TOUR TICKETS // INSTAGRAM // TIKTOK // SPOTIFY