Gracie Abrams sits down with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 and talks about working with The National’s Aaron Dessner on her new album, her personal growth and finding her voice as a songwriter.
Gracie Abrams Tells Apple Music About Her New Album and Working With The National’s Aaron Dessner…
I definitely feel proud of it just because of, I think it very much highlights the dynamic that I share with Aaron [Dessner], which was so obviously, it was the foundation of the space that he creates for the people he works with, I think very much allowed me to go deeper and very almost often mindlessly, which is a weird thing to do when you're writing about such intentional things, it's just, I guess looking back, yes, now I do feel very relieved and proud of it.
We’d wake up early and make breakfast and work till midnight, have wine and bread and do it all again. It felt like the songs and the conversations that we'd have, everything was just... The flow of it all was undeniably fun.
I felt like this was definitely the most cathartic, actively therapeutic process I had ever experienced. And then you let go of a lot while writing and I don't know, it's nice to move on, I think. And I think I've learned so much from being in that environment. Everyone is so thoughtful and there's a kind of compassion and patience that I think is more, I have found to be more rare in general, like in city environment, it's harder to find when everything is moving a million miles a second. It's just to be in such a, I don't know. Yeah. It's kind of like the expansive nature I think influences everything. The people and the music. There's like on the record, there's more space than I had played with I think before. I wanted things to rest and for people to listen and focus on the narrative. And Aaron is such a generous producer in highlighting the vocal in that way and everything that he adds and his instincts are so specific and unique to I think to his empathy. He's one of my best friends, which is so crazy now. But it's true. And knows everything, like truly Aaron and my therapist, they know me better than I do, I think, almost. And we write so easily together.
Gracie Abrams Talks To Apple Music About Her Personal Growth And Finding Her Voice As A Songwriter…
I definitely, I mean I'm in my early twenties. I think I was hyper aware more so now than ever before how little I know about everything and there's a kind of calm in that. Or it's just assumptions about things that, or judgements. And there was a rigidity that was exhausting, actually. And so to be more open to change. I think, honestly, touring and getting used to being out of control in many ways helped shift my perspective and things. But I think lots of time and writing and reading other people's work broadens your vocabulary and your imagination, I guess. So I definitely don't think I would've made this album before I did.
I have always been an anxious person who has issues with or before I had controlling tendencies in the kind of many different lanes in my life that just ended up feeling heavier than I think I maybe deserved to feel about a lot, as just a young person. Like the too much of the control was restrictive and strange, and I think it turned me into maybe an unfair partner to people in my life. I think obviously lots of therapy went into reflection.
