Interview with Natalie Grace

Today I have an interview with the super talented Natalie Grace. We talked about her new single 'Ask You One Thing', writing during a pandemic and what's next for her.

Hi Natalie, how are you?

Hi Elin! I’m great thank you. Pandemics and whatnot aside!

Who are your biggest musical influences?

A few of my biggest musical influences are Demi Lovato, Aretha Franklin, Jojo. I love the soul that they bring and the vulnerability of their lyrics and I try and channel both of these things in my own music.

How did you start writing music?

I actually can’t remember exactly what made me start writing, but I think if I remember correctly it was because of a music class I had in year 7, where the teacher asked us to write a blues song, and instead me and my friend sat together and wrote a love song about the boys we fancied instead. Clearly nothing has changed because I’m still writing about boys 10 years later! When will we get the point that they’re rubbish?!

What is the inspiration behind your song 'Ask You One Thing'?

The song explores the rollercoaster of emotions I felt after finding out that my previous partner had ended up in a relationship with someone he was good friends with during our relationship, and who I felt threatened by while we were together. At the time that we were together I aired my worries to him and he said I had nothing worry about because he didn’t find her attractive and whatnot. But apparently things change because they ended up together and it really affected me as I felt a sense of betrayal and that I’d been lied to whilst we were together.

I love the modern production on the song, how did you find the process of creating the song?

Thank you so much! I’m glad you like it. It was a strange one actually, because I didn’t really expect for my first released song to come together during a nationwide lockdown so it was definitely a unique first experience. Essentially, I made a demo which I sent to the producer who then used that as a frame of reference to create the song from using MIDI instrumentation as we couldn’t exactly get a band in a studio to record at the time. When he was finished, he sent it to me and I recorded the vocals at home which I sent to him to be added to the mix. So it was a lot of sending files back and forth between myself, the producer and the mastering engineer. But it was actually a lot less hassle than I thought it would be and ended up still being a lot of fun.

Has the pandemic created any challenges for you as a songwriter?

I didn’t think it would but it actually did affect my writing. It didn’t so much affect WHAT or HOW I wrote, but how MUCH I wrote. Because we were in lockdown for months and not going anywhere or experiencing anything, I felt like I had very little to write about as I wasn’t getting inspiration from anywhere I’d been, anything I’d done or anyone I’d met as we weren’t leaving the house at all. Luckily things are a bit more back to normal now and I’m back to writing sad love songs and whatnot!

What is something you miss the most due to the pandemic?

Hugging!!! I’m such a loving and affectionate person so not being able to hug certain friends and family members because of their health has been really hard for me. Especially during the more intense lockdown. I remember meeting up with some best friends in the park over the summer and I instinctively went to run up to one of them and hug her when I saw her, but then we both stopped a few metres away from each other and were really sad at the realisation that we weren’t supposed to hug. It was heartbreaking! Luckily, I can hug most people again now and my affection-o-meter is rising once more!

Lastly, what can we expect to hear from you next?

I’m currently working on the next few singles, the next of which should be out in January so I’ll have something to start the new (and hopefully better) year off with. It’s going to be a sequel of sorts to ‘Ask You One Thing’, so it kind of explores the development of me finally letting that person and how they made me feel go. After that will be a more up-tempo one to have a break from the sad/angry love songs!

Thank you so much for taking the time to interview me and get to know me!

Thank you so much to Natalie Grace for taking the time to answer some questions for us, it's really appreciated. You can listen to 'Ask You One Thing' now, I will link it at the end of the post with all the social media links for Natalie Grace so you can keep up with her.

Thank you for reading, until next time...

Listen to 'Ask You One Thing' on Spotify here.

Follow Natalie Grace on Spotify here.

Follow Natalie Grace on Instagram here.

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