Grace Sees on Pop Music Culture
Grace Sees opens up about breaking into the pop music industry in London
Pop Music has become increasingly adored by Londoners over the last few years due to an influx of unique artists creating more modernistic sounds for their fans. Rising stars over the years include Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish, and Post Malone all obtaining Grammy Awards, Brit Awards, and Academy Awards. The competition these days is high as, in 2019, Statista did an online survey announcing that the United Kingdom had 52,000 musicians in employment, the highest number recorded in this period. Grace See’s is a talented pop singer from London who is all too familiar with the London rivalry in the industry. Speaking in a new interview, she was keen to share her ideologies about breaking into the business.
Like many other successful artists in London who were pushed through musical theatre at a young age, Grace followed a similar path. After chatting about our entertaining routines in lockdown, she spoke about her musical scholarship as a child, “I hadn’t been enjoying it for that long really. It made me realise musical theatre wasn’t for me, there wasn’t as much creativity in it.” Leaving to join London College of Creative Media, she went on to create her own tracks and music videos. Reminiscing about her first music video ‘Fade to Grey’, she laughed, “My first music video was fun, but yeah I was really nervous as well, I wasn’t sure how I was going to come across on camera. It gave me much more confidence to do the next one. It’s expensive though (laughs).” Shining a light on the topic of money, it becomes apparent that without a solid backbone of finances at a young age, your early days as a musician are much harder. When Grace discusses her early days getting noticed, she expands on her struggles, “When I was first gigging around London, I couldn’t get in anywhere. I was offered to play at O2 academy. You had to pay for plays which was hard, I had to buy the tickets. So I wasn’t able to get the bigger places. I got so far, but then I couldn’t get the momentum I needed… so I took a step back, got a producer and we kind of started working together from there.”
As more and more teenagers with a financial backing emerged from Brit School, the competition grew harder in this niche music market. Grace, however, was adamant to keep with her own unique sound, taking a drag of her cigarette she said, “I think it’s competitive whatever genre you’re in. I have found when I have had shows, my music is mainstream pop, Indie labels wouldn’t be able to do the right thing with it. So then it is the challenge…well you have to be really major. If it was Indie I may have had more of a chance perhaps.”
Looking at major artists in the industry today, Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus for example, it’s apparent that these artists have a certain ‘look’ tying in with their music. Grace also finds her image an important factor with her music, styling pink hair from her music videos, high leather boots and colourful suit jackets. She spoke down the phone, “I do think it’s more than just the music. For example Rihanna, she is such a performer, she walks onto that stage, the music matches with the look, the voice and the attitude. Billie Eilish, Lana Del Ray, their music videos are important. I love it all, I love creating artwork. For me, I know my song is complete when I can imagine what the music video will look like. The music sounds good.”
Grace has recently released her new EP ‘Pandora Box’ and, like many other artists, used her own emotions to write the song. She adds, “I was in a bit of a rubbish relationship, no effort was made, I didn’t want it to be over but I wanted it to be better.” Like many of us adapting to the lockdown, Grace goes on to say she was meant to be on BBC Essex for an interview, but due to the restrictions, she was limited to a call with the station on air. She continues to say that the lockdown hasn’t stopped her though, “I actually made a quarantine song (laughs) which I posted on my Instagram. I had quite a few songs that I hadn’t fully finished, so I have actually been revising them which has been really fun.”
Seeing how much Grace has grown in her success, I ask her what advice she would give the younger version of herself breaking into the pop music industry. She eagerly responds, “I think I would be careful trusting people. Be positive and don’t always believe everything. For me there were occasions when people made promises to me they couldn’t keep, so I hoped for the best, but when it didn’t happen it was very upsetting. Don’t be so harsh on yourself, I was so critical, whereas now I just go with myself. I think it comes with confidence when you realise what you’re creating, your happy to try new stuff. I am 26 now and I think I have come to a great place where I’m not embarrassed by my music, a type of person is attracted to it.”
Grace finishes off discussing the positive sides of having competition in your career as she says it’s something that excelled her to grab something that she always wanted, “I have always quite liked competitive things, I think it suits me. You wouldn’t do this unless you didn’t, but then again people make music for all sorts of reasons. I always think if you do it, and you do well, you have achieved something.”
Check out Grace’s new EP here: https://open.spotify.com/album/0LOjCadCfaHxMfOdrKET7F?si=CK648ysiTHGV1Kguj4xPtg