Photography // Grace Savage – Anna Michell
Peachy Magazine talks with Grace Savage, the rising electro-pop artist, before the release of her new single “Falls the Heart”. A chat in which Savage opens up about the story behind her new single “Falls the Heart” – a deeply personal song, her growth as an artist and much more.
Where did the inspiration for your new single “Falls The Heart” come from?
The lyrics to this song are deeply personal and relate to something I spent many years dealing with and understanding. It’s only now that I am in a happy place that I feel ready to write/talk about it in my songs. As a gay/queer woman, I have spent many years in relationships with “straight women” where I was hidden. Hidden from their family, their friends and work colleagues. In private, I was their lover, and in public, I was their “best friend”. Holding hands under tables. Kissing in toilets. It’s fun for a few months, and then when months grow into years, it just feels really really shit. This, as I recently heard in Mae Martin’s new show “Feel Good” can do “bad things to your posture”. And it did. It did bad things to my self esteem and deepened my own homophobia toward myself. I was being hidden because something about me was wrong, and the world shouldn’t see me. That’s what I was internalising all those years and this song is a realisation of how damaging this can be.
You’re sharing the music video for “Falls The Heart” on the release day of the single – what’s the idea behind the visuals for the track?
I wanted the visuals to reflect the “angry phase” after a breakup, which can be both a dark and empowering place to be. It’s an awakening. A re-birth. An emerging from a bad place to a better place. The experience of being hidden and closed off from the world as a gay woman created feelings of extreme bitterness and so even when moving forward onto new and healthier relationships, it grew a monster in me. Someone who “feeds off another,” rather than loves wholeheartedly without fear. Someone who is afraid to be vulnerable. For a while I looked at love in this cynical way. I had to in order to protect myself. In the chorus of this song love is seen as selfish, merely a means to drain the resources of someone else. To take something in order to gain something. We take their light to get us out of the dark, and “the more we take, the deeper falls the heart”. I wanted the visuals to reflect this darkness, and I think Benny Aves did an incredible job making that work.
Watch the video for Falls the Heart below:
How do you feel you’ve grown as an artist looking back at when you released ‘Medusa‘ a couple of years ago and then up till today?
Wow, has it only been two years?! That is mad. Feels like forever ago. I think I’ve grown a lot! This is my fourth self released EP, and I’ve learnt something new with every single release. I’m always honing my craft as an artist, but more significantly, I think I’ve grown as an entrepreneur/businesswoman. I was self-managed for 8 years, and so I’ve had to understand every single aspect of the music industry from marketing campaigns to distribution to promoting my own headline shows, creating music videos, etc. In the beginning I used to think if I chuck enough money at something then that means it will be good quality and therefore successful…four EP’s down the line, I’ve realised the opposite is true. Having a simple and creative idea executed with enough enthusiasm and a good team is invaluable. And I’ve realised the importance of direct artist to fan relationships to someone like me as an independent artist.
Can you highlight a song of yours that means something special to you or, for any reason, stands out to you?
Medusa is still one of the most significant songs to me. It was the first single I ever released and marks the end of a four-year working relationship I had with a producer, which turned sour and into a year-long legal battle in which I ended up walking away from about 30 songs we’d developed and written together.
I was about to give up music and move onto something else, having never released a single song, but I decided to pick myself up and give it one more go. I released Medusa, and the response was amazing. That song gave me my confidence back, and I felt so proud of myself for overcoming everything and ploughing on despite how insecure I felt at the time. It will always hold a special place in my heart for that reason.
How do you tackle the current global health crisis creatively, when being cut off from doing gigs and interact with an audience in that way?
I can’t figure out if it’s the worst time to be promoting a new EP or the best. Everyone is at home and on the internet, but there is so much noise and more competition now plus people are feeling vulnerable, scared, and overwhelmed, so I’m trying really hard to get the tone right when promoting/pushing my music. I keep telling myself that people need music and art at this time more than ever, and so it’s okay. I’m a freelance artist, and I’ve had all my work cancelled, so I started a Patreon and have had a great response from my fans so far, which has been really heartwarming.
I am thankful to have this release to focus on right now and am trying my hardest to stick to a routine and not drink too much alcohol in the evening or watch the news too much. I’m also telling myself not to put too much pressure on myself to create. Taking time to adjust, disconnect and just BE is equally if not more important than taking advantage of this time to create a masterpiece. I’m used to working from home and long stretches of unemployment, though, so I’m not finding it too difficult to adjust, to be honest!
