When I first interviewed Sydney folk/alt-country artist Gracie Jean, it was in 2022 and she had released her debut album, Romance is Bad. Since then she’s had momentous changes in her life, including the death of her mother.
Grief and how one survives it – and survives the what-ifs that come with it – is the bedrock of Gracie’s new EP, Having & Longing. As she is upfront about that – and I take my cues from the artists in terms of what they’re prepared to discuss – it seemed like the most appropriate place to start our conversation about the EP. So we do. There is no preamble to it, just to let you know.
The substance of this EP is there in its title. Sometimes it seems that longing is out of fashion – that we should be striving and attaining instead. Longing suggests limbo – yearning for something that may never materialise. Grief is a form of longing, and so is wanting a life that takes a certain shape, and Gracie addresses that too.
This is an EP for those who are not afraid to open up the veins of life and see what’s coursing there, aware that it might be dark and murky but they want to know anyway. There is so much sweetness on it too. It’s impossible not to be moved by an artist who wants so much that is going to be always out of reach, and also wants things which may yet transpire and she’s putting them on the record, literally.
I appreciate Gracie Jean’s honesty in this interview and hope you find as much substance in it as I did, as a way of providing context for Having & Longing.
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