New Artist of the Week: Koren Grace

Koren Grace's songs are going viral on Tik Tok and we stan.

What are your musical influences? Are there recurring themes in your music?

I am very influenced by life and the everyday happenings of life. I usually write about any experience that makes me feel something. That doesn’t always manifest itself as a romantic relationship problem, oftentimes it’ll manifest itself as a business deal gone wrong or a failed project that I didn’t want to say to someone so I wrote it in lyrics instead.

I believe that the recurring themes in my music are growth and the spirituality of growth and growing up and learning more about myself as well as the outside world around me and how it works or how it doesn’t work.

What’s your songwriting process like?

My writing process looks different every time I write a song. Sometimes I will get an idea and I’ll write a couplet down in my phone notes or in my composition book and I’ll just let it hang out there until I get another idea that I think has the same emotions (that can range anywhere from the same day or two years later) OR I’ll sit down and write a song in 25 mins or less because it pours out of me.

As far as music/lyrics, I either write music or lyrics first–there is no set way for me to write. Whichever one the inspiration catches first is usually what I’ll roll with. I’m very open to the process whichever way it comes.

How has social media, especially Tik Tok, helped your creative process and to share your music?

OMG good old tiktok lol. I think TikTok has definitely made me reminiscent of my young YouTube days. Coming up for me the big creative app was YouTube and as a teenager I felt freer to create because I hadn’t run into any doubts or obstacles.

So I definitely think that making content on TikTok has given me back some of that creative innocence that we all possess as young people but have the tendency to lose or take for granted as we become kinda jaded to life.

Social Media in general just helps me connect to people I would have never otherwise connected with and so I am making more connections to people. I am getting more inspired by people. I am definitely someone who takes advantage of the save feature on instagram. I make folders of the ideas that catch my eye and I’ll start to see a theme in the things that I save which helps me make the idea more my own because then it makes the reason why I was drawn to those pictures in the first place more prominent.

As a Black bisexual artist, how did music help you navigate and express your identity?

When I was first realizing my sexuality as a young adult I was able to have my music as SUCH a creative outlet to write catchy songs about my crushes on women and about my heartbreaks (with those same women lol). It definitely helped me process a lot of the mistakes I was making and just like mentioned before I was able to reflect my actions back to me and grow from those mistakes. As well as writing songs, even though it's me writing them, lets me know that someone understands my existence.

So when I am writing songs about overcoming homophobia or racism I know that someone is listening and reflecting back, even if that person is me.

Our summer theme is all about the coming of age experience. What does it mean to be young today?

To me being young means to be carefree but also caring. This generation is the generation of accountability and true growth. To me there is nothing more beautiful than stepping into your power and realizing how great you are so that the love and accountability that you have for yourself can translate better to others. I think that the planet can function so much better when people love themselves. Self-love, self-accountability can turn into team building which can lead to environmental growth which again benefits all of us.

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Listen to Koren Grace on Spotify | Follow her on insta @korengrace