An Interview with Grace Elizabeth Harvey
We chatted with Grace, a singer-songwriter who began to explore her career during her time at Durham University, and now back at home in Merseyside, she has developed her debut EP, Other Faith, coming out this May. Despite chatting through our screens, Grace created a warm atmosphere as she explored how her passion for music and songwriting has evolved over the past couple of years.
Which artists have inspired you the most? What drew – or draws – you to their music?
I definitely think Laura Marling is my biggest inspiration. I’m just such a big fan of her stuff. I think my style is similar to her, but I also just love her music so much I don’t even know if I could describe why. I think it’s her melody writing and how the guitar and the voice always work together so well. The vibe of her music is really minimally produced, sincere, and very intimate and that’s the sort of thing I tend to write and find resonance with. Also Leonard Cohen – I was listening to him a lot when I was writing, especially my song ‘Goodnight’ on the EP. Oh yeah, Adrienne Lenker as well! Which is different from Laura Marling, but they’re my two biggest influences. Actually one of my songs, ‘Grace’, I wrote on a songwriting course that she [Lenker] was teaching.
Oh wow! – Yeah, it was in January or February. It was online, on zoom. That song was a response to one of the exercises we were doing. Yeah, it was really good! She gave some lectures and different exercises to try and it was great.
Your new EP – ‘Other Faith’ – is coming out soon on May 9th. How would you describe its feeling, and where did you get the inspiration from?
The concept for the album is songs about different types of faith. I try to describe it as… in every song there’s a dynamic between a “self”, “myself”, and an “other”. Whether that’s myself and a god figure, or myself and a lover, or me and myself. There’s always a dichotomy of a relationship, the trust you have in the “other” or the trust that they have in you and reflecting on that. Or like myself and a bird in ‘Birdsong’! There’s a lot of metaphors, especially around religion as I use religious imagery as a launchpad for philosophical ideas of trust.
The last track is like an epilogue that sums up all these ideas. It’s a discussion of trust in meaning: trusting words and what we’re saying; if it’s actually how we feel; if what we do is actually what we mean. Maybe you and what you say is another dichotomy that is discussed.
So I’m guessing your time as a philosophy student must have informed your work in some way?
Yeah, totally! I mean, it was always something that interested me before uni. I mostly just do music stuff now. I perform, and I teach music, and all sorts of things like youth club and play piano for people, so they always ask me “Why then, did you do English and Philosophy?”. But I don’t think I would’ve gotten into songwriting if it wasn't for my degree, all the studying I did, and concepts I explored. That’s what I use songwriting for: for spelling out all these thoughts that I have. In my head, there’s all these issues that we live with, but there’s no way to really express them.
And you also have your new song ‘Birdsong’ coming out. Even though it seems quite conceptual, drawing inspirations from our place within nature, do you think it's entirely conceptual or does it draw inspirations from your personal life?
Yeah, it’s actually a true story! It was in Durham, I was on this walk around where I lived in second year in the Viaduct, and there’s a little forest bit called Flass Vale. If you go down the path behind Kingslodge Inn, there’s a loop around this valley and you can go up this big old hill where I used to go on a lot of walks. There’s this meadow right at the top of the hill, you can see the cathedral – it’s really beautiful – and I just go there for a read. I was there one day and there was a bird singing this little interval. I whistled it back, and then the bird sang it back. Then I’d wait a bit and then I would do it again
and the bird responded! The bird was the one who stopped,
and I thought that was so weird. It was a bit sad, and a bit weird but quite cool. But it’s real! And I think the song takes that idea and springs questions from the reflections I had after that experience and the amazement that we can communicate with other animals even though we can’t understand their words. I just think that’s crazy and really cool.
Do you have any plans for any visuals to go with that song or a music video? – or for any other songs on that album?
Yeah so in Wiltshire where I recorded it, part of the process was that we did some live videos for the song. The birdsong one is outside in this foresty bit – so it’s sort of mimicking where that interaction happened. I also decided to do live sessions instead of music videos for the songs because they’re all quite stripped back and very minimal production. We really tried to make it feel like you were in the room listening to it – there’s minimal reverb and minimal effects. We wanted to capture how genuine the songs are, because I think they are very innocent and very honest, and I didn’t want to make too much of a spectacle of them by doing a music video.
So songwriting is more new to you? Yeah, I guess. I’ve always written songs, but I guess I’ve gotten more into it doing open mics really regularly at uni and just got here somehow. Cello was my first love, I think.
What’s your favourite venue in Durham?
Oh my god, well I have to say Claypath Deli because the show I’m playing in Durham is going to be there. I’m doing a tour and I’m doing a show at Durham – I don’t know the date exactly yet but it’ll be in June or the first week of June. Yeah, Claypath Deli because I love the people who run it and it’s so wholesome and cool. And you know what? There’s not many venues in Durham, it sucks. Cafes were where I started going and you get more of an intimate vibe.
Actually, I do have to give a shout out to the Holy GrAle basement, because I did an open mic there in the basement. It must have been tiny! It was so small! It was so good though, it got really packed and I thought “I made it!”, [we laugh]. It was iconic, but I’m not sure if they still do them.
But now you’re back in Merseyside – have you felt a kind of transition from performing in Durham to performing there or a big difference to when you play?
Yeah, totally. I think I’m just playing more gigs, and because I’m not a student, I just have so much more time. There’s more venues and so there’s more to bounce off because it’s a city. I also feel like because I’m close to Manchester, I can go there more often. People think that Liverpool and Manchester are quite far but they’re just an hour on the train and their communities, their music scenes, are pretty linked. It’s good to be here. I feel like I’m at home again, where I made my first professional steps.
Proudest moment in your music career?
Wow. I think literally yesterday when I announced the EP and I got such a nice reaction from everyone. And I’m doing a run of vinyl! Which is super scary and I almost bailed out last minute. I was almost like “I can’t do vinyl yet, who do I think I am?”, but then I thought “fuck it”. So even though it just happened – even speaking to you, I think shit, I only started doing this not that long ago, and I’ve gotten here somehow. I’m really proud I’ve made the decision to pursue this and not feel embarrassed, you know? I think I’m proud I’ve made all the decisions I have up until this point, where I have this EP I’m really proud of.
Her new single "Birdsong" is out now on streaming platforms and her new EP "Other Faith" will be released on May 9th.
Interviewed by Tallulah Di Tomaso
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