From growing up in Lexington, MA, to preparing for her first-ever tour of her new EP “Lovesick,” upcoming artist Molly Grace brings together the worlds of funk, soul, and mainstream pop to her growing audience worldwide.
In 2021, Molly Grace released several singles and an EP titled “Everyone Wants to Know Molly” as a first-year at Belmont University in a commercial voice major. Her commercial voice major allows her to study all kinds of modern singing, including jazz, country, pop, and everything under the sun.
Now a senior, we can see the progression of just how strong Grace’s vocals have become on “Lovesick.” Each song highlights how Grace has not only a gift for singing and a pretty voice, but also a unique ability to adapt to a variety of styles.
Whether it’s the snappy and airy vocals of “Lovin’ On You” that make you want to sing along to the poppy earworm inducing chorus, “Love it, Love it, you love the way I’m loving,” or the emotionally vulnerable lyrics and timbre of her voice on “If I Never Told You,” it’s clear that Grace has learned how to master her amazing vocal capabilities and utilize them in multiple genres.
In an interview with the Beacon, Grace shared that she has two favorite songs on the EP—the first track “Lover (Love her),” a song opening with a funk-inspired bassline that guides Grace’s vocals to build towards the chorus. Grace highlighted it as being an especially fun song to perform live for fans.
“It’s ridiculously fun and groovy and kind of just over the top in a lot of ways,” Grace said.
The second song Grace loves off of “Lovesick” is “My Mind Ain’t Always On My Side,” a ballad that revolves around a somber piano that slowly has Grace’s vocals built throughout the song. Grace touched on why this song is so important to her.
“That one is very vulnerable; I’m proud of how I verbalized my emotions,” Grace said. “That one’s just really special.”
Grace is inspired to create her music from a variety of artists, the funk and soul greats such as Earth, Wind and Fire, Stevie Wonder, and the Temptations, as well as smaller and more modern musical acts such as Lawrence or Chappell Roan. If Grace could work with anyone currently, it would be her inspiration Remi Wolf whom you can see some clear inspiration from in her new EP.
“Oh my gosh, she’s insane, I don’t know how she writes like she does,” said Grace.
Grace’s upcoming tour, “The Lovesick Tour” hits eight cities across the country. She shared how having her very own headlining tour came with excitement and hardships that Grace and her team are still working on, some being technical and others being because Grace is balancing being a full-time student while on tour.
“I’ll make up the days, I’ll make up the work,” Grace said. “But I’m just really excited to lean into the craziness of all of it.”
On top of preparing for touring, Grace expressed what it is like to navigate the music industry in this current time period and how social media plays a major role in that.
Grace noted that a significant part of being an upcoming artist in the music industry is now to utilize TikTok and other forms of social media to promote her content. She shared that this can feel difficult and frustrating, as she would rather spend her days focusing on music rather than making TikToks.
Nevertheless, Grace highlighted that never before in history have artists like herself had the ability to reach in a way like this before. Because of TikTok, independent artists are coming out on top because there’s so many people you can reach without a major backing label and unique to their generation and time. TikTok is one of the reasons Grace is able to go on her headline tour in the first place.
“The music and live performances are big pieces of the puzzle, but social media is huge,” Grace said.
For her music, Grace explained, social media has pros and cons when it comes to promoting new releases, especially when working with social media platforms’ algorithms.
“I feel like what does well for me on social media is like my upbeat, fun songs,” Grace said. “And so when I push out like a slower ballad or something a little more acoustic, it tends not to perform as well, which is tough because I love that stuff and I know it’s good music.”
Grace talked about how rolling out “Lovesick” has made the social media stuff more approachable.
“I found that I’ve been loving like the aesthetic of the whole EP because I’ve been rolling this out for like a few months now and promoting it,” Grace said.
Molly Grace’s new EP “Lovesick” is out on all major streaming services and “The Lovesick Tour” is coming to Boston on March 21 at Rockwood Music Hall.
