Diandra Interviews Jack Grace: Releases Tension Through If I Tremble
Jack Grace’s If I Tremble feels like somebody combined Radiohead’s Thom Yorke with a galaxy. Every wave feels radioed by a frantic call from daily life; trying to reach out to you to see if you are enjoying her. It is dramatic, unpredictable, and 100% happy to be complex. These are three things people might steer away from when it comes to creativity and relationships but not Jack Grace.
The Aussie’s brilliance is one he has worked hard to both discipline but also let roam freely. The lines between spontaneity and structure are not easy to tow, but are necessary for any artist. “Us”, “Waiting”, and “Row Me Home” are just a few tracks that twist, twinkle, and turn with sounds that are not meant to be grasped in the same ways stars are not meant to be held. Instead, you watch their lightness and receive their messages like morse code, with Grace’s ethereally pitched voice stepping in to make sure you receive them. Like most artists what you receive from a song is up to you, but I had the pleasure of interviewing Jack Grace to see what inspired If I Tremble.
Diandra: You use silence and negative spaces in your sound. How do you feel these sonic elements reflect and move listeners’ humanity?
Jack Grace: I guess it’s a way to push the ear to focus on one thing and placing value on that. Sometimes that one thing is the sum of a bunch of moving parts and, at other times, its literally not much more then one thing. In a way I guess its a reaction to the intense amount of banal content I consume on the daily.
Diandra: Your sound is very kind, quiet, and pensive. Is music meditative to you?
Jack Grace: Yes it is, but I don’t think that’s always in the way of meditation being quiet. Sometimes, I want to be in the club with music so loud it drowns out how loud life is.
Diandra: What has music taught you about self-control, patience, and discipline that you feel you have been able to bring in your personal life?
Jack Grace: I’m unsure if I can see much separation between a personal and a musical life…. Learning piano taught me a narrow kind of discipline from when I was young. Unfortunately, I’m often highly impatient socially.
Diandra: While you have focused on building your soundscape, you have been growing as a lyricist. How do you figure out what wisdom you want to share with listeners?
Jack Grace: I like music that tells stories, whether its 2 sentences or 6 verses, it’s more for me about trying to get the arc of the story right. I think sometimes a good story can have stuff like wisdom somewhere within it, sometimes it’s just entertainment, and, maybe, sometimes you have to be already wise to see the wisdom in it and that’s where I struggle.
Diandra: You have said your music works on a tension and release mechanism. Explain.
Jack Grace: I think the act of finishing a project can have a positive affect and release some frustration especially when you feel like you managed to get some of your ideas realized. If I Tremble has some things on it that I’m really happy to have going out.
Diandra: You have worked a lot with Christopher Port and Simon Lam. What have they taught you about forming your artistry?
Jack Grace: They are both drummers but also two drummers with quite different approaches. I love what both of them do on their own projects and across the different projects they work on. Overall, I have a deep respect for their meticulous approach and attention to detail. Producing is often a lot of problem solving and understanding someone’s work flow a bit sometimes helps you solve a problem you keep coming up against. They have gotten me out of some corners I painted myself into.
Diandra: You have said you try to make music that is natural to you. How do you feel your nature has changed as an artist and person through the years?
Jack Grace: I was bought up on the American songbook and gospel music and there seems to be no escaping its grip. All the music I listened to in my teens, my nights out ,and what we partied to through my early twenties is all the stuff I love and enjoy and its just about trying to walk the line through it all.
Diandra: Most, if not all, of music is about relationships. What do you think your music says about love?
Jack Grace: Well, the music that I like is about everyday stuff: relationships and love being a part of that. My music probably says, in terms of love, “don’t try it” while simultaneously “trying it” which is kind of accurate.
For More Information On Jack Grace And To Buy If I Tremble On April 13.
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