About

Details Nashville, Tennessee-based indie folk-pop artist Graci Phillips. “I want to create in song a safe haven to be real—a place that gives people permission to admit that they’re not perfect. No one has it all figured out and that’s okay. Life is messy, complicated, and beautiful. Let’s just enjoy the ride together.”

Bright beams of enlightenment and vulnerability stream in through Graci’s music as her impressionistic and boldly emotive songwriting explores broadly resonate themes such as relationships, self-growth, and issues of mental health. Her songwriting elegantly complements her storyteller lyrics with an imaginative folk perspective brimming with pop hooks, and a sweetly lush orchestral side that recalls Paul McCartney’s sophisticated Beatles-era musicality. Graci’s songs would fit snugly on a playlist alongside such artists as Fiona Apple, Madison Cunningham, Punch Brothers, and Regina Spektor. 

In 2011, Graci released her debut album, Catastrophe, which was themed around a high school “first love” breakup. Catastrophe showcased a polished production approach that emphasized the pop in what has become her distinct folk-pop blend. Though she has moved away from the glossy production sheen of that album, it remains a poignant offering 8 years later, and she will rerecord the track “I Don’t Cry” for her upcoming sophomore album. In 2017, Graci followed up her debut with a six-song collection titled Burning House EP. This release’s organic and raw instrumental approach will set the tone for future releases.  

Since her auspicious beginnings of being a high school student plucked from a family recording session (more on this later) to record her solo bow, Graci has grown to be a seasoned live performer. Select onstage career highlights include performing at the 2018 and 2019 TCS New York City Marathon for 52,000-plus runners and spectators, and performing for several thousand people in LA at the 2012 ASCAP I Create Music Expo. When she’s not onstage or in the studio, Graci gives back by being a mentor to young female writers through the non-profit Girls Write Nashville.  

One could say Graci’s destiny as a songwriter and performing artist was inevitable. Her mom and dad are singer-songwriters who met at a record label in Nashville in the 1980’s. “I didn’t know that other families didn’t have weekly musical potlucks at their houses until I was pretty old. It was just what we did in my house,” she shares. She grew up in recording studios, and on the road, enjoying the exhilarating transience of a musician’s life. While in high school, Graci proved to be a prodigiously talented songwriter.  However, her songwriting gift didn’t come out of the ether—it was the fruit of a private and passionate love affair with music that began with her first hearing the Beatles’ “Martha My Dear” from the White Album. From there, Graci found herself with an insatiable need to learn and experience all kinds of music. She voraciously digested CDs she checked out of the library, regularly bringing home 15-20 a week. “I began to cultivate this idea that music could be a magical and beautiful emotional experience. Those moments in my room listening to music were transformative,” Graci shares.  

She made her songwriting debut on a family album, and her contribution so impressed the producer that he offered to work with Graci on her debut album when she was only a high school sophomore. That album became Catastrophe. A few years later—while in college—Graci made the decision to pursue music professionally, and in a fiery epiphanic moment unenrolled in all her classed. “And I’ve never looked back!” she says.  

Select standouts in Graci’s currently-released material include “Little Coffee Shop” and “Conductor Doctor” from the Burning House EP. The sweetly winsome “Little Coffee Shop” boasts richly layered harmony vocals, rousing hooks that are poppy but not sugary, and a dynamic arrangement that unfolds with surprise twists like a stunning fiddle breakdown and a gorgeously deconstructed outro that places her stunning vocals naked and out front. Thematically, the song addresses resentments from a platform of healing. “The idea for that song is rooted in the bridge lyrics where I sing ‘I’ve been sipping on this poison and watching time go by, hoping you’d die.’ The idea here is that holding a grudge may feel good for a moment, but you end up punishing yourself as you’re the one that ends up suffering bitterness and choosing to not forgive,” she shares.  The clever “Conductor Doctor” meanders carefreely through folk, pop, country, and swing. This artistic wanderlust intriguingly mirrors her lyric’s intent. The song’s name is a playful spin on the phrase “Doctor, doctor” and the theme here relates back to Graci’s youth and how healing and exciting travel was with her parents as they crisscrossed the continent. The idea here being boarding a train to new land often felt like just what the doctor ordered as Graci longed to travel and adventure as a young girl.  Seeding the path to her sophomore album, Graci will release a fresh version of the song “I Don’t Cry” from her debut. This reimagined rendition will put her soulfully expressive vocals and the song’s heartbreaking story in the forefront, elegantly supported by two acoustic guitars and a violin. “That’s one of my most personal songs,” Graci acknowledges. “I’m happily married now, but our feelings are a big part of our stories. Redoing this song a decade later helps me process my evolution and confront challenging parts of my life.”  

Today, Graci is embracing the fevered pace of being a full-time musician through balancing live performances with wrapping up her second album. Sharing the meaning of it all, she says: “I hope by writing intimately and honestly my music helps people release themselves from the guilt of not being what other people want them to be so they can just be their authentic selves.”