A Conversation With GraceKellie: Bloomington Band talks about their music and what inspires them

Kellie McGrew and Grace Leckey masked up and ready to rock and roll

I was given the opportunity to interview a local Bloomington band composed of two audio engineering majors, Grace Leckey and Kellie McGrew, who hail from the D.C. area and Indianapolis, respectively. Although I have little to no knowledge in how to conduct a proper interview, this dynamic popular rock pair humored me as we discussed topics that ranged from their creative process to Scooby Doo’s Hex Girls. Explore the full interview below to learn more about perhaps the two coolest people I’ve ever spoken with.

Bethany: I read in the SZN Magazine article about you both that you met because of your audio engineering classes at IU. Have there been any professors that have especially influenced how you make music and/or who know about and support your band?

Grace: All of our professors know about and support our band, for sure! For our major classes, we have to record bands all the time for projects for class, so they listen to our music when they’re grading other people’s projects all of the time.

Kellie: When we put out our first album, it was all recorded in school facilities, so we went to them to get permission to put it on streaming. That was a big thing and they were really supportive of that, which was cool.

Grace: The rule used to be that if you used school facilities you couldn’t do anything with it where you would make money from it. That had been the rule for a long time and it was really well-enforced. Our friend and producer extraordinaire - his name is Carl Newmark - was kind of the force behind it to say, “Listen, this is really ridiculous that we built this whole state of the art studio and that people can make these amazing projects and then not get to publish it,” you know?

It’s not like we make a ton of money off of streaming, at all; like, our album’s been up for a year and a couple months now, and I think we have a total of like $50 that we’ve made from streaming revenue. And every song has hundreds of streams on it - one of em just hit a thousand, it’s kind of more than I was expecting. You get a like fraction of a penny for every stream, so it kind of stacks up in a way. But when Carl and us, when we all went to them with this argument of “we’d really like to do a proper release of this on streaming platforms,” they were like, “you’re right! You should be able to do that!”

Kellie: They had to go to the top of the university or something like that.

Grace: But they did, they went there and back for us, so it ended up being okay. So they are really supportive of us.

Bethany: I’m so glad to hear that! Yeah, you deserve to profit off of your own work.

Grace: At least deserve to have, yeah, ownership over it and do what we want with it.

Bethany: How would you describe the Bloomington music community?

Kellie: It was definitely the social scene for us, especially freshman and sophomore year. That was what we would do on the weekends; go to house shows and see bands. And so yeah, seeing lots of bands and being like “We need to do that! We should play! We should make a band and play in a house show, it’d be really cool.” And a couple of our close friends would put on house shows a lot, which was really fun. I made a lot of posters for their shows, and we played there a bunch and then other places.

Grace: It’s always fun, I think, to put together the shows. Not that we ever got to be those people, but just to be in conversation about, you know, who’s going to be in the lineup and getting excited to play with the other people in the lineup and checking out their stuff, if they’re maybe an out of town person or friends of ours that we get to hear.

Kellie: And hearing new songs! Hearing a classic or whatever.

Grace: Hearing new songs, yeah!

Bethany: That’s really cool that you created a name for yourselves in Bloomington; I’d be terrified to even start out.

Grace: I mean, it did take us a while before we were like, “oh, I think we should do this.” How many house shows do you think we went to before we played one?

Kellie: Literally so many.

Grace: A ton, we went to a ton! And then we were like, “you know what, it’s our turn.” And people were excited for us and excited about having us, which means a lot.

Bethany: Kellie, I know that you mentioned creating posters for house shows. Could you tell me about the art you make for your single and album covers? The process behind it and what inspired their look? They look incredible and remind me of comic books.

Kellie: Thank you, I appreciate that! It varies from thing to thing. Sometimes I have a vision for something and I think, “oh, this would make the most sense,” but sometimes it takes some work to get it together. But yeah, I love old comic books and the art style of that, so that’s definitely a huge influence. I have a minor in art history, so I’m also influenced by really old, classical stuff, so I love mashing things together and doing crazy things. And I love using bright colors. Choosing the color palettes sometimes is also a big inspiration for the rest of the piece. I think one of the singles, for “Ronnie Doesn’t Know Me,” I got inspired by the color palette from this Scooby Doo TV show I was watching? It was these neon greens and oranges and teals and I was like, I wanna use that color palette.

Grace: And it’s perfect!

Bethany: That’s so cool. And I actually have a question about Scooby Doo as well! I noticed that one of your Instagram pictures included a hashtag that read: #hexgirlsinspired. If you could pick one Hex girl you identify with the most, who would it be and why? They were one of my sexual awakenings, personally.

Kellie: Oh, I always liked the drummer! She’s the green one, so I always loved her color theme. And she has bats on her drum set; she’s so cool. And I like the keyboard player’s vibe with the red hair, that’s awesome.

Grace: I think I have memories of vibing with the keyboard player because she plays keyboard, you know? When I was a kid I was doing the whole piano lessons things, and it’s all very fuddy duddy for awhile, but to see someone who’s badass and a girl-

Kellie: I feel like I don’t know the other two’s names...Isn’t the lead singer’s name ‘Thorn’?

Grace: Oh my God, you just dove so deep into my brain. I think you’re right.

Kellie: I’ve definitely seen that movie like a hundred times-

Grace: But can we watch it later?

Grace: Okay, Luna’s the keyboard player, Thorn is the lead singer, and Dusk is the drummer.

Kellie: Dusk!

Grace: Dusk!

Bethany: Coolest names.

Grace: Yeah, okay, I do think I’d want to be Luna!

Bethany: I’d also love to ask: What’s your favorite lyric that you’ve ever written?

Grace: Recently, I’m proud of a lyric from an unreleased song. It’s the very last lyric of a song from our upcoming album, and the lyric is “Those little girls you loved so much, we grew up and we’ve become demanding women.” And I think it’s kind of cool because the rest of the song starts off talking about that woman over there, a story about someone else, and that’s most of the song, and then at the bridge breakdown it kind of flips. And it’s about women in general. And then the very end; I kind of wanted to leave it open so that last line could be about women in general or it could be about us. I had this idea of the very precise phrasing of it in the studio because I wanted it to also have the option as if it’s reading us specifically; going from our first album that has a lot of silly energy in it to being something that is less silly and has a little more bit to it, sonically and lyrically and everything-wise.

So, “Those little girls you loved so much, we grew up and we’ve become demanding women.” And “demanding women” is just fun to say, fun to own and be.

Bethany: I really like that because the experience of being a woman is often feeling like you have to to fit into a certain box or water yourself down for others.

Grace: It’s a theme I feel like I come back to a lot. That even if the song doesn’t start off being about that that it ends up being about that. So I feel like it’s a good way to capture the theme that’s grown with us.

Kellie: On our upcoming album, I wrote lyrics for the first time on one of the songs, so that was cool. My favorite lyric would be the pre-chorus, where it’s like “Backseat, end of the week, high speed cutting through the Indiana heat.”

Grace: Yeah, that’s a good one. The whole process of that song was awesome. So usually the way we do this is: I’ll write lyrics, melody, chord progression, and I’ll play it usually on piano and be like, “Kellie, I wrote this song, here’s how it goes.” Then maybe make a rough demo and then we’ll work out- Kellie writes the drum parts, the bass parts, the electric guitar parts, and that’s kind of how we bring it together then. Kellie defines the groove. But then through this new song- Can I say the title of it? Am I allowed to say the title of it? Kellie: Yeah!

Grace: It’s called “Root Beer,” the song that Kellie wrote. And she gave me the lyrics, so the whole process was backwards. And I ended up changing some of it so that it was easier for me to sing-

Kellie: Because I’m not a singer, I don’t know what’s hard to sing and what’s not hard to sing.

Grace: It kind of had a melody, but it was like a flexible melody, but also felt like it needed to be a different layer in it. So I took most of the melody that Kellie already wrote and changed it a little bit and changed some of the meter of the lyrics to fit into something I could sing fast enough or slow enough or whatever. But that was really fun, I’ve never done a song like that where someone was like, “here are the lyrics, play with this” instead.

Bethany: It’s especially surreal to get to talk to you both after listening to your album “Like the Princess.” I really loved the song “Easy on Me” in particular, especially because of the Bloomington mention at the end. Could you tell me a little more about that song and how it came to be?

Grace: I wrote it on- have you ever ridden one of those express buses that run from Bloomington to the Indy airport?

Bethany: *emphatic nodding* Grace: I rode it, it was raining, and it was spring 2018 or 2019, one of those springs. It was pouring rain and I was trying to get right from Bloomington to the Indy airport to go home for spring break. I was just soaking wet and then this song- this is how this happens, the lyric just smacks me in the face and then it won’t leave me alone until it’s a full thing.

Originally, “sideways rain” was the phrase I couldn’t get out of my head. I got caught in that and then it turned into “crazy kind of sideways rain.” But I was like, “oh, I’m gonna write a song called “Sideways Rain” and it’s gonna be about trying to get home and it’s raining.” And I just kind of ran with that. And then my whole airport experience was such garbage that day, and it felt really comical how tough of a time I was having getting home.

So the first verse is about how I got caught in that crazy kind of sideways rain, the kind of rain that’s blowing around, on my way up to Indy trying to catch my plane. “I was in it fifteen minutes but I feel it to my bones”- yeah, I was soaking wet. And then there’s the chorus, and the second verse is about TSA. I had a bunch of snacks in my backpack or something, and I had to dump out everything. And the third verse is made up, though. I didn’t actually have a double-booked plane ticket, but I just thought that’d be kind of funny. So it’s just about this whole experience of you’ve had a tough semester, you’re just trying to get home, and it’s just really wet and you’re really cold, so that’s where that came from.

Bethany: Such a college-esque experience, where it seems like everything possible that could have gone wrong happened.

Grace: Right, right.

Bethany: And who is the face of music right now to you? Both to the music world in general and based off of who you’re listening to personally.

Grace: Right now, my personal inspiration is Brandi Carlile. That’s an easy answer. I’ve got her entire discography on a never-ending loop. Yeah, I really like her stuff, and I started listening to some of her stuff a long time ago, but then I started to get more interested in her in the fall. And I told someone, “Oh, I’m listening to Brandi Carlile this week,” and they were like, “Oh, I love Brandi! I love everything about her and I love that she’s an out, queer woman, I just love that.” And I was like, “I didn’t know that! How have I been listening to her music and I didn’t know that?” And right now that I know that, it’s just such an important layer of her music, and I realize that she’s so good that she doesn’t have to explicitly sing about any of these things, and it’s still communicated. I just admire that so much. And she admires the Indigo Girls, that’s like her path, and I’m like, “it all makes sense.” The layers of queer women inspiring queer women who write folk music is ridiculous, it’s amazing.

So yeah, I’m listening to her and I think she’s got a legendary voice that’s unlike anyone else’s right now. I also love that she’s a mom and she’s still so constantly developing, you know? Because women get aged out of everything, and her big album-she’s doing the big stuff now. I don’t know how old she is, but she’s got two little girls at home, and I just love that and it brings me a lot of hope in the music industry. Not that Brandi Carlile is a direct influence in the music we’re writing for our band right now. But we both also do music stuff outside of GraceKellie, and I’m kind of in a folk phase right now, personally. Anyway, that’s my small rant about myself.

Kellie: Yeah, that’s a great answer.

Grace: Thank you, thank you.

Kellie: I’m listening to a lot of this guy called Nick Cave. It’s like post-punk, so it’s very weird, but I feel like if I don’t listen to weird music every now and then that I’m not staying on top of it. But he does a lot of Southern-gothic storying telling in his music, which I think is really cool, with really good stories and interesting things to talk about. One of his songs is about how Elvis was born - I don’t know if this is true - but born in the middle of a tornado and he was a twin and the first twin died in childbirth. Something crazy and super bizarre, straight out of a story or something, and it’s very cool, I think. But very weird. An acquired taste.

Bethany: I’m really interested in looking into both of these artists now, and I’d really recommend Willow Smith’s new music. Her band and her transition into rock music is just incredible, and that’s my little contribution. But what has been the most ecstatic or proud that you’ve ever felt during your music career?

Grace: I’m thinking maybe...we played a show the night of our album release, that was pretty cool. To finish the last song of that set...we’re a band, with an album. We’re a Bloomington student band with an album out for the world to hear. And all our friends were there. My Mom was there, she flew out from D.C. to Bloomington that weekend, and she was there in the basement of the house show, hanging out with all of us.

Kellie: I agree with that. And doing Culture Shock was fun.

Grace: Yeah, that was really cool. We played WIUX’s Culture Shock last weekend. I’d always wanted to do that. The recording process was awesome. It went really smoothly, and everyone was so helpful. They were so nice and supportive, and they offered us tea, coffee, snacks and helped us carry all our stuff up and down the stairs. And the actual performing part was so fun.

Kellie: Yeah, that was the first time we’d played live in literally a year. So good.

Bethany: What would you both say is the best part of being in a band together?

Grace: I think my favorite part of being in the band is the process of hearing a song come together. Maybe other bands feel this even more if they play more live shows- now we do mostly recording stuff because we don’t really have that many chances to play live. We also have way more opportunities to record than most college bands would ever, just by nature of what we study and who we know. But the process of playing a song together for the first time- that feels like the best moment ever. And then we play it in the studio and we get to hear it back for the first time, and I’m like “No, this is the best moment ever.” And then I get to hear Kellie play the bassline for the first time, and it’s “Scrap that, this is the best moment of my entire life, ever, right here.” And then we get a mix back from someone and I get to listen to their work on it, and I’m like “this.” And then that final mix moment when we realize that this is perfect and this is the version we’re gonna release to the world and keep as our treasure, as our memory of this song. That first listen of the final mix is the greatest. And how each moment and phase is special and unique and exciting, it builds to having that.

Popcorn, you? Kellie: Yeah, I like that part but also when we’re putting a song together and being like, “What could we put on this?” And then realizing we have so much covered between the two of us and being like, “Oh, Grace, you could put some trumpet on this or I could put some electric guitar on this” or something. Being like “wow, we have so many options and palettes available,” it’s just so fun to ask what fits for each song and talking it out.

Grace: I love that about our band. I think that’s something that’s kind of special, too, about us, that we both play a lot of things with very little overlap between us. It just makes the coverage even bigger. I guess the only thing we really overlap on is guitar, and we have very different styles of guitar.

Bethany: What would you say your personal styles of guitar are?

Grace: I play most of the acoustic stuff, with a couple exceptions. I think you play acoustic on “KC,” maybe.

Kellie: One song.

Grace: Yeah. My background in guitar playing- my Dad taught me to play when I was like, eleven or twelve. So the guitar I have now is his, and he let me take it to college with me. I played in church a lot- I kind of learned playing folk music in church, so that’s how I built a skill set.

Kellie: Camp counselor.

Grace: Camp counselor, yeah, all that stuff. And now my style has developed into- I’m really into taking cord shapes and just putting them where they don’t belong? Like those hand shapes and just being like, “If we just slide this around instead of…” Because I just avoid bar chords because my hands are small and my guitar’s a little too big for me. Anyway, that’s how my style has developed; it’s very folk-influenced and acoustic pop.

Kellie: And then I grew up playing a lot of rock music, so I like playing lead guitar on electric guitar more. And then I was in jazz band for, like, all of high school, so playing that and bar chords comes more naturally to me, I would say. I feel like I’m better at bar chords than I am at open chords, which is so weird. I don’t know. It’s just easier. So I like to do a lot of the lead electric stuff and play chords when I have to.

Bethany: As our talk comes to a close, do you have anything you’d like to say or promote about what you have going on? I know you mentioned an upcoming album? Grace: Yeah! We’re putting together this album right now- the sophomore album. Officially untitled at the moment, but we’re kind of tossing some things around that’s changed a little bit. And yeah, we’re gonna try to release it end of summer/early fall, if we can swing it. We don’t like to talk about this but our time as a band- Kellie is moving to Los Angeles at the end of the summer. It’s sad. It’s the end of GraceKellie and the Bloomington scene, but I also know that we’ll continue to collaborate for the rest of our careers.

Kellie: Oh, yeah. To the end! Grace: We were friends before we were in a band- classmates and then friends. Now we live together. We’re gonna be friends forever. It wouldn’t surprise me if we start some other band someday or we come back to GraceKellie and put together long distance tracks or something.

Kellie: Somehow we end up in the same city again…

Grace: Somehow! And we bring it back...But the collabs will continue.

Thank you so much to Grace and Kellie for a fantastic interview! They have quickly become two people who I look up to so much, and I’m really excited to follow their music and hover over their social media accounts.

This link is a comprehensive guide to all things GraceKellie! You can listen to their amazing work on Spotify and follow them @gracekelliejamz on Instagram and Facebook.