photo: spencer starnes
“What do we do with our toxic treasures” This is the question Gracie Martin is chewing on right now. Born in Rochester, NY but having spent nearly the past decade in Philadelphia, Gracie’s fantasy folk-pop project, Gracie Martin & The So Beautifuls is in transit. Having spent the summer touring the East Coast/Midwest and moving out of her nearly decade long residence of Philadelphia, Gracie is embracing change and letting go of past trauma. Her upcoming releases purge and process her old ideas about love, attempting to resist how intoxicating her unconscious behavior is.
Gracie is now temporarily rebased in Rochester where she was born, raised and unschooled from 1st-12th grade. Unschooling is version of homeschooling that advocates learner-chosen activities as a primary means for learning. This unconventional learning style gave Gracie the room to gravitate towards music, theatre and art early on. She began writing songs around 11, started studying classical voice at 13 and picked up guitar at 15. Gracie went on to earn her BFA in Acting from The University of the Arts in 2014 and worked steadily in the Philly theatre community. Gracie became a company member of Plant Me Here in fall 2014 where she developed further as a songwriter/producer before self-releasing her debut EP, Unconscious, in June 2017.
Gracie’s late 2019 releases include two new singles as well as the soundtrack to The Wilma Theatre’s production of Romeo and Juliet. The soundtrack will include original music by Gracie in collaboration with a crew of talented Philly artists that was written and performed for The Wilma’s winter 2019 production of the Shakespeare play. Working on this classic story lit up Gracie’s curiosity about internalized toxic ideas further. “Romeo and Juliet is coded as a romantic ideal while normalizing suicide within young love… The idea of dying for someone was super normal to me growing up and I can see how it hurt me”
Gracie Martin plans on continuing to embrace different pathways as a freelance artist, while keeping Gracie Martin & The So Beautifuls focused on delivering a cornucopia of lush, fantasy folk-pop that keeps her chewing on tough questions.
photo: jp calubaquib
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