Grace Gaustad, indie pop’s deep-voiced & deep-thinking millennial, drops new single: “Best Self”

“If I feel this way, there have to be 10 million other people who feel this way.”

With this deceptively simple reflection, young songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Grace Gaustad has tapped into that elusive organic formula of the human heart that is the recipe for timeless songwriting with the power to resonate across generations. And the 500K followers she has amassed after just one year on Instagram are a sign that reaching those 10 million people is just a matter of time.

At 17, Grace has already been crafting songs and honing her deep vocal chops for years, and you can hear that dedication to craft in the soulful voice and ardent lyrics on her first single “Best Self” released Feb 15,2019 by ONErpm).

The song tells a story of hurt through a wickedly sarcastic play on those overused Instagram platitudes like Ride or Die! or BE Your Best Self!: “When it comes to ride or die, you let me drown” and “It’s more than I can deal with, looking at you now, winning with your best self…winning with the devil.” Listeners get the sense of the inevitable universal that is the post-breakup social-media-stalk, cynically perusing an ex’s smiling new posts, rife with better-off-now affirmations while remembering, and maybe even still longing for, the less impressive reality behind the got-it-together front.

Grace’s songs gain their emotional weight from the insight that there are millions out there who feel the same way, and her rising star on Instagram and Soundcloud is a sign that there are listeners out there who hunger for her style of empathy and connection. But despite the attention her songs have been garnering online, Grace has been in no hurry to sign to a major label or grow up too fast, preferring to build a grassroots following via Soundcloud rather than pursuing the label deals.

We are meeting the new voices of a generation that have been defined by superficiality and social media, but the music being created by the likes of Grace and Billie Eilish speaks to something far different from those labels …not to mention their individual personas have abandoned the stereotypical objectified female. These new less glamorized street-smart kids are projecting and singing to fluidity, not because it’s cool, but because it’s exactly who they are as the next cultural disrupters.

Grace’s story is a complex and nuanced challenge to the popular narrative of young Instagram and Youtube stars who see releasing music as the next step on their famous-for-being-famous trajectory. Forher, mastering songwriting as a serious craft with the heavy power to connect her generation has been the single most essential element of her impressive social media presence from the start, making her a refreshing counterpoint to that narrative and positioning her to become one of the first serious pop artists whose career was launched on Instagram.

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