Interview: Molly Grace
Photo Credit: Madison Kahler
Interview by: Caterina Terrizzi
This past Tuesday, Caterina Terrizzi had the opportunity to speak to Molly Grace on her newest single, “F.E.M.M.E.,” and her upcoming tour, which came to The Sinclair in Boston on Feb. 28.
Caterina Terrizzi (CT): So, you recently released your newest single, “F.E.M.M.E.” I really love the message behind this song of presenting in a more feminine way while still validating the queer experiences and identity. How do you feel that this song reflects your queer identity and experiences as well as impacting others?
Molly Grace (MG): Yeah, so I am both a fem queer person and like a femme lesbian. So I feel like I kind of just wrote this song with my friend Kate about the woes of being a fem presenting queer person, where sometimes straight people don’t take you seriously and sometimes queer people don’t take you seriously. And it’s just kind of like we’re all a little bit affected by the deep gender norms in our society and what a gay person looks like. Or what a nonbinary person would look like. So I feel like it’s an anthem that says, well, whatever, this is who I am. And I’m valid in that. I love this song. It’s been really cool to see how other femme lesbians have resonated with it and also how people who don’t even identify that way have still found a kernel of truth in that song for them. It’s like, everyone’s kind of made the song their own. I think it’s really cool to see.
CT: Yes. I’ve been seeing all of the TikTok dances and different ways that people express themselves through it. And it’s really fun.
MG: It’s so cute. I watch all of them. I literally always just scroll on the sound and I love it.
CT: I see so many of them. It’s so great. Are there any particular artists that you take inspiration from for your sound, your overall aesthetic, or what you’re doing on tour?
MG: Totally. I mean, if we’re talking about contemporary artists, I love Sabrina Carpenter. I love Chappell Roan, I love Remi Wolf. And then for more artists from past decades, I love Donna Summer and all the disco queens. I love Earth, Wind and Fire. I love Prince and I really love Queen too. I love Freddie Mercury. So all these grand, pop stars, and just entertainers of music history.
CT: While taking inspiration from these artists, how do you make stuff your own in terms of production, sound, and overall aesthetics.
MG: I’m always thinking about that because you want to get inspired by things, but you also want to make sure that everything I’m doing is authentically me. I feel like I have found a few of my signatures. When it comes to production specifically, there are ways that I layer my vocals or things that I do with my melodies and my ad libs that have become signatures to me. Also, I think to some extent, it’s all recycled, right? We’re all kind of reinventing the wheel sometimes. I take little pieces of the people that inspire me, and it creates a mosaic of who I am as an artist. I’m also a believer that as long as it’s me doing it, it’s going to be shaded in a Molly Grace light, you know?
CT: Cool. So I’ve seen on Instagram the upcoming tour cover art and the photo shoots you did. How did you come up with the idea and inspiration for incorporating themes from “But I’m a Cheerleader” into your artwork for your single and your tour?
MG: Yes. “But I’m a Cheerleader” is such an iconic, queer film. It’s in the canon, you know? When I was trying to come up with the visuals for “F.E.M.M.E.,” I honestly was really stuck for a while. I was like, I don’t know exactly what to do, because it was my first release in a long time, so I wanted it to be special. And then it just came to me. This song is so “But I’m a Cheerleader” coded. This would be such a fun nod to a really iconic piece of media. Thematically, it resonates, I think. So, for this tour, the reason we decided to call it the “But I’m a Pop Star Tour” is because I’m kind of between eras right now, if you will. So, I just wrapped up my “Lovesick Tour” in December, which was tied to my “Lovesick” EP, and I’m not yet touring my next project. And so this tour is combining a lot of my old favorites songs with a bunch of new stuff. But we’re not quite in the next project area yet, so I was like, we could build it around the “F.E.M.M.E.” aesthetic and the “But I’m a Cheerleader” aesthetic, and I just thought it would be a really fun idea to bridge the two eras.
CT: I love all the cover looks. It’s so fun to see all of that. And, like, the photo shoots and stuff.
MG: I love it. My photographer, Bella, is one of my good friends, and she just crushes every time.
CT: Oh, that’s so fun. Speaking of tour, you started tour a few days ago, right?
MG: Yeah.
CT: Where did you go? Where have you been?
MG: We went to New York City and Philly, and then now I’m just in Boston all week before the Boston show on Friday. And then D.C.
CT: Boston is excited for you!
MG: Yay. I’m so excited.
CT: You kind of touched on this, but how is this tour different from your last tour? And what can audiences expect while attending a Molly Grace show?
MG: I’d say the biggest difference is the scale from the last tour to this tour. First of all, we just scaled up the show production wise. My friend Sam is acting as our front of house and tour manager. We’re running tracks, which basically means for the audience that they get to hear not only the instruments on stage, but, like, background vocals and things like that coming through the speakers. So that’s been a really cool level up. And we’re also just playing bigger venues, which is really crazy. And these crowds in New York and Philly have just blown me away. I’m really excited for Boston and D.C. I have high hopes, because Boston’s my hometown.
CT: Yeah. You described this upcoming tour as your time to come home. I was wondering, how did New England affect your overall sound and aesthetic? And then also you moved to Nashville?
MG: Yeah.
CT: So how did that change and influence that as well?
MG: That’s such a great question. I feel like Boston and New England in general, the people here are so candid and funny and real. And I feel like that sense of humor and little edge, and like, bite, you know, comes through in my music and the cheekiness of my music, and the flirtiness of my music and the sense of humor, I feel like it really comes through. And then I feel like Nashville is just the songwriting capital of the entire world. Right? I feel like Nashville has really taught me how to tell stories. Because Nashville, although it’s largely country, has now branched out into other genres, the heart of Nashville is storytelling. So I feel like learning how to effectively get across the messages is the Nashville in me.
CT: That’s cool. Yeah, I really want to visit Nashville.
MG: I love Nashville. You totally should.
CT: Can you talk a little bit about your choice to partner with LIFEBEAT? Why did you particularly pick this organization? And how are you partnering with them? Are you doing some sort of donation program and how’s that working?
MG: Oh my gosh. So LIFEBEAT is such a wonderful organization. They actually reached out to me. So LIFEBEAT is affiliated with the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS foundation. And basically, if you didn’t know, Elizabeth Taylor, in addition to just being a general icon, was like a huge advocate for HIV and AIDS research and raised millions of dollars over her lifetime for that cause. And so LIFEBEAT is like a program of that foundation that specifically works with musical artists. And I believe they’ve worked with like, RemI Wolf, Sammy Ray, a bunch of other artists that I super look up to. And so it’s been awesome working with them. It was kind of a no brainer, because we’ve raised so much money through ticket sales, and also they’ve been tabling at the shows and having different organizations come and share sexual health resources and things like that. So it’s just been a wonderful experience working with them and I feel lucky that we get to do it.
CT: Yeah it’s really cool that you’re doing something with another organization. And I love that whenever I go to a show and I see that an artist is doing that, it makes me respect the artist so much more.
MG: Thank you. It’s such an easy thing on our end to just do. They make it easy.
CT: But yeah, I’m really excited for the show Friday and a few of my friends are coming too. Yay. Well, thank you so much and I’ll see you on Friday.
MG: Yay. I’m so pumped. Oh, we’ll see you then.
CT: Thank you so much. Have a good day.
MG: Bye.
This interview has been edited for clarity.