Incredible Women of 2024: Singer-Songwriter Grace Carter
Next in our Incredible Women of 2024 series – in which we celebrate the trailblazers whose talent, energy and impact are defining the year – is the singer-songwriter GRACE CARTER. She speaks to KARA KIA about baring her soul, claiming her strength, and learning to trust herself within the music industry
Growing up as an only child with big emotions was the making of Grace Carter’s deeply soulful music. “I remember listening to Adele for the first time and she was singing about heartbreak,” Carter recalls of processing the grief of an absent father. “I was a kid, and I hadn’t experienced a heartbreak in terms of a relationship, but I knew the feelings she was talking about.” After some encouragement from her stepfather, musician Paul Phillips, she started channeling anger and isolation into playing the guitar and songwriting as a form of catharsis.
In addition to Adele and Nina Simone, Carter cites Alicia Keys as an early musical influence. “As a young girl, and a young woman of color, seeing this powerful Black woman be so independent, and so fearless in who she is and what she wants, was a massive inspiration,” she says of her albums Why Her Not Me (2018) and A Little Lost, A Little Found (2023). “I want to do for others what those artists did for me. When I get messages from people, saying that my song got them through a hard time, that’s what makes it so magical. At times, I feel selfish writing songs about my life – but when I share them and realize that I’m helping so many people feel less alone, that’s amazing,” she says. “It has not been the smoothest journey, but I know that music is what I’m meant to be doing, in whatever capacity. I don’t take for granted that I get to do what I love every single day.”
“I’ve realized that being able to navigate complex situations is a superpower. It encourages me to live life now, be more present, and have more clarity in knowing what’s what
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Carter’s sound evokes emotional intelligence beyond her years, and while she’s familiar with being called an ‘old soul’, she didn’t initially take it as a compliment. “Having those experiences, I didn’t get to be a child for very long but, as I’ve grown older, I’ve realized that being able to navigate complex situations is a superpower. It encourages me to live life now, be more present, and have more clarity in knowing what’s what.” Integral to claiming her strength has been the support of her mother, but also that of her chosen family, which has come in the form of sisterhood. “My three best friends have seen all versions of my evolution and they have truly become my family, my sisters,” says Carter. “They have every single one of my songs on their phones – and have watched me sonically transition through lots of ballads with themes of heartbreak and sadness. While there are still touches of that in my music, I’ve been experimenting with my current body of work, and their feedback has been key to that process. I’m looking forward to them coming on tour with me this year.”
Even after more than a decade of discovering her vulnerability, Carter still finds it challenging to bare her heart to the world. “I don’t think I was quite prepared for just how honest the music was,” she confesses of working on her second album during the Covid pandemic. Prior to that, Carter had been on an upward trajectory and the steps along her creative path seemed clear. “I had to rethink everything,” she says, “With my first album, I wrote songs about this traumatic experience of my childhood – and, when that became everyone’s business, I lost myself. With my second album, I’ve learnt to trust my writing again, although it’s still such a scary concept after having done it so openly before. With the current body of work that I’m developing – hopefully it will become an album – I’m allowing myself to create what best represents me at this point in my life.”
“There are so many things that have become massive learnings and changed me for the better – and I want to share all of that in the music.” Her key takeaway is “to trust yourself,” she says. “In the music industry – especially as a young person – there are a lot of cooks in the kitchen telling you how to be, how to live, and how to do things. At the end of the day, when people become interested in what you’re doing, they very rarely have anything to do with it. It’s important to remember that what you created before anyone touched it is what sets you apart, so trust yourself. That’s something that I have to remind myself of all the time.”