With her Conversations EP, singer and songwriter Grace Graber is continuing to open up a dialog about faith, mental health and her own story of survival.
“The Conversations EP was written from a place of finally sharing with the world how much I was struggling with my own mental health,” Grace Graber offers candidly. “I felt like people knew me as the girl who was excited and passionate about Jesus and church, all the stereotypes of a Christian woman. In reality, I was still hurting a lot. I turned to drinking and other ways to self-medicate.”
That bracing honesty served as the starting place for a collection of songs that offer a lifeline to anyone experiencing the same shadows. Title track “Conversations” was born from that place of secret struggle. Grace had just written the song “Do it for Me” with Holly Halliwell, clinging to the track record of a God who is constantly “making new things out of the dust.” That session led them into a raw conversation in which Grace admitted that she knew she needed to go back on medication for anxiety.
Paired together, “Do it for Me” and “Conversations” are the compass points that orient the collision of personal pain with God’s comforting light. This is carried through in “The Light,” a hopeful song that is indicative of Grace’s venture back into her punk pop roots. For Grace, dialing up the guitars is an act of freedom, a return to her more authentic self.
