Podcast Transcript
Buzz Knight:
I’m Buzz Knight and welcome to this special LA edition of the Taking A Walk series. We’re here at the Crestwood Hills Park in Brentwood, a beautiful setting, a beautiful day, and a perfect spot to take a walk with my guest, LA-based singer songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, Grace Gaustad. Grace released her debut album, Black Box What Are You Hiding in 2021. And she has one of her songs, Hero, getting great reaction in the Netflix Original Rescued by Ruby. I’m so excited to be taken a walk with Grace Gaustad.
Announcer:
Taking a walk with Buzz Knight.
Buzz Knight:
Well, Grace, it is so nice to meet you and to be taking a walk with you. Thank you so much for the time.
Grace Gaustad:
Thank you so much for having me. This is like the most unique probably interview podcast experience I’ve ever had.
Buzz Knight:
Well, I have been really fascinated by your or work. To say the least, you put everything out there with your work. You are not just a singer songwriter. You are just a fabulous content creator, and I’m really amazed by the work you do. So that’s particularly been something I’ve been so excited about, to take a walk with you. Do you take a walk at any point in time during the day to just kind of chill and feel good about what’s going on in your life? Or how do you use walking?
Grace Gaustad:
You know, I’ve got a dog, and I’m in the process of getting another one. So walking my dog is a big part of my daily routine. He loves the outdoors and it gives me some time to get outside. I spend a lot of time in studios and very dark, small spaces. So it’s always nice to get out and get into nature. And if I can do it with my dog, that makes it 10 times better.
Buzz Knight:
And the dogs really, they have the minds of their own. Right? I mean, it’s really their walk. It’s not your walk when it comes down to it, right?
Grace Gaustad:
Yes they do. Absolutely.
Buzz Knight:
And especially when there’s a scent hound of some type involved, right? I mean, they see a squirrel, and they’re off to the races, right?
Grace Gaustad:
Yep. Well, I’ve got a very little dog, so he’s usually much more afraid of everything outside than any of the animals are of him. So he kind of sticks close by and hopes that he doesn’t get attacked. He’s a little Shih Tzu.
Buzz Knight:
Hey, you’re not supposed to swear on the podcast, Grace. Come on. I’m just kidding.
Grace Gaustad:
Oh, did I? Oh. I got you. That’s funny. That’s good.
Buzz Knight:
See what I did there? Yeah.
Grace Gaustad:
I got you.
Buzz Knight:
Oh yeah. Well, so you grew up in the New York area actually, after some time in Arizona, is that correct?
Grace Gaustad:
Yep. I was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and then when I was about nine years old, we moved to Long island. And then after a few years there, we moved to New York City, where I attended high school.
Buzz Knight:
So what were your impressions growing up in the New York area, in terms of just the hustle and bustle and the insanity?
Grace Gaustad:
It’s very fast-paced. New York, it’s a loud city. It’s an exciting city. It’s very intense. But I think that, for me, as an artist, I was able to draw a lot of inspiration from the New York environment. There’s so many different types of people from all different walks of life, and it makes for a really great sort of creative hub.
Buzz Knight:
So do you go back frequently at all?
Grace Gaustad:
I do. My dad still lives on the East Coast, and my aunt as well. So I go and visit them periodically, and we still have an apartment in New York. So sometimes, when we’ve got some free time to go visit, my mom and I will go, but New York has changed since I grew up there. The pandemic, I think, on any major city, they’ve all sort of taken a little bit of a hit, but it’s slowly getting back to normal.
Buzz Knight:
Yeah. The cities are really … People just are moving out of the cities and yearning for, I guess, quiet in the country. Right?
Grace Gaustad:
Yeah. And I think I can understand that. I’m a huge nature person. I really like to fit, and hike, and just be outdoors. I love to swim, things like that. So I can totally understand people not wanting to be a part of the hustle and bustle anymore.
Buzz Knight:
So yeah, we’re at this cool park, the Crestwood park in Brentwood. And as someone who’s been in Boston for the last few months, dealing with the winter, it’s nice to have some sunshine, and beautiful weather, and to be taking a walk and enjoying a conversation. That’s one of the cool parts for me, meeting new people, having a conversation with someone that you meet for the first time, and someone who has a story to tell. So your story, take us back to the earliest point you could remember, where you knew, and I’ve heard you in other interviews, describe this, that you were going to be a musician.
Grace Gaustad:
Gosh, well there’s two points really that I speak about quite a bit, but I think that the biggest one for me, I was riding in the car with my dad, and I heard Just Dance for the first time by Lady Gaga, and sort of this was in that same time period where I Kissed a Girl by Katie Perry came out, and I was just getting exposure to like these big pop sounds, these big pop musicians. And I just remember hearing that song, and I listened to it 400 more times. And I announced to my parents that that’s what I was going to do one day. I was like, “Mom, dad. I’m going to be a pop star.” And they were like, “Okay sure, whatever.” But here we are many years later, and I feel lucky to be able to do music as my everyday job. It’s like doing what you love every day. You never work a day in your life.
Buzz Knight:
And it was a moment of complete certainty for you when you realized that. Right?
Grace Gaustad:
Absolutely. I really began to study Lady Gaga as a performer, an entertainer, an artist. And she really just ended up being almost like a muse for me. I drew so much inspiration from her as an artist. And I think that she really solidified music being something that I wanted to pursue professionally.
Buzz Knight:
And your mother plays music as well.
Grace Gaustad:
She does. Yeah. My mom is a very talented piano player and writer, and singer too. She never pursued it professionally, but occasionally I’ll still walk down the stairs, and she’ll be playing something beautiful on the piano. She’s probably a better piano player than I am, but she’s got an extra 40 years on me or so.
Buzz Knight:
But you learned while you were sitting on her lap?
Grace Gaustad:
Yes, I did. I used to follow her hands on the piano. She’d put my hands on top of hers, and she’d play different chords, and different melodies, and things like that. And those are my earliest memories of starting to learn how to play music.
Buzz Knight:
So as life progressed, and you faced some pretty incredible challenges in your life, music was always something you can come back to and really utilize as really almost a savior, right?
Grace Gaustad:
Yeah. Music has always been my safe space. It’s always been a space for me where I feel that I can go when I’m having a hard time, any sort of struggles, any type of pain that I was ever feeling. My way of coping was to turn it into art. I always say, in order to sort of process something very painful and very ugly, you got to turn it into something beautiful. You got to turn it into something that you can work with. So for me, any hardship or anything like that I’ve ever faced in my life, I have found a way to turn it into something that people can appreciate.
Buzz Knight:
And as you progressed in your career, in your writing, in your musicianship, how did you sort of always challenge yourself to learn and grow as an artist?
Grace Gaustad:
I think the biggest challenge is to just keep writing, keep going. I’ve been, gosh, I’ve played piano now for 15 years, which is kind of crazy, considering I’m only 20, but whenever I thought that I had sort of topped my level, I kept working. Anytime I did a great song, I wanted to go back in the studio and I wanted to do 10 more. So I think the secret to staying inspired and staying just really fully immersed in your work is to just keep going. It’s a full-time job. It’s a full-time process. I really stand by the fact that you can’t ever stop creating. The day you stop creating is the day you kind of kill your craft.
Buzz Knight:
But it’s risk taking too.
Grace Gaustad:
Absolutely. There’s a lot of risk in art, especially when you are making art that exposes some of your most vulnerable moments and deepest feeling. You never know how people are going to react, and there’s a certain thrill in that, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I think that writing music that other people can relate to, although sometimes it discusses really hard topics, seeing the messages that I get on a daily basis from teenagers from around the world makes it all worthwhile to me.
Buzz Knight:
Well, talk about that now. How do sort of communicate hope to them, when they are communicating with you?
Grace Gaustad:
Well, Black Box, my first album was really an album about hope, because although it explores a rather tumultuous journey that I went through as a teenager, I come out on the other side, and lots of those songs, although they discuss super painful topics like anxiety, depression, body dysmorphia, trauma, et cetera, they all have a solution. There’s a solution to everything. And I always say that, in order to sort of get through your pain, you literally have to get through it. You have to walk through the doors, you have to validate your own feelings. You have to figure out how you’re going to solve for whatever problems you’re facing.
Grace Gaustad:
The only guarantee that you won’t get through it is just if you lay there and let it take over. You got to keep pushing. And so Black Box is really a project that encourages young people, no matter what they’re going through, you got to get up every day. You got to find something that makes your life meaningful. You got to find purpose. You got to find strength in those who you love. And it’s really not option to just throw in the towel. You got to keep going.
Buzz Knight:
Were there ever parts in the Black Box creative process that you just said, “I don’t know if I could complete this, and this is going to be just impossible to get over the top on.”?
Grace Gaustad:
Yeah, absolutely. There’s a lot of different degrees of severity that were discussed in Black Box. I can look back and remember certain tracks, particularly Code Black, which is all about depression, and not feeling like you maybe want to be a part of this world anymore. I remember that song being very tricky for me to write. It was a point in time where I thought about ever putting out this project. So that was a really hard record for me. Another hard record, surprisingly, to write was 93 Days, because it was me saying, “Wow. I actually need help.” And that was a lot for me to admit as someone who considers themselves really independent, and very sort of resourceful. So writing that record, 93 Days, I was like, “This is the first time I’m admitting to myself and to the world that I can’t do this alone.” So Black Box, I always tell people, it was almost like therapy for me. It was like this open therapy session, where I was forced to deal with a lot of things that I never dealt with before.
Buzz Knight:
We’re on this walk, we just stopped in front of this like really unique tree that I venture to guess has been here a few years, Grace. And one of the amazing things I always think about trees, and the analogy around life, is just really how they are a solid foundation. And then, in life, you need a solid foundation around you. And it really sounds like the solid foundation in your world has certainly been your family.
Grace Gaustad:
Yeah. I am incredibly close with my mom. I’m an only child. So I never had a ton of people around that were my age. Most of my cousins are much older than me, but it’s kind of been my mom and I, since I can remember. She is one of the strongest people I know. She has pulled me out of places that I never thought I would get out of. She’s an incredible person. And I’ve never really met anyone quite like her. So I think that she has been a tremendous support system for me. And I feel blessed to be able to have such a supportive and loving mom. And we’ve really been on this musical journey together. She’s been by my side the whole way, and continues to do so every day.
Buzz Knight:
So how hard, during COVID, has it been to be in the midst of creative processes?
Grace Gaustad:
It was pretty hard, when COVID first started. There was a lot of uncertainty. A lot of people didn’t know how they were going to move forward. It was definitely very stressful in the music world because obviously touring shut down completely. So I had to watch a lot of friends of mine go through very hard times. They were strictly touring musicians, and COVID sort of forced them to become writers and producers, and it really forced them out of their comfort zone. And I think it did that for a lot of people.
Grace Gaustad:
I ended up working on projects, and doing things in COVID that I maybe never would’ve done, had we not had a situation like that. So for a creative, I think it was sometimes, it’s hard to say, but it was like a blessing in disguise. It definitely forced me to really think outside of a comfort zone, and figure out how to be creative when I really had no interest in doing anything. It’s very easy to sort of fall into that sort of dark, depressed place, when the world ²starts to sort of fall apart around you. But I got through it. I’m glad to say that I feel like we’re coming out on the other side now and we’re all better people for it.
Buzz Knight:
Yeah. And you used it as the opportunity to spend your time wisely, and I think that’s smart of you for sure. So the world is pretty scary right now, obviously, let’s just say, with the crisis that’s going on, certainly in Ukraine, and what we see in terms of the news cycle on it, and just the awful story there. We see stories that are amazing, that are unbelievably resilient, but we certainly see so much tragedy. Tell me your feelings on what we’re all seeing from a perspective that you have.
Grace Gaustad:
God, it’s hard to say. I think the people that I feel the most sad for are all of the kids, and very young people, who are having to live through these unprecedented times that we’re living through right now. Although I’m only 20, I’ve had a great deal of exposure to the world, and how things really are. And I just wish that I could just, ugh, get on a loud speaker and tell our youth that it’s going to be okay. That although things seem so bad right now, there’s a pendulum, and things will swing to the other side.
Grace Gaustad:
I’m a believer that, although there are so many bad things that are going on in the world, I also think that there are so many good things that you don’t hear about. The news loves to cover everything that’s terrible. And they don’t like to cover things that are beautiful and wonderful, and things that are taking a step forward, and things like that. So as much as I can, one way that I cope is to try to find something good that happens every day, and it can be something small or it can be something big, but I just try to fill my energy, and my mind with positive things, as opposed to incredibly painful and hurtful ones.
Buzz Knight:
So talk about, beyond your family, some of the people that also inspire you, whether they’re people who are musicians or friends, or who are the other folks that really are important to you in terms of inspiration, musical and otherwise?
Grace Gaustad:
Well, we spoke a little bit about Lady Gaga, and she will always be a massive inspiration to me. I’ve been lucky enough in my life to work with Don Lawrence, who is Lady Gaga’s vocal coach, and has been mine for the last almost eight years now. Don’s been a tremendous support system for me. And I always say he is almost like my grandpa or my second dad, or something like that. He’s been just incredible, and any time that I was ever considering quitting, or … There goes my water.
Buzz Knight:
That’s all right.
Grace Gaustad:
Quitting, or wanting to stop what I was doing, he was always that voice of reason who could put things into perspective for me, and kind of bring me back down to the ground. I also draw a lot of inspiration from my frequent collaborator, and kind of creative partner, Scott Effman. He wrote with me a few of my favorite songs off of Black Box, Creature and 93 Days. And he has produced, I believe, 13 of 13 tracks off my next album. So Scott is one of my best friends, and one of my favorite people to work with. I feel I do the best work with him. So he’s definitely been a huge source of inspiration for me as well.
Grace Gaustad:
And then, of course my girlfriend, Katie. We’ve been together almost a year now, and she’s brought me an amount of happiness that I didn’t know possible before. So she’s definitely inspired some happier music, some love songs for the first time in my career.
Buzz Knight:
She’s an actress. Yes?
Grace Gaustad:
She’s an actress. Yes. And she’s very good at it. And we actually met on the set of the Creature music video for Black Box. I found her on TikTok and I was like, “Gosh, that girl’s so funny. She’s so cool. I’m going to see if she wants to be in my music videos.” And so, I just messaged her, and she was like, “Yeah, you know, I’d love to be in the project.” And so that’s really where we met. And then all of a sudden, by the time I was done filming that project, I found myself in a very unique situation. And yeah. Now, we’ve been together for a year.
Buzz Knight:
Oh, that’s so great.
Grace Gaustad:
It’s a very cool story.
Buzz Knight:
That’s a lovely story. It sounds serendipitous really, right?
Grace Gaustad:
Yeah.
Buzz Knight:
Yeah. And how do you continue to get exposed to maybe artists, whether they be new artists, or new artists for you that you’ve not discovered?
Grace Gaustad:
I mean, I’m always looking online. I love to see what my friends are listening to. I like to see what my other collaborators and producers and writers are listening to, because they’ve all got a very sophisticated musical ear, and sometimes they’ll show me songs that I would’ve never found on my own, that ended up being some of my favorite records. So I think it’s just about talking to a lot of different people about their musical opinions, and getting recommendations from your friends. I think music is a very personal thing. Everyone’s taste is very different. And I think that’s what makes it great. There’s something for everybody.
Buzz Knight:
Yeah. I mean, music, what is it about music? What is it that it does? How can you explain what music does to us? Because when I think of it, I think of how it lifts you up, it takes you down. It makes you laugh. It makes you cry. There’s so many emotions, but what do you think is the secret sauce behind music?
Grace Gaustad:
I think that music is a universal language. That’s always how my mom described it to me when I was a little kid. It’s something that, from the beginning of time, has always brought people together in some form. And I don’t think you necessarily have to know what someone’s talking about, or even what they’re saying to just sit there and listen to the beautiful sounds of instruments, and to appreciate the craftsmanship that comes with musicianship and so on. I think that it’s something that really has only upside. And you say music brings us up. It brings us down. And that’s true. I think music forces us to look inward and look at ourselves and really do a lot of self-reflection and growing.
Buzz Knight:
It is universal and it’s just the beauty of it. And boy, I know I’m grateful for the exposure that I have to music. And like you said, a friend who just turned you on to something, sends you the recommendation. And if it’s something that you’ve never experienced, it’s just a special moment. Right?
Grace Gaustad:
Absolutely.
Buzz Knight:
It really is. So what’s next here, project-wise? It sounds like something’s finished that you’ve …
Grace Gaustad:
Something is finished. Yeah. Something is finished. I wrapped up Black Box and as the creative kind of cuckoo that I am, I went right into the second one without taking any time in between.
Buzz Knight:
I would call it prolific, but …
Grace Gaustad:
There you go. Well, everyone in my household who hears me at 3 AM writing music, I don’t know if they feel that way, but my next project is called Pill Box: What’s Your Fantasy. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a continuation of Black Box, but I would call it a continuation of my life, and where I’m at now as an artist, as a person. It’s a project that I’m very excited about. It feels like almost the first time I’m putting something out as an adult.
Grace Gaustad:
When I created Black Box, although I didn’t film it till I was a bit older, it was something that I created when I was 17. And so, I wasn’t really out of that at that high school space yet, I was still kind of just right on the cusp of adulthood. And now at 20, I feel very confident in this next project and this next message, and sort of group of songs. My team and I are working 12 and 14 hours a day to try and get this thing together. We start production in six weeks, and hopefully roll out starts early in the summer.
Buzz Knight:
That’s tremendous. And Hero, in the Netflix movie, Rescued by Ruby. Congratulations on that. What a tremendous song.
Grace Gaustad:
Thank you.
Buzz Knight:
What a great story for you to be part of that Netflix special. That was a dream of yours for a while to attain. Yes?
Grace Gaustad:
Yes. It was a longtime dream. I used to tell my mom, when I first started out, I was like, “One day, I’m going to have one of my songs in one of these big movies.” And she’s like, “Okay, babe. I bet you can do it.” And it’s a full circle moment. Her and I were talking about it last night and we were just like, “Wow, how crazy that this happened?” And it’s sort of when it rains, it pours. So it’s nuts that, right when this Netflix film comes out, I’m ready to start my second project. And I’ve got a lot of really cool things going on behind the scenes. And it’s just like I’m sort of in this space where I’m creating a ton, I’m working a lot, and I’m having the most fun I’ve ever had in my life. So can’t complain.
Buzz Knight:
That’s so great. Well, Hero is such an important song, I think, for the time, because there’s so many heroic actions that we’re witnessing in the world. There’s so many people who bring heroic traits into life, and Grace, what you’re doing for people, and the voice that you’re giving them. And the safe haven that you’re giving them is heroic in its own regard. And I want to just certainly congratulate you for all your work. And I look forward to the next bodies of your prolific work.
Grace Gaustad:
Thank you.
Buzz Knight:
And I’m so honored that you were able to find the time to take a walk with me.
Grace Gaustad:
Oh gosh, it was a blast. And it’s beautiful outside, and it’s reminding me that I got to get out more. I got to get out from the studio. And hopefully when I’m done with this project, I can find myself outside in nature a little bit more than I am right now.
Buzz Knight:
Thanks for your tremendous energy, Grace.
Grace Gaustad:
Thank you so much, Buzz. This was a blast.
Announcer:
Taking a walk with Buzz Knight is available on Spotify, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
About The Author
Buzz Knight
Buzz Knight is an established media executive with a long history of content creation and multi-platform distribution.
After a successful career as a Radio Executive, he formed Buzz Knight Media which focuses on strategic guidance and the development of new original content.
