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If you’ve been looking at your life plans and wondering how to upscale the baddie energy part, then allow Grace Sorensen’s debut album BLUEPRINT to be your answer. Vibe-ready, Cali-infused with some Texas flavors, Sorensen's repertoire is a medley of styles but always astute in charismatic delivery regardless of genre. For a debut album, this is even more impressive, as the singer never dips, ripping from one song to another with full confidence. Wanting to dig in even more on this irrefutable talent, we had Sorensen swing by the OnesToWatch headquarters for some chit-chat. 

 OnesToWatch: OK, Grace, why are you an artist? 

Grace Sorensen: That was a strong one to start off with. Being an artist is just really not a choice, at least for me. I feel like it's something that happened to me. I think being an artist is like a way of life. It's a way of existing, and I think that if I weren't able to express the way that I am through music, I would be like not walking in my purpose.  And so I feel like being an artist connects you to the supernatural, and it allows you to influence in a positive way and speak for people. It's a lot deeper than I think a lot of people wish that it would be.

Okay, so if you were omni-powerful supernatural and you could affect your audience and give them the exact feeling that you'd want from your music, what would it be?

I like to try to make music to make people feel powerful, weird, unique, and special. I want them to feel comforted and curious about things. I like people to feel inquisitive. I don't like to give all the answers in the music, whether that be through the lyrics or the production. Like, what is that sound? Why is this in there? What does this mean? I like that a lot, but I think overall, the message that I try to inject into the music is a feeling of peace and belonging in a way. Not in a way that makes it comfortable or too complacent.

That's interesting. Do you believe that being uncomfortable is peaceful? 

It can be, but that's if you find a way to embrace it, you know. I feel like being uncomfortable is how I know that I'm getting somewhere. If I'm not uncomfortable, I tend to have this feeling where I need to shed a layer of some sort, whether that be trying something new, taking something out of my life, switching up a habit, or being a beginner at something new. I think it's very important to be uncomfortable, but also find a way to make that a positive feeling and not always feel like that'd be bad, because I actually think it's a really good thing. 

How do you go about creating music? Do you just make yourself uncomfortable? 

Sometimes, that's a crazy way to say it. No, but when it comes to creating music, I like to not have an expectation but also have a direction of where I want to take something. So usually it's me working in the room with a new producer, and a lot of my favorite work happens in the first session with a new producer, cause sometimes you just have that click that is really special and you have no prior judgment of this person, so you don't worry about, “Oh, are they gonna think it's weird if I try this new thing, or if I do this with my voice.” 

There’s this blank slate of like, “Okay, I can just be and create whatever I want, because this person also is open.” And usually, I've been blessed to work with people that are open enough to where I feel like I can go there and experiment and try new things. But yeah, with music, I try to take what's comfortable and take what is familiar and what makes sense, but then find a way to collaborate with that person to bring it somewhere new, like to where I surprise myself, because I like to enjoy what I'm making, too. I don't wanna be bored with my own stuff. I wanna create something that makes me feel cool, you know. 

You hinted at it, but do you start with an idea? Is it a concept?  

Sometimes, yeah. Sometimes I start with a video in mind, like if I have a visual that I've been wanting to do or colors in mind, or like the time of day in mind, or the place where people listen to it, I think I subconsciously will have that in my mind. My whole album – I was in a place where I wanted to be enjoying life, I wanted to feel expensive, not monetarily, but I wanted to feel empowered.

I wanted to feel very confident but also vulnerable at the same time, so trying to turn that into a project was a lot of subliminal messaging, a lot of layers to all of the songs. It's like the songs themselves feel very confident. It feels like everything makes you wanna dance, which is just inherently how I create because I grew up dancing. The album has very mobile 808 riffs that make you want to catch a groove. But then it's also saying things that are a little more honest than you would think would go with a beat like that. But I like that, because sometimes I get scared of being too vulnerable, and if I put like a piano ballad with vulnerable lyrics, I felt too naked at the time to make something like that. So I had to, like, swag it out. 

 Yeah. It's easier to be candid while dancing, I guess. 

Exactly. 

You mentioned your album, BLUEPRINT. I wonder what that means? 

It has a lot of meanings! Here's the thing, I tend to overthink things, but sometimes it's a good thing. So the album, BLUEPRINT, I actually was gonna call it “Extremes,” because the two years in which I created it had the highest highs and lowest lows of my life. A lot of grief, a lot of triumph, and through that, it was hard for me to come up with the title. It wasn't something like, Still Over It by Summer Walker, like it wasn't one moment in life.

It was encompassing a lot of back and forth that I was experiencing, coming into my 20s and coming out of my hometown, losing my father, and starting a new journey in a lot of ways. All of those things were too hard to put into a title other than something called “Extremes.” So I was really going to call it that, but as time went on, I felt like that was too obvious, and then I had a track on the album called “Blueprint,” which is now the title track. I was just going through and I was like, I feel like that one's standing out, for many reasons, like blue became my favorite color over the last two years, like everything in my room was blue. And then blueprint also means to me, the path of where I want to go. This is my first album, so I wanted it to feel like this is the root, this is the outline of an idea, it's the beginning of something. A blueprint is made when you're about to build something or manufacture something, and I wanted it to poetically be the beginning. And then also, I believe that everybody does have a purpose that is mapped out for you, and so I feel like, overall, the blueprint of your life is there. It's just like me tapping into whatever that purpose is. So that's the deeper meaning behind BLUEPRINT. But also, baddies are the blueprint. There's a lot of reference to a lot of baddies that made music and R&B the way it is today, all of the pioneers of music, all of the pioneers of R&B music, which is what the album is primarily. Just giving credit where credit is due, you know? So, yeah, it just ended up being a more fitting title. Both the confidence, but also the spiritual aspect of it.

Baddies always got both, right? 

Baddies always have both, of course. 

When was that album written? Is that a collection of songs over the past couple of years, or what went into the album? 

It started January 2023. I came to LA for the first time. I had a session with this guy named Nico here, at Gold Diggers, actually, which I think is really cool cause now I'm doing the album release party there. We ended up just creating this really special track. It was just one of those sessions where I felt like I had to get stuff off my chest and so did the producer, and so both of us were both shedding some stuff. 

And then it came out and I really liked it and it just felt like an intro to something, but I wasn't necessarily thinking I was gonna create an album. So then I had to, like, figure out, okay, what does this mean? So I just let it sit there and then I kept coming back to LA, working with different producers and almost every single session that I had out here, I created one of the songs in the album. I worked with one of my favorite producers named Coop on three of the records on the album, which are all very different from each other, but a lot more like pop, cause I wanted it to feel really good. Like, we wanted for some of them to have some reference to Pharrell, Aliyah, and Timbaland, and then after those songs started, I was like, okay, this is an album, like I wanted to create an actual body of work. Then, it was kind of just finding what fit. I know I enjoy organic instruments, but I also like 808s and I want to be able to have both represented so it encompasses all sides of me. There's also a little Latin in there, like I speak Spanish on one of the tracks, which is me hinting that I wanna do more of that in the future. But yeah, I was trying to encompass myself with the most grace that I could for a debut album, putting all the things that I like to listen to into the tracks, referencing a lot of stuff that I care about. It's a lot of different pieces of me, but somehow it feels cohesive. 

Love that for you. Do you have a favorite song on the album? 

I do. It's the last one. It's called “No Fear.” I did it with a really cool Danish producer, Galimatias. My white side is of Danish lineage. So, I think he saw my last name and was down to have a session. I literally think that's it, ‘cause he was like, are you Danish? And I was like, well, kind of. Then we got together with this really, really crazy producer and keys player named Julian, and in one session, we did the entire song from top to bottom. The vocal that I did was just the scratch vocal, just sitting on the couch on like a really regular microphone. I loved that song, it just wrote itself. I just honestly did not have a part in it. I just wrote what I needed to. And then I tried mixing it. We tried going back and finishing it out, you know, doing it on not a cheap mic. And then it just never worked, like that whatever essence was captured in that original take is the one that's on the record. So all I did was just take that demo and master it. So that's my favorite one. And the keys in the end, oh my God, Julian just took me away. 

I always hate that, when artists send me the demos and I love it, and then the mastered version loses something. There’s something special about the OG. 

I think it’s because I love live music and demos are probably the closest representation to a live sound. 

A little bit more about you, the individual, have you ever been to Denmark? 

No, but my sister studied abroad there for a few months. I want to check it out, and Galimatias told me a lot about some really cool festivals they do out there and I know I have to tap in. 

Absolutely. You partially answered it there, but if you could perform anywhere in the world where would you want to perform? 

Definitely London, I would also love to perform in South Africa. I think Denmark, too, for the roots and then Mexico City for the roots. 

That’s a pretty tidy world tour. 

Yeah, I'm like, my top listening city on Spotify is London and my top three is Johannesburg, South Africa, so they're telling me they want me.

It makes sense. You don't strike me as someone that struggles with writing, but if you were to have a bad day, can't get something out, what do you do to reset, give yourself some flowers, some downtime? 

I totally do struggle and I actually appreciate you saying that, but I sometimes do. I think I do. I'm way harder on myself than I should be, but I feel like there are days where I'm not getting the supernatural possession that happens. Like, a lot of artists will talk about how there's some type of moment where you become a vessel and you just start. It's a very magical feeling that I think artists understand, but sometimes when that doesn't happen, I just have to be like, "It's just not it's not the one." Either I'm not ready, like it’s not something that I need to talk about at this time, or maybe it's the music, maybe the chords aren't right, or maybe it doesn't need drums. Maybe I need to go in a completely different direction with the production and try something new that way. Sometimes if I'm really desperate and I'm in a session, I’ll start with the intro. I’ll do a vocal pad and take my voice and try to use it as a part of the instrumentation. I'll sit there and I'll do a bunch of random harmonies and then formant shift them, and basically put them into a different texture, and then it sits below the actual thing, and somehow that inspires some ideas. Or sometimes I just have to literally wait it out. I have to experience more things in life. Sometimes I do things for the plot, so that I can experience something and therefore write about it.

You mentioned some interesting points about production techniques. I’m curious, why do you think women are not represented in music production as much as men are? 

That's a great question. I don't know. I feel like men usually like to be in that position, in a “dominant” role. But, I've never understood it, because I feel like in the engineer or the producer role, it’s more important for you to be a safe space for the artist, so they can be vulnerable in their lyrics or try something new. Because a lot of the time, if I am in a session with a producer or an engineer that is very close-minded or has a very specific idea of what they want to hear from me, I feel that I have to change to make them feel like it's cool. 

Luckily, again, I have somehow found my way around that and worked with some really awesome men that are very, open-minded and very encouraging, and also women. So, like a lot of my records with Coop, um, they're all co-produced with a female producer, McKinsley, who I think totally changed the vibe of the session. Just having another woman in there to second what you're doing and say, “No, I like that, let's keep going.” Like my song “Cologne” on the album, it was the first session I ever had with Coop, McKinsley, and me, and we just got in the studio and she was like, we should make something playful, like cute, and I never do that. I'm very intense, or I was at the time before the album. But, we started writing this thing that was very bouncy, very cute, colorful, and I was very uncomfortable. I remember being like, I don't know how to write this, and I remember telling them, okay, I'll write it, but this isn't gonna be for me. For the longest time, I sat with that song, thinking I was going to pitch it, and then eventually I was like, I might as well just cut the vocals and then we did, and now it's on the album, so. 

What's the last thing you texted someone you care about or love? 

It's probably intense. Knowing me, it's probably intense. 

Well, let's hear it. 

Okay, my sister, she is my bestie. I love her so much. Raquel. Yeah, I love her. Her boyfriend is from Lebanon and so he really puts me onto Arabic music, so my last two texts to her were “listening to Arabic music right now,” and I was on my break at work. It was like sad Arabic music by Fairuzz, who was like a really legendary artist over there. 

Awesome. If you could transport anyone who was to listen to the BLUEPRINT, what is the best place they could listen to it, what would they be doing? Where are they? 

I love that question. Okay, either like Barnsdall Park at sunset with headphones on, or some type of view at night. Any type of view where you can look at city lights at night. Or driving somewhere. My whole album, there's themes of cars throughout the whole thing, because I get my best ideas when I'm driving. I wish it was somewhere else that was safer, but there's where I'll start voice memoing. 

Who are your OnesToWatch?

I love FKA twigs. I think that she does whatever she wants and is very intentional with her stuff. Also qendresa. I love her. She's so cool. It's a really cool '80s influence. And Lexa Gates, but she's lowkey on the rise too.