- 2023-02-23
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MUSIC
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Grace Carter Premieres New Song “Pick Your Tears Up” on BBC Radio 1
London-based singer-songwriter Grace Carter is back. She premiered a new song “Pick Your Tears Up” on BBC Radio 1's Future Sounds with Clara Amfo.
The song is her first music in two years since the 2021 “Dark Matter”.
It was written by Grace Carter, and Tev'n Nhlumayo who also produced the track.
“This song is extremely important to me and it's written about a time I felt that I'd really lost myself and I was listening to everybody around me other than me,” Grace Carter told Clara Amfo about the song. “And yeah, this song is actually fun that's completely made out of my vocals other than the drums. And I guess it's symbolic for me of a time where I felt like I'd lost my voice and writing this song helped me find it again.”
She ha already filmed a music video for the song, which is coming on February 24, 2023.- Grace Carter shared on social media, “I feel like I've been waiting a lifetime for this moment. This song means the world to me, I wrote it to the broken girl I saw in the mirror in 2020, the girl who felt like she had nothing left to give!! This song feels extra special because almost all of it is made using my voice. Every pad/piano and all the mmm da das are me! At a time where I felt like I had lost my voice, this song helped me find it again and that's why it felt right to put it out first! I hope you can find some peace in this song, we as humans all go through times of uncertainty and cycles of losing and finding ourselves again. But just know that you are strong enough to Pick Your Tears Up and carry on. I am here for you as you are for me and this song is now yours!!!”
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Grace Carter posted about her comeback to social media, “Hello! So as the next chapter is about to begin...
I feel like I've spent the past couple of years hiding and I want to be honest... This industry is challenging, its ruthless and sometimes you can get so lost that everything becomes dark. The past few years haven't been easy, A lot has happened behind the scenes that I have had to navigate silently, whether that be old contracts or old management teams it's been tough because in hard times music has always been the thing that's saved me and it felt like even that had been taken away at one point.
As an artist the only way I know how to deal with my emotions is to write songs and get things off my chest but between 2018-2020 I had hardly written anything, and, in one of the most testing periods of my life I completely shut down. I was in fight or flight and for whatever reason flight was what I chose- I was only 21 and although mature in some ways, I wasn't equipped.
It was a beautiful time, there was so much to be excited about but I was also treading through the mud in a lot of ways and I guess pride left me suffering in silence. It was conflicting because I felt so understood by you guys as we were purely connecting on shared experience and emotions and it felt beautifully simple! But behind the scenes everything felt more complicated. Whether it was the colour of my skin or me sounding 'older' than I was, I was constantly being told I didn't make sense, as a young girl who is 100% honest about everything (sometimes too honest). That was the start of the declinen my head. When covid cancelled my tour in 2020, I got back to my flat and looked in the mirror, whoever was staring back at me was not the person I knew. The person I saw had become a carpet for everyone to walk all over and let me tell you now my mum did not raise me to be no carpet.
That same week in March 2020, me and my label parted ways. Although I wasn't completely out until April the following year which meant I couldn't release music, It was a liberating feeling because I had felt so tortured in that system. My story about my childhood trauma had become a commodity and unique selling point rather than the people around me understanding that it was my real life and although I was willing and wanted to share I also needed more support in doing so. The lowest point for me was in 2019 when I was told that everyone was worried I was running out of music. This sent me into a spiral because I didn't want to fail, the rejected child in me seeked approval so much that for some reason I felt as though the only way I could make everyone happy was to go and meet my dad again in the hope I could give them what they needed. I wrote some songs about it over a month period, everyone loved it but it felt like I was ripping my own heart out of my chest and stamping on it with both feet. I was sacrificing everything for an industry that wouldn't do the same for me.
Anyway, as dark as it got I knew that wasn't it for me! Music had saved me once and I knew it could save me again if I let it. What I did know was that I needed to go about processing everything I hadn't dealt with.. I had 14 songs in the world and I wrote that project between 16-19, I was now 22 and hadn't looked at myself properly since then. I had become defined by one thing and there was so much more to me, I just hadn't explored yet. I started writing songs to the person I saw in the mirror that day at my flat in 2020, the person who thought she had nothing left to give. I stopped second guessing what people wanted from me and just thought- what do I want to say? I have this platform- what is my message, with zero judgement.
Something about the process felt extremely freeing, I was experimenting with new sounds and new writers and producers, and getting excited about what I was trying to say. Everything was becoming easier, from being in a place where I felt I had lost everything to getting myself to a place where I felt I was finding myself and my voice all over again was the most empowering feeling ever. I realised I needed to shut everything out to open myself up again and feel safe to explore anything and everything and thats exactly what I did.
None of this is about being a victim, I'm not a victim. Never have been and never will be, i'm truly grateful for every single thing I've experienced. I wouldn't be half the person I am today without those experiences.
If you're still reading this, thank you for all of your support and patience. Im so proud of all the music thats coming this year and cannot wait to connect with you all over again whether that be at a show or on the internet, I'm forever grateful for all of you! My one true saving grace over the past few years has been you guys. In times of darkness you made me feel less alone. I couldn't have done any of this without you. And to those who may have given up on me, I understand. I gave up on me too. But then I started writing some of my most important music and found myself in the process.
Love you, GC x” - source : BBC Radio 1
