Grace Bowers will begin a new era with the release of her forthcoming EP, simply titled Grace, on November 5. The set will not only showcase the 20-year-old guitar virtuoso’s instrumental abilities bur also her skills as a vocalist and songwriter. Along with the EP announcement, Bowers has also shared the set’s lead single, “Eat Shit and Live.”
“It’s a sarcastic, angry song about me being fed up with stupid people, pretty much,” Bowers said in a statement.
The title had been sitting in Bowers’ Notes app for months, waiting for the right moment. During a songwriting session, she rediscovered the phrase while searching through old ideas for lyrics to match a guitar riff she’d unearthed from a voice memo. “I scrolled through all the random shit I have in there, and that one just stuck out to me,” she explained. “The song came together in an hour or two. It just flowed.”
Grace is said to incorporate Bowers’ interests in the riot grrrl movement, ’90s grunge, and modern pop, nodding to her early love of Guns n’ Roses, the Ramones and the Ventures songs. “I picked up a guitar when I was nine years old because I love playing power chords with distortion on them,” she added. “And so I feel like these songs are my return to that and why I started in the first place—because I loved punk and rock.”
Bowers wrote many of the songs while working with Grammy-winning producer Mike Elizondo (Turnstile, Poppy) in the studio. “He can do everything,” she explained. “He makes sure to capture what the artist sounds like. I love that about him. And he knows what a song needs. His brain thinks of things that my brain would never have thought of. We mesh very well together. A year ago on this day, I wasn't even really singing live at my concerts. And now, if you see my show, it’s a completely different thing than what I was doing before. It’s a real rock show. But if you like pop, you'll like the show. If you like punk, you'll like the show. I've never had more fun onstage than I have playing these songs. I'm having a blast. It's definitely a big shift from what I was doing before. In a way, I feel like I'm starting all over again, starting from scratch. But I really believe this is what I needed to do. This is me doing what's in my heart, and I've never been more excited about it.”
Bowers will perform at Ashville, NC’s AVL Sounds Fest later today.
Here’s a look at the EP’s tracks
Eat Shit and Live
Cigarettes for Breakfast
Holly Wouldn’t
19
Fleas
