Amazing Grace’s next music coup
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Big future … Brisbane singer Grace Sewell is working with Amy Winehouse’s producer. Picture: Mark Stewart
Source: News Corp Australia
THERE was one person involved with Brisbane singer Grace’s debut single You Don’t Own Me who didn’t go completely insane when it went to No. 1 in Australia.
That would be the song’s producer Quincy Jones.
“After the amount of No. 1 records he’s had he was like ‘Oh wow, congratulations’ but I don’t think he was too impressed by it. He did sell 40 million copies of one album,” Grace says. “But he’s such a sweetheart and he was very excited for me.”
18-year-old Grace (who doesn’t use her surname Sewell professionally) was discovered through a song called Memo (Boyfriend Jeans) she wrote and recorded two years ago as a “scratchy demo” on her iPhone. Interest in the song saw her showcasing in America, signed to RCA, relocating to the US and with Jones as a hands-on mentor.
Teenage dream … Grace’s mentor is super producer Quincy Jones. Picture: Mark Stewart
Source: News Corp Australia
“He’s still super involved in the music industry and has stories for days about everything,” Grace says of the man who produced the aforementioned 40-million seller, Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
“When you walk into the studio you leave your ego at the door. Quincy definitely does that. You forget who he is and his history, he’s such a regular guy. He does’t ask for special treatment, he’s just so chilled.”
Covering Leslie Gore’s You Don’t Own Me was his idea; he produced the original and was instrumental in keeping Grace’s remake true to the 1963 hit.
“I’d sponge off him a little bit,” Grace says. “I didn’t feel any stigma coming out with a cover first, that song is timeless. He told me this story about having dinner with the Beatles in London, as you do, before they’d broken America. He jokingly made a bet saying they’d never have a hit in the US. And when Leslie Gore’s dad rang him because You Don’t Own Me only made No. 2 in America when he checked the chart the Beatles’ I Want to Hold Your Hand was No.1. So he lost that bet.”
The remake (featuring rapper G-Eazy) made No. 1 in Australia, but only after Channel 9 embraced it for a Love Child promo. Grace, who was in the US, got Snap Chats from her friends of the song on radio and TV.
“When my label played it for radio people were like `What the f— is this?’ because it doesn’t sound like anything that’s out right now. So I didn’t expect it to be so well received. Australia has great taste, obviously.”
Grace says her Memo EP has a “throwback vibe” which is reflected in the futuristic retro sound of You Don’t Own Me.
“I love Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, Amy Winehouse but I grew up on soul music. If you looked through my phone you would think it belonged to a 60-year-old woman — it’s literally Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Smokey Robinson, Janis Joplin. I love that kind of music. I mix that with the hip hop element and sing it with voice. That’s where my sound on this EP came from.”
The teenager is working on her debut album, there’s already a song written for her by Diane Warren (“it’s a beautiful ballad that’s insanely good”) and she has studio time in London looming with Salaam Remi, producer of her hero Amy Winehouse.
She’s also seen what not to do from heroes such as Winehouse and Joplin.
Sibling revelry … Conrad Sewell and sister Grace have both had No. 1 singles this year.
Source: Supplied
“I was fortunate to have a great upbringing,” Grace says. “My parents instilled a set of morals and values inside me I’ll have for my whole life. I have a great team around me that shelter me from things I shouldn’t see and shouldn’t do. I just focus on work. I feel everyone’s put on earth to do something and music is my purpose and it’d be stupid for me to f— that up by doing drugs or becoming an alcoholic. I just want to make music. Hopefully it stays that way.”
This year Grace and brother Conrad have made ARIA chart history by sitting together in the chart, they’ve now both had No. 1 singles already this year.
The pair have recorded a duet, about the special bond between siblings.
“A part of the reason I got into the music industry is because I grew up as a kid with him in the studio,” Grace says. “Seeing him in the studio from when I was a young kid it was drilled into me that you have to be able to write your own songs. I was writing with people from the age of 12.
“We grew up listening to the same music but we’ve gone off in our own genres. It’s a rare situation, not everybody goes through this journey. To have someone in your family go through it at the same time and be able to lean on each other throughout the process is pretty cool.”
HEAR Memo EP (Sony) out now.
