Singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams took the stage for weekend one at Austin City Limits music festival with a beaming smile on her face. The 22-year-old just released her newest single ‘Feels Like’ on Oct. 1 and announced her tour _This Is What It Feels Like_ within the same week. To say she’s on fire would be an understatement.
Performing songs from her debut EP _minor_, her presence on stage is fresh and genuine. Because Abrams considers songwriting as a form of therapy, her honesty shines through in her ballads and you can’t help but feel as though she’s your friend.
_Flaunt_ caught up with Abrams hours before her set on the Miller Lite stage–notorious for hosting some of the greatest acts at the festival– and chatted about everything from Harry Styles fanfiction to sugar cookies.
**This is your first time performing at ACL. How are you feeling this morning?**
It's great. I'm so stoked to be here. I feel good– I've never been in Texas before so I'm just absorbing this humidity. It's lovely for the skin. (laughs)
This is my third festival now, but only my ninth show. It's funny how things go but I'm so happy to be here. It's so fun. Festivals are really different than venue shows, but in a good way. It's very cool to be outdoors and playing music— I love it.
**Do you enjoy performing?**
I love it. It's so strange. I'm a very anxious person so I had a lot of like anticipatory anxiety around it but I am lucky to have a very forgiving audience so it's cool to be able to connect through the music. The only reason why I love it as much as I do, honestly, is like the community aspect
**Your new single ‘Feels Like’ released on Oct. 1. What are your thoughts after releasing?**
I'm so relieved that it's out. I've been waiting for this music to come out for a minute now and so it feels like a weight lifted for that to be in process right now.
**What was your inspiration behind ‘Feels Like’?**
This song is about my best friend and I when we were living in New York together…she and I took the train to Fairfield, Connecticut from the city to go see the Harry Styles fan fiction movie because that was the nearest location it was playing in New York.
**What’s your favorite song to perform?**
I've been loving playing ‘Feels Like’ just because it does feel like a new chapter of music for me and it's getting me really excited for the spring tour that we just announced. So it's great. But also, to start with ‘21’ feels good. It just genuinely makes me happy.
**When you’re in the songwriting process, where do you pull inspiration from?**
Really just the relationships in my life and feelings that stick out in a way where like, I don't know what to do with them, like beyond just talking about them doesn't feel like enough for me. So I write songs about them. Thank God, \[songwriting\] exists. I don't know where I would be without it for sure.
**What artists do you look up to?**
I'm so inspired by Doja Cat– just her energy honestly. She and I very much exist in different lanes on different planets but I'm inspired by the way that she is committed to what she she does I feel like she checks every box and really shows up and fully just dominates when she's on stage. She's just captivating. So from a performance perspective, as like this is my first time doing it, I'm just inspired by any and all artists that fully give it their all. I don't think it's very obvious when that happens— it's just compelling so I'm just thinking of her because I will absolutely be at her set later tonight.
**What are your hobbies outside of music?**
When it's not songwriting, I'm journaling a lot just because it makes me feel better all the time. Over the pandemic, I started cooking a ton so that's like another outlet.
**What’s your favorite thing to cook?**
I bake a lot. I make sugar cookies for my friends all the time that I can nail from scratch, which is like my one claim to fame. Boring but true.
**Tour is coming up soon— what are you looking forward to the most?**
I'm excited to step it up from this one. Honestly, having had the experience under my belt finally of doing a shorter run that we're still in the middle of, just having announced the spring tour. It's obviously longer and the venues are going to be bigger. I’m going to be able to meet more people and that's a dream come true, honestly. Just having the experience and slightly, slightly only a little bit knowing what I'm doing more now. It's going to be just a lot of fun.
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