Bullied Pastor's Kid to Pop Punk Princess

This transcript is from approved final-cut captions. Paragraph breaks follow the captions and do not indicate speaker turns; speaker names are intentionally omitted. The closing prayer is not included.

1. 0:00

   What's something everybody loves that you just don't get? Ooh, what's that tarot like Taro stuff, the that that root that ~ that purple root, you know what I mean? I thought you meant like tarot cards. They have they make smoothies. No, like that purple root like like it's purple, like anything like taro or whatever I don't know what it's called, but like whatever that Japanese purple stuff is, I ain't about it. Yeah, it's it tastes like peanut butter gone wrong. Welcome back to The Forgiven. I'm Bill with the Psalms Project Out of the Depths,

2. 0:54

   and I'm joined by my co-host Kate Nardone, host of the Rock of Ages show on Ascend FM. Today we're hanging out with Grace Graber from Nashville, Tennessee. She's a pastor's kid who took the worship songs your church sang last Sunday morning and gave them the warp tour treatment. The whole thing started Okay. with a question I've thought about a hundred times and have never once acted on. What if this worship song went punk? That turned into an actual record, Punk Times Praise, Volume One. She has a podcast called Breaking Through that comes out every Wednesday.

3. 1:26

   She is a beauty school trained aesthetician, which is suddenly making me wish I'd one more sunscreen. And underneath all of it is the part she probably says matters most. She talks about faith and mental health, honestly. And for a lot of people, that's been a lifeline. She says she's here to re represent the misfits. Grace, thanks for hanging out with us today. we want to start the episode with two truths and a lie. So Okay. we will try and guess what the lie is. So hit us with it. Okay. All right. I ~ I thought about I thought about this because I figured it'd be easy for me to go, all right, I've worked at Old Navy, I've worked at Sephora,

4. 2:07

   I've worked at a tea house. You know what I mean? Which one? my gosh. Yeah, I made it hard. Easy. Just category. You did make it hard. Yeah. Category. Yeah. You're into skincare so like Sephora is like the jump to, but I'm gonna say Sephora cause maybe it's too obvious. Period. Maybe I was too obvious. I yeah, I kinda feel like it was so f I'm I'm agreeing with you. Okay, whatever. There you go. Yeah, it was Seph I've never What? worked at Sephora. Never worked at Sephora. Yes. We're still batting a hundred Kate. I was trying to find a simple a simple way that it was like they they're gonna think I'm into makeup and they're gonna go, but then the tea house is so specific and I and

5. 2:45

   I just love talking about how I've worked there. Mm-hmm. We are so good at this game, Kate. We are undefeated. I know undefeated. Well, we always ~ going into the spiritual journeys, my question to everybody starts off with, you know, how did you meet Jesus? Yeah, yeah. I ~ have actually always known Jesus. I came out of the womb singing worship songs. No, I my parents are pastors and so, I've I've always loved Jesus and but I've never really known like what a relationship could be like until I was about twelve years old.

6. 3:20

   I was physically and verbally assaulted ~ in middle school by teenage girls and it got so bad my parents had to take me out and I became suicidal because of that. ~ song stopped me from taking my own life. A Hawk Nelson song specifically stopped me from taking my own life. And my parents didn't know what else to do. They just took me to Christian rock concerts and to be honest, like I always like kinda like I always knew Jesus was real, but it wasn't until I like met these bands. They'd pass through town and they would ~ love me so well and the people who knew me wanted to hurt me.

7. 3:53

   ~ but these bands would just love me so well and and pray for me. And and that's how I discovered what faith looked like. for me. I was like, if if that's what being a Christian looks like, then count me count me actually in, you know, count me in I wanna be like that. I always knew Jesus was like the identity part, but I didn't know like there could be like I didn't I mean, when you're a teenager developing, you're trying to get to know who you are and figure out Yeah. who you are. And so I met these Christian pop punk bands and it would be like I wanna be just like you when I grow up and I saw their faith and I saw them pursue Jesus from stage and it was like,

8. 4:31

   Yeah, I want that. I want that for sure. ~ so I mean, my it's a it's a boring but not at the same time because it I was bullied in middle school for my faith. I was bullied for being the pastor's kid. And so I've always had a relationship with Jesus. ~ it just has always looked different in different seasons. So I'm sure you've thought a lot about this. ~ there's obviously a lot of pastors' kids who are not bullied. Like have have you ever thought about why why did those girls act that way? What was driving that hostility?

9. 5:03

   They were hurting. my gosh. So I I grew up in Hillsburg, California. Hillsburg, California is if you don't know where that is, just know the Kardashians have a penthouse there because no one knows where that is. it is tourist central for Sonoma County, which is wine country. and ~ so either you're a tourist, well, 70% of the people who are there are probably tourists. and then you have the winemakers, they're really wealthy, and then you have the people who pick the grapes. really poor. I went to a public school. And so it was unfortunately, ~ the people who were low income that I went to school with that were hurting.

10. 5:40

    And they were they were like children of like people who moved everything to California to go and work. And so, I mean, that's a lot of pain just in general. And then you mix up the idea of like at the time we had my space and you get exposed to all sorts of things on my space and They were I mean, they were hurting like the the gossip that started all of the assaults was them saying that I I was saying they had been throwing up in the bathroom. They had been cutting themselves. You know, like it it was I mean the pain is there.

11. 6:13

    I didn't know what any of that was. I was a sheltered pastor's kid and so I was exposed to it by finding out that I had said it. ~ so I mean, they did that 'cause they were in pain. And I don't I don't I don't blame Do you Like when you're when I'm in pain I lash out, you know, so I I really it it makes sense. Yeah, I think that's ~ that's been really helpful in my own you know, we're all dealing with our own trauma in our own way. And the more that I can understand why people are acting the way that they are, even even if it's just at a basic level, they have a spiritual enemy and that enemy happens to be winning the day in their lives and they're just acting accordingly.

12. 6:52

    It's it's unforgiveness. You wanna talk? We were talking about deliverance before all of ~ all of we got started. We're talking about deliverance ministry before we started this. I mean, it's all unforgiveness. It's all what we allow and keep in our heart, right? Like I can't imagine the generational like trauma, you know? And the unforgiveness in the heart, like not understanding being hurt. Who knows what was happening in the household? So Yeah. so glad that you said everything you just said because I work in youth and I counsel kids that go through these types of things and to

13. 7:30

    try to give them the perspective of the person causing them the pain needing their prayers and needing their understanding ~ definitely boundaries, definitely protection and all those things, but to try to give them that perspective. You just put it so well, I'm gonna use some of that of what you just said for that. Yeah, I mean I mean like yeah, ~ it's it's and that's something I talk to a lot with these churches and with these like 'cause they're trying to figure out where the root is and it's like it's so it's it's it's it it can be the home life, it can be it can be generational, it can be just it could be anything.

14. 8:09

    It really can. And like I again like again, like most of the pain that I has I've been caused like even like doing music. I mean, I've met plenty of people who've said plenty of things to me. And the the core theme is you have to forgive. You have to understand and give people the benefit of the doubt. And I I've learned that with some of my closest friends. Like some of my closest allies have hurt me. And you just have to learn how to forget. And I don't I don't blame like I don't blame If you look at the actions, you look at the the I don't know even know what to call it. You look at the patterns, like, do you blame ~ Like, no.

15. 8:47

    Like it happens, but it's what we choose to do with that that matters the most. Absolutely. Young people, it's difficult. Like I'll just speak for my own children who will watch this and it's okay. ~ but like my my son who's a police officer now, ~ when he was in middle school, got beat up on the bus to the point that he was bleeding out of his ears. And my daughter Yeah. my daughter had a incident also in middle school where she was like locked in a bathroom and lights off, beat up kind of situation. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

16. 9:18

    Then ~ in her agony and her tears when they finally let her out of the bathroom, she n said something like, I'm gonna kill you or something like that because she had been traumatized and hurt and crying and she's scared of the dark at the time and all the things and she's the one that got suspended because of what Yeah. she's because of what she said. You know, and Mm-hmm. ~ so trying to to to explain other people's behavior, why sometimes there isn't justice, you know, why you know, like it's tough, it's tough. But forgiveness is is big deal.

17. 9:52

    Yeah, I mean we we keep ourselves stuck at the end of the day. And I think like that that is something I've learned with just doing therapy myself, but even like doing the podcast and I like having these conversations and and and then even meeting fans at shows and I get DMs all the time about people stuck in situations and ultimately we get to decide like how stuck do we want to be. Yeah. I like I had to decide like will I let what they did to me define me or will I not? And by choosing not to, I let the people who spoke love into me and life define me and now I'm the Christian music pop punk princess.

18. 10:31

    So that's what you get when you listen to the right voices versus not and so it's easy it's it's so e I and I always I tell people this all the time. I don't think I don't think the mental health issues that we're talking about are a faith issue at all. I think it's more of a hope issue. And like some of these kids, like they don't have an example of hope. Like lucky enough, like I had Jesus and I had faith and I had that to give me hope. But some of these people don't have a faith to give them hope. Some of these people don't have like people to look up to to give them hope.

19. 11:04

    They have to go out and find it and then people let them down. Like it's just It's not yeah, it's it's a hope issue at the end of the day. So where are we getting our source of hope from? and ~ yeah. So let's say somebody DMs you or meets you after a show and says, Yeah. Hey, I I somebody hurt me really badly. I've endured this trauma and I know I'm supposed to forgive, but I feel like I'm saying the words, but it's just not it's not happening. I'm still angry. What how how would you respond to that person? Make till you make it. Like like ~ I would I would listen.

20. 11:41

    I mean truly I'm gonna be real, like when it comes to like conversations with fans or just meeting people and talking to them. I I all I can do is listen. I'm not a specialist. I will show up, I will be available, but like and that's all people technically need, I feel like. ~ But like, yeah, if if someone were to talk to me about forgiveness, I just you have to just keep going and you have to imagine them being locked in your heart, and going, getting the key and unlock that little unlock that cell and let them out. Like you just have to imagine it over and over until you actually believe it because and you have to understand the I don't think anyone understands I don't think any of these people truly understand the power

21. 12:22

    of like letting that. I mean you can have emotions about it. We ultimately can control our emotions and our actions about it. So it's like it's like at that point there's an even deeper root to why you can't forgive them, an even deeper unforgiveness that was rooted before. Like there's been plenty of times I don't wanna forgive so and so for doing that to me. The reason why is because I haven't forgiven so and so five years back for doing the same thing to me. So, ~ It really is it's it's never sometimes it's never about the actual issue you're experiencing, but a much deeper rooted issue, a much deeper rooted belief in yourself about the issue.

22. 13:02

    Do you think you have the capacity to forgive? Do you think you have the capacity to live without that kind of pain? Have you ever gotten to know yourself without that kind of pain? I feel like I mean that's work you do with your therapist, but those are things I have to constantly check myself. I've been I've been hurt. And I've learned the mo like most recent hurt. I've learned that I tied it somewhere to my self-worth. And you just have to like forgive that. And it had nothing to do with that person that hurt me, it everything to do with the person who hurt me four years ago.

23. 13:31

    And then it had nothing to do with that that person, but the the people who jumped me, like in middle school. And so it's like, ~ This has nothing to do with the actual event that I'm currently in and everything to do with the unforgiveness that I've held with previous events, expecting it to turn out the same way with this person. Which it it it didn't, you know. I'm safe. But ~ we're sometimes we don't feel like we are safe. And so we get in the survival mode. And so honestly, I don't blame anyone for not being able to I mean, it's safer, it feels safer to not forgive them.

24. 14:07

    So for people watching or listening, we we did have a conversation about ~ a ministry called Freedom Prayer, ~ which is out of the Nashville area. one of the things I learned there is that under so we're talking about roots, right? You got you got fruit. It's like it there's a bad tree, right? And it's the bad fruit, and usually that's the anger, that's the bitterness, that's the depression. but we're digging into the root underneath, and you could say unforgiveness. Is a root. And then, as you said, Grace, there's typically stuff underneath that.

25. 14:36

    ~ I've come to think that, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, that Yeah. one of the deepest roots that there always is is a lie. It's like when there's unforgiveness, someone's believing Completely. if I forgive that person, then they're gonna get away with it. There's no There's no justice, there's no consequence, the whole world of fairness is gonna unravel. And there could be a lot more lies, but that that happens to be a chief one is that it it feels unjust to forgive someone when in reality nobody cares more about justice than Jesus.

26. 15:12

    And he promised that he's gonna bring it for everyone. Okay, riddle me this, okay? Okay. Because yeah, they're lies. But are they lies or are they beliefs? False beliefs you've had about yourself and about your ability. And that's something I've done with EMDR. ~ EMDR is like eye desensitization, movement, something. for anyone who doesn't know, it is where you do something rhythmic with your therapist and you tap into like old memories and you find the core, you find the root. These are underlying beliefs that you did not know.

27. 15:44

    You started to believe, thinking it was a truth. It's a lie. But like they're beliefs about yourself. So it's like it's like ~ you truly believe that's the truth though. And you don't know it's a lie. So I I would I would go an extra mile and go, are they lies? Are they people are they truths that people thought were actually real? Like and like you can't at that point. Like there's no shame with that, because I feel like lies are like I believe a lie and there's shame tied to that. But like I people genuinely like they they want to succeed, like they want themselves to succeed.

28. 16:19

    They're not going to just tap into something and then like that's not real, you know? They genuinely think it's real. So where is the underlying belief that you think is actually real and Compare that to the word of Christ. Compare that to the actual situation, what people have said. Yeah, The truth. Yeah. the truth. Compare it to the truth. And then you find out it's a lie. But there's no shame because you genuinely thought it would benefit you to believe that. Yep. Yeah, Freedom Prayer calls it an ungodly belief.

29. 16:47

    Yes. I mean, but that I don't I get I get careful with verbiage, right? Like I don't want someone to think they're I mean, it I don't that was something that happened somewhere. It's not your fault. Like it's not something you're ap act actively choosing, you know? Like you're not choosing some people are tr genuinely trying to be holy, you know? It's like you're not choosing to be unholy. It just it just is something that you were taught. It was it was taught. So yes, it's called Right on. that in that but I get I beg I get careful with like 'cause some people like with trauma like spiritual trauma and all that.

30. 17:22

    It it like I'm into that stuff and it doesn't affect me but I know someone listening, it might be like, ~ that that might be a little jarring for them. Yeah, they would hear that and go, they're kind of taking on that ungodly thing as if that's of them. The problem. Yeah. You're not the problem. It's how you were treated, how you were trained, how you were forced to fight or flight. That's the problem. and you were unfortunate, like you were taught to believe those things because it helped you. It genuinely helped. Those roots are roots for a reason.

31. 17:52

    They grew. So, like you yeah, so that's yeah. Dude, we went deep fast. Yeah. There you go. There you go. Yeah. But it is it is speaking to me greatly today. So thank Period. thank you. Okay, so you're you're hanging out with these bands, they're inspiring you, you're like, I want to be like them. So I know you grew up believing in Jesus. I did. How did the trauma that you walked through and then coming out of that and being inspired by these bands, like, what was your relationship with God like through those ups and downs?

32. 18:25

    mean well I I my gosh. Well I went to Bible college, hated it, dropped out, met my husband in Bible college. We moved to Oregon, got in a car accident, lost my ability to play guitar. Like I my neck was sprained. I couldn't do anything and I was o I was a hundred pounds heavier than I am today. and I w I mean we're talking utter tur turmoil. I belief in God, yeah. I mean we went to church and stuff and I've always had a relationship. Like that sucked though because that was a season I learned that I I get to decide if I'm gonna suffer or not.

33. 18:56

    And so I lost the weight. I did the work. I'm fully healed. We took the car accident money, that's when I went to beauty school and while I was in beauty school I felt like God said, Hey, I'm establishing this career so you can pursue music but because of my injury I hadn't like even thought about music for a long time. I've been married for over ten years, by the way. This happened ten years ago. so the car accident happened ten years ago, and then like four years into our marriage, I decided to go to beauty school, and God says, Okay, this job is gonna make music happen.

34. 19:26

    And I'm like, Ha, okay. and then as soon as I graduate, the company I start working for and still work for today, put out a nationwide songwriting contest, and I won a trip to Nashville. While I was in Nashville, I met a producer who was someone I listened to growing up. And then he offered to like produce my first like project. And I mean the rest is history. ~ it but I mean like ups and downs. I mean like I I did not think music w when the car accident happened, I grieved a dream that I had always had and I stopped.

35. 20:00

    I genuinely stopped. And then I wrote a jingle for the company. And then it works. And then it was like, what if I wrote more songs and like tried? And then that producer heard some of the songs and was like, That's actually really good. And he met me for coffee and he heard my Hawk Nelson story and he said, Do you realize how marketable that is? You know, like from a business standpoint, it's like, like all of these bands are dead. Like you get the next generation coming out. I I make I mean it's working right now.

36. 20:27

    so it was it was just like over and over and then You moved to Nashville and then well, before that I released my project. I get rediagnosed with CPTSD because the weight of doing music is way too much for a person. I end up moving to Nashville though and coming to pursue a career. And now flash forward, every single poster on my wall is a mentor in my life. My manager was the lead singer of Stellar Cart, my worship pastor was the lead singer of Run Kid Run. I've got John Steingard on Speed Dial, you know, like all of these people, if you don't know any of those names, someone will. But like these are all people who saved my life.

37. 21:05

    And they are active. And my faith right now I I'm flabbergasted in an awe that God I would go to these concerts. I mean, like Adam literally prayed for me when I was twelve. And he remembers it. And and like like I knew I had a place with these guys. Like I knew I had a place with them my whole life. Since I was twelve, I've known that, listening to their music. Now I am actively doing it with them. Like, I mean, what a full like I mean that speaks for itself. The Lord can use that. But it's like my faith, whew. ~ I feel like ~ stronger but also weaker than it's ever been,

38. 21:43

    right? Like it's stronger because I've seen the faithfulness of God, but let me tell ya, I still don't trust him some days. You know, it's like he'll he'll do something and I'll be like, you know, it's like God's done it a million times. Like trust him. No, for some reason I just can't, you know, like I have to control it to I mean it ha but it speaks for itself. And so ~ I will say it's like ebbed and flowed and every season that I feel like I rededicate my like life to Christ, I get a tattoo or something and and I like I'm learning I guess the different characteristics of God.

39. 22:14

    I'm learning the different depths. So every season is a different ~ characteristic and like this one is specifically this the last year, year and a half. Is Ben El Roy, the God who sees me. It I don't think it's a coincidence at all that all these men are now in my life as really important figures, ~ and are actively cheering. I don't think it's a coincidence at all at all. God saw me when I was crying in front of those posters. He saw me like dream and look and just feel hope, looking at their faces, and now. To commune with them and like sit and have coffee and like look at them in the eye.

40. 22:56

    Like I met my drummer Squid, ~ Aaron Toste. He came and played chur drums at church. And I kept looking at him and I was like, why do I and I went over to David and I was like, Who is why do I know it? It's like, that was Squid from Hawk Nelson. my god, this guy's been on my wall my whole life and he has a beard now, so I don't recognize him, but I recognize the eyes. Like I recognize the eyes and and like I can't tell you how comforting it is to just sit and like look at these guys in the eyes and just I mean it's the weirdest feeling because I've been looking at them all my whole life.

41. 23:31

    so my my faith in God is like now I don't even know what you're gonna do next. I'm five years into this career, almost six. I just went viral last year for the Punk Times Praise stuff. That's cool. And then I just released a podcast with K-Love. And now we're writing for we're writing some really insane, some of my best stuff. The stuff that's coming out is really good. But like, I mean, it's just, it just gets better and better. And I'm kind of like, I just started. Like, this shouldn't be this good. Like, I mean, it's been really hard, but it's like it shouldn't, it shouldn't, like, I Like I literally I had coffee I had coffee the other day with Adam and I was like I got into music to work with you guys and I am and so

42. 24:13

    I really don't know what more I want now. And it's time to dream bigger, which is great, but also like I I'm really happy with what I have because I have accomplished basically everything I wanted to. Besides a co-write with Solomon Olds from Family Force Five, would like to very much ~ to do that. The Family Force Five is the only band I have not met. I've met Jacob, but Crouton. but yeah, that's that's the they're they're up next. I get to go to Warp Tour next month and ~ support them on their twentieth anniversary reunion.

43. 24:47

    So I'm really excited about that. Maybe I'll meet them there. ~ I was going to bring up the church hurt. Okay. Is that good? Yeah? So church hurt, what's that mean in your life, Grace? Nothing. I like we get to choose to be hurt by the church. There's plenty of communities out there. I'm I'm a just be real. If you don't like your church, if you've been hurt, go find a new one. Like like there is community out there. It is meant to lift us up. church hurt, for me is yeah, I mean if you're holding on to that pain, I mean I mean, it could be real pain.

44. 25:17

    Here hear me out. It could be real pain. you have to forgive them and you have to go find a new community to help you forgive them. So I I'm always curious with actively touring artists, like how do you even do church? Like what is that ~ You don't. Mm-hmm. You I like I'm gonna be honest, I haven't been to church in months. I'm gonna just be really honest. Now I have my daily walk and I ~ I watch sermons and do the whole thing. But and I will say though, but I have my community, like I think like like my band, we keep each other going. I mean my mentors, they keep me going. But ~ if you think your favorite Christian artist is going to church, they unless it's like a Tuesday night service,

45. 25:57

    it's it it's really hard. It's really hard. And I mean I even watch Like and think about not even the artists, but like the merch guys, the crew. No one's going like they're probably not going to church if they're on the road. So I mean, yeah, no, you just ~ you hustle through and hope to God people still love you when you get back because like while you're on the road everyone's trying to reach out and hang out and you're like I'm literally gone for the next two weeks. It's been it's been hard and I love my band and I and again, like my husband, my mentor like I genuinely don't know what I would do without being able to just actively call them all the time.

46. 26:39

    ~ and and and my mentors know that. Like they know that because they did that. ~ so half the time it's yeah, yeah, it's okay, well we'll get to church when we get back. But then I also work on Sundays when I get back too. So it's a it's a lot to balance. but God's faithful. I will say that's the one thing I've loved about my church. and it's healed some of my church hurt because I've been in churches where there's been requirements to be on the worship team or ~ requirements to serve or ~ expectations being in the community.

47. 27:10

    My my my worship pastor is will he was in run kid run for like fifteen plus years and did sidewalk slant like he's done it. He gets it. Like he like he he doesn't even blame when I say I can't do something or you know, I have to call out or something I mean, he doesn't even he isn't once question me. He gets it. and ~ and that's been really healing. ~ and same with everyone else in the community. Like they're all they've been in the music industry once or twice, you know, and and they get it too. And so it's not even I feel like in Nashville it's different because like we all hear somebody we know is in the industry and that's just it's just normal.

48. 27:50

    So I like having my therapist, having having the people that I can hold on to and bring me back in ground and center is really important. I have my prayer intercessors and to be honest, like it feels like I go to church every week, but I haven't. So and Yeah. I think that just comes from having a really good support system here and ~ I will say my church has done that really well is allowing me the space in the seasons I'm in, if I'm touring, if I'm not, like, okay, she can serve now, great, we'll take her what we can and then when I can't, no questions asked. And I love and it just helps me so much.

49. 28:28

    All right. So when you're when you're home and you're serving, or where are you serving? Are you are you like a greeter? Yeah, Rolling Hills. Are you ~ Rolling Hills in Nolansville. ~ that's where I I got our church because I wanted to meet David really bad. ~ I don't know if you could tell, but I'm a fangirl of all of them still. ~ but I wanted to meet I wanted to meet David so bad and we came and we were praying about moving to Nashville and ~ he would always post come to church on his Facebook and I it was around COVID time and so we were like, why not? Like No one might be there, you know, and ~ yeah, we were it was we were taking the weekend to pray and we got there and to hear him sing like these worship songs that I listen

50. 29:12

    to all the time, to hear him sing it on Sunday was like this is insane. ~ it healed something in me. And then I will say like we ended up turning around meeting a couple who has been our small group leader for years. They ended up just like keeping in contact with us while we were praying about moving to Nashville and and making our plans and they when we got there we were like we know where we're going to church because they have like actively sought us out. So, I love I love my my small little Nolansville location so much.

51. 29:43

    ~ yeah. So when you so when you're traveling and you you said that you listen to sermons, are you listening to your pastor? You listen to somebody else? Like who do you listen to? Like I'll pull up a Lisa Harper podcast or something like that or Joseph Prince in Singapore is one of my favorites. My dad listened to him a ton growing up. what else? I listen to a lot of pod like I mean it's preaching, but it's like podcasts, you know what I mean? ~ I'm really into the Bible project. I I find like Those guys are awesome.

52. 30:14

    yeah, I find their resources great. To be honest, like I'm at like my personal time has looked like me going through like a book in the Bible. I've like got my checklist. Like I'm I'm pretty sure I've already read like half the Bible this year just from no I'm not following a plan. I'm just like, okay, I'm gonna go to this book next. And it started with me going, I don't know what Ezekiel's about. And I don't know if I like that I don't know what it's about. and then it was like, what's this one about? What's it? I'ma tell you what changed my life and this is stupid and some people are not gonna agree with me on this.

53. 30:48

    But Yeah. I go to I go to AI and I ask it to pull up commentaries and I ask it to pull up key takeaways. I mean AI like it's it can tap into like all these resources and so it's been really cool to like I've been able to find some really good ~ I never thought of that. of that makes sense and it'll point you to other scripture and like AI loves Jesus, I can tell you that. Or it doesn't. It's probably demonic. But I know that it knows its word very well. So ~ I've been I've been sitting with a book and just going, okay, pull up a commentary for this.

54. 31:24

    What's a key takeaway? Okay, can you get me some more details about that key takeaway? Like, I mean it works for you. So yeah AI knows I love Jesus. It's great researcher. It's a great researcher. Yeah. Yeah, don't give me I I think AI is pretty okay. Now, I think there's terrible uses for it, but like I I think I I'm a I'm a fan of AI, unfortunately. I do ask everybody if you could go back and tell eighteen year old Grace anything, what would that be? I could go back until eighteen or do you want sixteen? Whatever age you want. G the teenage grace.

55. 31:53

    I was about to quote Billy Eilish and I was like, I'm being stupid right now, but I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I if I could tell 16-year-old Grace anything right now, is that You have their numbers. You can, you will, and you probably should call all the band members of Hawk Nelson, Stellar Cart, you name it, and ask them for advice. And you will you will be doing that daily, probably. And you're gonna love every minute of it, and it's gonna be annoying and it's gonna be so fulfilling and so full circle.

56. 32:23

    You're gonna see God's hand and God's kindness because He cared so much. He wanted them to be your friends as a kid. They are your friends now. And they love you and they believe in you. That's what I would say. Sidebar. Was Stellar Kart, did they do that Little Mermaid cover of Kiss the Girl? yeah. They did, yeah. So okay, I love that song. What so if I can be like really like, okay, Hawk Nelson's like that's my that's my first love. All of that. ~ Adam A. G, he's been managing me since like January. and he ~ has been a god send.

57. 32:56

    Let me tell you something. I just wanna like put that out there. This man has like pro bono been like believing and fighting for me in the background while all this stuff happened. ~ This guy has been just putting so much belief. yeah, Stellar Cart. I didn't realize how much of a Stellar Cart fan I was until I was like, this is cool. I get to work with him. I like this. And it's like, yeah, I listened to this album on repeat. And and I I forgot they were like the band that did the covers back in the day. So technically what I'm doing is just replicating what like Adam did with Stellar Cart. And it makes sense because now he's kind of like helping me.

58. 33:33

    figure stuff out, right? It's just wild. I but Hawk Nelson never did any covers. I mean they did Christmas covers, but they never did any covers. So I will I will attribute that that thing that got passed down to me, the cover part, to Stellar Cart for sure. I want you to tell me about the So first time you picked up a guitar is what I wanna hear. It's boring. I picked it up. It's boring. I str yeah, I picked it up. I strummed it and I put it down. And then ~ and then like So I plucked the strings. I don't know. Ten. I taught myself. I don't I think there was like this little thing you could mimic your hands on that was like a book.

59. 34:09

    And I just did that and I've I've played guitar my like whole life. I can't shred, but ~ I can I can play enough to write. I've been a songwriter my whole life and so that's my first love. Nice. So you have original songs, but you're you're doing covers. Is there gonna be more I there I'm assuming there's gonna be a volume two? I have an album releasing next month. Yeah. yeah, yeah, it's it's kinda like I I've had this so when Punk Time Sprays happened, it was your independent artist's worst nightmare. I had an album ready to go that I'd been paying for and working on and I was really excited about. And then I was like, I wanna do this social thing. I was like,

60. 34:49

    let me try it and I worked with Josiah Prince from Villmont. on all of these. So funny enough, Punk Time's Praise is just all the filmant songs for anyone who's a fan of early 2000s, Christian rock. ~ they're literally just filmant songs. it's just bizarre. so we were we were in the studio and I told him I've always had this idea to turn Christian songs punk. And he's like he's like I could work something out to do that with you. And I was like, bet ~ we did. We did Forest as a joke. And I was like, hey, no pressure.

61. 35:22

    Like, I'm just gonna post it, see what happens. He told I was like, what at what number should we probably release it? He said, a hundred thousand views. And I said, Okay, 'cause I had not gotten that. I'd gotten that a long time ago, but I hadn't gotten that any time recently. I opened my phone the next morning and it's at like two hundred thousand views. And I I felt my stomach hit like my heart hit my stomach. and then I was I got a text from my distribution service, because I'm independent, but I'm signed to distribution, and they said, ~ we might want to get cracking on this.

62. 35:55

    And I was like I can't afford that. Like like we just did the course. ~ so graciously worked something out with Josiah for lemonade. and we figured that out and it had to be done in a week. We got it done literally within a week. put it out. Then I go to a show. Well and okay, so then it's like I have an album. I don't maybe I should start releasing the album after. I don't know. I I okay, let's just Do this, chase it, and I'm like, what do I do? Like, I want to release these songs, not that. And ~ and then ~ I go to a show, I play a show in North Carolina and I go from the stage and I'm like, Hey, this cover just happened.

63. 36:33

    People really like these. I didn't expect that. I don't know how to pay for it. So if you could buy merch tonight, that'd be awesome. Someone cut me a check for the entire amount of the album. ~ so ~ I knew I had to be obedient ~ immediately and so we went and we finished the entire thing. I pushed the album out of the way, and so the album coming out next month is the album that I pushed out of the way to do the cover album. and so I'm gonna promote it for a few months and then I'm working on another album and I'm probably maybe an ~ maybe another cover thing.

64. 37:03

    I will say the cover stuff alienates you a little bit, because now it does really well, but like the originals it's like hard to translate between the two and stuff. So we're we're trying we're we're figuring some stuff out to see if we can kind of get them to equal out a little bit. So but I mean it's fun. It's I I don't regret it at all. ~ I just I fear it. I Kate drops out once every episode, so she will be back. Okay, sounds great. So while while we're doing that, I have a buddy named Tim. He has an artist named All Those Who Wonder, and he is making punk versions of every well, I don't know if he's gonna end up doing every psalm from the Bible,

65. 37:43

    but he's doing word for word psalms set to punk. So I think he would get a kick that I told you about him. Just because I I watched your Why? your your podcast that you just did and you were talking about how much you love Psalm ninety-one and how you pray that. yeah. I love Psalm ninety one. I could get that entire I should get it entirely tattooed in my body. Yeah. Why not? I don't I only have so much room and I I'm gonna have more life experiences, so I need to I need to slow down, you know. I got my hand tattooed, my husband about died though. He was like, I can't believe you got a hand tattoo.

66. 38:18

    I didn't tell him No, That hurt? Did it hurt worse than it actually was the least painful one I've ever gotten. Yeah. What are we talking about? Tattoos? Welcome back, Kate. Welcome back. We'll just clip it. It's like you were here the entire time. I know. We're talking about tattoo. That's what we talk about whenever you drop. We just transition to tattoos. We just go right to tattoos. Okay, so I have another question. Okay. had Maggie and Blaze on the show not too long ago. And I was telling her that personally for my project, I'm studying everything that she does on social media because she's like a wizard.

67. 38:47

    Yeah. And she's like, Well, I just copy whatever Grace Graeber does. So my question is, are you copying other people We or is are you just coming up with your own stuff? refuse to give in to the trends Bill. I'ma be really honest. This whole kinda chic thing, I refuse. I I who do I copy? I have to copy someone. We'll call it inspiration. Who inspires your social Inspiration. media stuff? Whose idea was the cheerleader reel that you did? Me. Me. That was yours. That was cute. Okay. In fact, I was advised not to do it because it is it's I'm a girl and a cheerleader uniform is is prohibitive.

68. 39:25

    No, no that that was that was me. well and 'cause the whole album's called Sophomore Year and so it's like the cheerleader and then there's gonna be like the nerd and then there's gonna be like I have I just did a a music video on a subway. So it's like, you know, like the travel like traveling. Like I don't know. Like I it's all it there's all some sort of like theme to it. And I I just I'm such a sucker for a theme. I did the Barbie movie came out and I released a song called Superficiality. Did everything pink. so I think like whatever I for me it's like if I can't visualize a song I won't release it.

69. 40:00

    how if we gave you a worship song, just a random worship song, if you could walk through the process of how you start turning that punk So I d let Josiah do it. I'm gonna be really honest, this is Josiah. Like that's it's Josiah going, what if Villmont was still alive honestly? That's okay. Like I sit I go and I tell him what song I want turned punk. We always start with a chorus and I sit there on my phone or my computer and I work on something else while he builds a track and then I get in the studio. I'm not even gonna lie to you about that.

70. 40:33

    I don't do anything, it's all Josiah. so what does it feel like when you are listening to like a random worship song and it's just like that one? Like where's that moment? Well, I always like think about like what's doing well right now, like like like what's doing well on socials, th like what can people recognize, all that. I think about that, those are factors. Sometimes I've had the convictions, other times it's just de pe i I honestly if you look, they're some of the most popular songs like right now, you know what I mean? So I just take what's trending and I go in there and then I'll tell you what happens is Josiah starts playing guitar and he'll play a filmant riff and I'll scream and then ~ and then we kinda go from there

71. 41:13

    and then he'll play he'll do something else and I'll scream and and like I s I scream in the studio all day. You can ask anyone who's worked with me. I'm like, ~ my God if I'm not doing that, I'm I'm don't like it. And you can tell, you know? So screaming means it's good. Always. Fangirl screens. All right, we're gonna start the lightning round. You've built a career on what if this went punk? What is one song that should never go punk? ~ my gosh. Anything by the Gaither Band. Okay. All right. Nashville's ruined one thing for you forever.

72. 41:45

    What is it? No no Nationals ruined one thing forever. Hot chicken. Chicken honestly chicken Yeah. Okay, wait. No, I have there's chicken here I like. Ru it's ruined Chinese food. Like there's no good Chinese food here. Ugh. Well no, I eat Chinese food all the time. I don't know traffic. Traffic? Riding in the car? yeah, how long it takes to get to one end of the it's ruined one it's ruined. This is what it's ruined. It's ruined my commute. All right. Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? I I don't even know what that is. What? Die What? Wow.

73. 42:21

    Hard? Bruce Willis? I do not know what that is. Okay. So you're gonna hook me up with the book on the Nephilim and I'm gonna hook you up with Die Hard. Yeah. Okay. I Yes. don't I've in an action movie it sounds like ~ Yippi Kaya? It I don't I'm not a fan of action movies. I kinda like reality TV and like Well, it's a Christmas movie. That's an action movie. ~ I don't It's a Christmas. Okay. It's a Christmas. It is, it is, it is. All right, who's the first person you call with good news? Other than TJ. Other than T J.

74. 42:49

    TJ, my husband. Other than TJ right now, probably Adam. Yeah. Your manager. My my mentor, manager, Human mentor. songwriter, whatever you wanna call him. Big brother, big brother. First concert you ever went to. Okay, speaking of Adam, it was a newsboys concert and Stellar Car opened. So they were technically the first band I've seen live, which is insane. All right, you're on a road trip. Podcast, playlist, or silence? playlist. We're probably listening to Sabrina Carpenter or something. Yeah. What's something everybody loves that you just don't get?

75. 43:24

    Social media trends, I guess. I don't I that or ~ Ta Ooh, what's that tarot like Taro stuff, the that that root that ~ that purple root, you know what I mean? They make chips out of and stuff. Yeah. They have they make smoothies. it no. No, no god, I thought you meant like tarot cards. They can get smoothies. no, no. ~ no, it's like that purple root like like it's purple, like anything like taro or whatever I don't know what it's called, but like whatever that Japanese purple stuff is, I ain't about it. You can have a smoothie down the street from me here.

76. 43:56

    A taro smoothie. It's gross. Yeah, it's it tastes like peanut butter gone wrong. Yeah, it's it's not a good thing. It's not a good thing. who's the most famous person you've ever met? I don't know. Michael W. ~ Smith, maybe I don't know if I've met anyone like I think yeah, I'll just say Michael W. Smith. If your music Wait a minute. came with a warning label, what would it say? ~ a lot of energy. Loud. A lot of energy. And what do you think is Jesus's favorite song of yours? I think he likes Jericho a lot. That comes out next week and it's my my most angsty one is where I I'm gonna crash out hard and it's gonna be really fun.

77. 44:37

    So yeah. That's awesome. That was gonna be my next question out of the lightning round was what's what's the newest thing coming out? So Jericho You can Love it. walk around my dreams like Jericho, but they're not gonna fall. Yeah. Ooh, that's a good line. yeah, I know I wrote it. Okay, wait, okay, but I have a song coming. I have a song coming out called All Stars and I kid you not, a line it my husband ha like my husband loves it but also is like, I can't believe you did this is make a wish 'cause I'm passing by.

78. 45:09

    We're gonna be all stars. Mm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You should go to Nashville. I think that'll work out for you. I think yeah, I like it here. I love it here. It's so pretty. The lights are starting to come up. It's so beautiful. I love it here. Yeah. Will you wanna pray for us, Kate? Is there is there anything we can pray for you about? Yeah. Is there anything you specific you need prayer for? Or God just answered quite a bit of prayers recently, so just praise him. All right, we'll do. All right.