walking upstream…
Gracie Abrams
photo: justin higuchi · cc by 2.0 ↗Gracie Abrams
Gracie Abrams, born in Los Angeles in 1999 to filmmaker J.J. Abrams, began writing songs as a child and quietly posting them online before signing to Interscope in 2019 and releasing her debut EP 'Minor' in 2020. Her early work built a following around hushed, diary-like confessions set to sparse guitar and muted electronics, a bedroom-intimate strain of indie pop. She reached a far wider audience opening Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, and her 2024 album 'The Secret of Us' — home to 'Risk' and the crossover hit 'That's So True' — pushed that whispered confessional style toward brighter, hookier pop.
the sound in question
2024
That's So TrueGracie Abrams
walk the tributaries ↓
Taylor Swift2010s · Pop / Country pop / Pop rock
Abrams names Taylor Swift among her formative influences and has spoken of belonging to Swift's fanbase; she opened Swift's Eras Tour in 2023-24 and later shared the duet 'Us' with her. In her own songs the debt is in the writing: verse-heavy, hyper-specific narrative confessions that pile concrete, everyday detail into a slow-building emotional reveal, following the diaristic template Swift popularized.
listen: upstream & here
2012
All Too WellTaylor Swift
2024
I Love You, I'm SorryGracie Abrams
listen forThrow on Swift's 'All Too Well' and listen to how the long bridge stacks tiny remembered details until the hurt lands; then hear Abrams do the same on 'I Love You, I'm Sorry,' spinning an apology out of granular, scene-by-scene recollection.
Phoebe Bridgers2020s · Indie folk / Indie rock / Singer-songwriter
Abrams has called Phoebe Bridgers 'the writer of our generation' and has said she followed Bridgers since she was a thirteen-year-old with a SoundCloud account. You hear it in the delivery: a close-mic'd, near-whispered vocal and a flat, deadpan candor riding sparse guitar that gradually swells, the sad-girl indie register Bridgers helped define.
listen: upstream & heresource: In Music ↗
2017
Motion SicknessPhoebe Bridgers
2024
RiskGracie Abrams
listen forCue Bridgers' 'Motion Sickness' and catch the way her hurt is sung almost conversationally over a steady strum; then play Abrams' 'Risk,' where breathy, muttered verses tighten and lift into a bigger, aching chorus built the same way.
Lorde2010s · Alternative pop / Electropop
Abrams counts Lorde among her named influences, and the mark shows up in her production and point of view: skeletal, snap-sparse beats that leave wide open space, paired with a hushed, teenage-diary interiority that suddenly opens out into a roomy, layered vocal swell.
listen: upstream & here
2013
RibsLorde
2024
That's So TrueGracie Abrams
listen forPlay Lorde's 'Ribs' and notice how the beat stays minimal while the vocal multiplies into an anxious swell about growing up; then hear 'That's So True' ride a similarly stripped, pulsing minimalism before its chorus blooms.