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Grace Ives has just set off on her mammoth North American tour of Girlfriend. The tour left the unbelievably down-to-earth artist packing until 8:30 the night before she left because she was preoccupied with putting cute stickers on her guitar case. “Our Philly show was good,” she says, recounting the first night of the tour, “but I regret wearing high heels on the stage because I couldn’t move around properly.” She’s considering going barefoot for the remainder of the tour.
We sat down with Grace to discuss what she’s been up to over the past three years, how her creative processes have evolved, and her feelings about being on her biggest tour to date.
PAN M 360: So, you took a little break since your last album, Janky Star. Do you feel like your approach to songwriting changed much in that time?
Ives: Yes, it definitely changed, I guess just because I got older? It’s funny, I didn’t “take a break,” I just was working on this. It just took forever. I started well, and then I went at it too hard and destroyed all the songs and had to go backwards a little bit. But yeah, my writing approach is more like a diary style, and a bit less vague. More direct, I think. And I would set myself up properly at a desk as opposed to just writing in my notes app.
PAN M 360: You spent a lot of time in LA during the making of the album. What was your experience like there, being from New York?
Ives: I was meeting with different producers in LA. John and I had two days working together, and we just really hit it off, and then I made almost all of the album in LA and finished it off near Buffalo. I went back and forth a lot, which was good for me because I had noticed in my writing a common theme of being stuck, so living in all of these different neighbourhoods in LA was cool, because now I know LA. New York is home, and it’s nice to be reminded of that and taken back in a very comforting way by my boyfriend, my house and my cats. It’s a touchstone of the love in my life, and then I got to be away and figure out how to love life on my own. I mean my boyfriend and I have been side by side for almost 11 years.
PAN M 360: Wow, you’ve been together ages. What’s the story behind naming the album Girlfriend?
Ives: I guess it’s just a sweet, charming word and a way of describing myself that I don’t fully relate to. It’s a temporary word. It’s young and cozy; it sounds like a phase or a chapter that wont last forever, which is cool.
PAN M 360: I felt the same with Janky Star, but I feel like there’s a very cohesive soundscape and texture across both albums. Do you think about the concept of “world-building” when you’re writing?
Ives: Honestly, I think I just gravitate towards the same things that I like through experimenting and having access to so many instruments. I think that this album makes me feel very at home. But, I can tell that it’s just the beginning of getting closer and closer to my sound and my world and being more comfortable in myself. This album is definitely more dramatic. It’s hard to be dramatic on just a 505, which is what I was working on almost solely before. It was a lot simpler, whereas this one I kind of had access to almost whatever I wanted, which was really cool.
PAN M 360: Your music explores a lot of emotional and personal themes, whereas the production is very fun and pop-esque. How do you find a balance there so that it doesn’t get too heavy?
Ives: Well, the vocal performance determines a lot of the drama. I was trying not to over-enunciate, pop-girl style, but finding the sweet spot between that and mumbling. I think I’m just less shy now. And I have more people in the room who can gas me up or keep me very humble. It’s nice to have people be so honest and helpful.
PAN M 360: Were there any albums or artists (or other media forms) that you had on repeat while making the album?
Ives: I was reading a lot, and I was watching some good movies in LA, too. I watched this movie Wake and Fright. Have you seen it?
PAN M 360: No I haven’t.
Ives: It’s a niche, indie Australian movie. It’s so fucking good. It’s about a teacher who goes on a bender weekend and gets stuck in the town called Yabba, where the thing to do is bet on coin tossing. It’s awesome. I also listened to Tusk by Fleetwood Mac a lot. It’s just really, really good songwriting. Really simple, I love Christie McVie’s songs. I have a lot of playlists, but I want to move away from that being my main way of listening to music. I could be a little more invested in albums as a complete art form.
PAN M 360: Have you watched any performances recently that you took something away from that influenced how you perform?
Ives: I really like the punkness of someone like Kathleen Hanna, who’s just so in love with performing. I love seeing genuine passion. I just saw Mitski, who’s amazing. She’s gotten a bit more stoic, which adds to the emotion, and I remember thinking, “I wanna do that.” I wanna put less pressure on myself to be like dancing or overextending myself if the song is kind of more emotional. You know, like, stop trying to milk it.
PAN M 360: I feel like we could easily talk about all the ways it’s a struggle to be an artist in 2026, but what do you feel is really great about being an artist today?
Ives: I feel like music is still one of the main cultural topics today. Gatekeeping is really big because people love discovering artists that they can actually align themselves with, and there’s kind of something for everyone. We all have phones, and teenagers are always scouring the internet for new stuff. It’s a bit more ‘hubs’ now, rather than like weird websites, but I think people want to find you. It’s really rare that no one cares.
