Grace Cummings
For her third studio record, Australian indie singer-songwriter Grace Cummings wanted to broaden her musical palette after the stark and predominantly unplugged folk nature of her first two albums. The result is her latest outing, Ramona, which incorporates fuller instrumentation and orchestration. And in contrast to those earlier records, the approach for the sound of Ramona was planned from the start.
“It's something that I've always wanted to do,” the Melbourne-based artist says recently about Ramona, which just came out Friday. “The first album that I did [2019’s Refuge Cove] was a little bit by chance. I got a record deal with Flightless Records, and they asked me, ‘Did I have an album?’ And I kind of didn't. But I had these songs that me and my friend recorded, and I thought that can be the album. And then the second album [ 2022’s Storm Queen] was recorded [during] COVID where you couldn't have anyone around.
“So I think the albums happened that way by circumstance,” she continues. “And I finally got the opportunity to do something that I really want to do, which is like everything that could possibly go on it. It's especially exciting for me.”
In comparison to her first two albums, hearing Cummings' music on Ramona is like a transition from black-and-white to Technicolor; the new record seems poised to be her breakout record and garner a wider audience. She says making this album has been the highlight of her young career.
“I remember one of the last days when the string section came in, and I heard them playing like it just blew my mind,” she says. “I couldn't believe that it was happening and they were playing my music, something that I'd written alone in my bedroom. Suddenly there were all these people playing violins and cellos. And I just thought, ‘What?’ That was a really special moment for me.
Ramona marks the first time the artist collaborated with American producer Jonathan Wilson, whose credits include Margo Price and Father John Misty. “I was on tour and listening to Angel Olsen's album Big Time in the van while we were driving around,” says Cummings. “I just thought that it was one of the best-produced albums that I had heard in modern times for a long time. And I found out that Jonathan was the producer. I just cold contacted him and asked him if he'd want to work together and he responded pretty quickly and said, ‘Yeah, absolutely.’ So I'm pretty lucky.
The record was recorded in Topanga, California, which was also the first time the singer made an album in the U.S. The vibe of the community found its way onto Ramona—there’s even a song titled “Love and the Canyon” from the new album.
“I like Topanga a lot,” she recalls. “It's very beautiful. It reminds me of Australia a little bit with the eucalyptus trees and big rocks and everything. It was really lovely to be there. I wrote that song maybe one of the last days that we were there when everyone was a bit hungover. I was waiting for people to wake up and I wrote that. That was kind of about not wanting to go back home, actually.”
While Ramona represents a musical progression, the constants of Cummings music since Refuge Cove are still omnipresent: her compelling and soulful Goth-like vocals and her lyrics that border on melancholy insecurity and hope. “I think there's probably a theme or a through line,” she says, “because that's generally what happens when you're making something in a certain period of time. Like everything comes from you and what your experiences are and what your thoughts and feelings are at that time. But I don't think that it's intentional.”
The album opens with the hymnal and soulful “Something Goin’ Round,” which Cummings describes as pretty raw. “What I would like is if something that I wrote would mean something for somebody else,” she says. “I mean, it's a fucking dramatic song, and I guess it's intended to be that way… just about grief in s*** times.”
Four singles were unveiled ahead of the record’s release; one of them being the trippy-sounding “Common Man,” a commentary about both conformity and freedom. “I've been playing that song for a while. I am talking about the mythological creature of the cowboy as something that represents freedom and a detachment from the world and wanting to have that kind of thing—like the sun and sky and the horse to ride and nothing else bothers you.”
The eloquent and majestic “On and On” was inspired by Cummings seeing a friend of hers play with their son. “I think it's uplifting as well. It's just a simple moment that that's kind of really perfect and innocent.”
Accompanied by an arresting music video, the album’s title track was inspired by the Bob Dylan song “To Ramona” and “If I Were King of the Forest” from the classic film The Wizard of Oz. In a previous press statement, Cummings said her song was her way of putting on a mask to be brave and true. “That's a big influence on me, that song,” she says of “If I Were King of the Forest” in relation to “Ramona.” “It was really fun to do. It's nice and heavy and layered and makes me feel things in my chest. I like it a lot.”
Finally, the piano-dominated “Help Is On the Way” concludes Ramona on a hopeful note. “I think it's on purpose that I put it where it is,” Cummings says. “It doesn't leave you in a totally dark place. You have a little handhold at the end, which is important.”
Cummings’ affinity for theatricality and performance, as heard on her recorded output, has been in her blood (she’s also a professional actress). Her musical influences include such artists as the Beatles and AC/DC. “AC/DC are one of my favorite bands in the whole world,” she says. “[Singer] Bon Scott is like a massive figure to look up to in terms of being a frontman the way he uses his voice, his emotional delivery, his energy. He's a very powerful, important musician to me.”
She also recalls listening to Lucinda Williams’ 1998 classic Car Wheels on a Gravel Road on repeat during her youth. “I love that record very much. I would just sing stuff that I knew. So I would sing a lot of Lucinda Williams. That's a perfect album.”
In addition to her now three full-length studio albums, Cummings has toured in her native Australia as well as the U.S., sharing the stages with such acts as King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Weyes Blood and J Mascis. She’ll be playing headline dates in the U.S. starting in May and then doing shows in Europe as support for King Gizzard.
Even as Cummings has just released Ramona, she’s already thinking about the next album, though what stylistic direction that may take is still up in the air. “I've basically written it already,” she says. “I'm kind of figuring it out. I've had a lot of time. ‘Just do whatever you want,’ that's what I think. Do whatever you want. Don't think about it too much. But also don't put yourself into a corner. Just try and think about different ways to do stuff and not stay the same all the time. So keep moving out somewhere, wherever that is.”
