Grace Ives, 25, is as cool as a cucumber. On an early February morning, at a cafe in Brooklyn, I can see her wide-eyes flash with easy nature when she offers me a small iced coffee. This all just before we pile into a Lyft for a smooth and rainy ride upstate as a six-person-crew.

Born and raised in New York, the Queens-based musician stirs a creative lo-fi pot with mini jumpy records as she “finally got it f-figured out” on—my personal favorite—“Mirror” from Ives’ album 2nd (2019). By the time Ives entered college, she began writing songs to perform in front of her close friends. “That’s kind of how I started taking myself seriously as an artist,” Ives says when reflecting on a nudge that helped make way for all big good things to come.

More: http://theisisnicolemagazine.com/blog/graceives

click it for tickets ~

08/24/19 - Queens, NY at MoMA PS1 Warm Up

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09/07/19 - Raleigh, NC at Hopscotch Music Festival

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09/17/19 - Brooklyn, NY at Lemon’s (in the Wythe Hotel)

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10/15/19 - San Francisco, CA at Cafe du Nord*

10/16/19 - Los Angeles, CA at Moroccan Lounge*

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10/24/19 - Washington, DC at Songbyrd*

10/25/19 - Brooklyn, NY at Rough Trade*

10/27/19 - Boston, MA at Once*

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11/18/19 - Chicago, IL at Schubas Tavern*

* = Supporting Claud

Click for link-to. Photo by Mary Kang.

“The instrumentation is brutally bare — just Ives and an MC-505 Roland that she procured after researching the gear that electro-pop iconoclast M.I.A. started out with — but her songs possess a hair-raising level of lush tactileness, recalling a less arch version of gonzo kindred spirit John Maus' synthetic style as well as West Coast duo the Blow. The songs on 2nd rarely make it past the two-minute mark, each track a miniature snowglobe of zippy electronics revolving around Ives' affecting, head-in-the-clouds singing voice.”

-Larry Fitzmaurice for THE FADER

“On 2nd, Ives’ debut full-length, the New York musician captures that early-20s isolation and anxiety of faking it til you make it in the big city.”