YOU MAY REMEMBER GRACE VANDERWAAL AS THE BREAKTHROUGH UKULELE-PLAYING 12-YEAR-OLD WHO WON HEARTS AND AMERICA’S GOT TALENT IN 2016, BEFORE GOING ON TO RELEASE HER DEBUT EP, PERFECTLY IMPERFECT. NOW THE 20-YEAR-OLD MULTI-HYPHENATE IS FINDING FREEDOM IN REINVENTING HERSELF, WORKING ON A NEW ALBUM, AND APPEARING AS VIRGINAL TEEN POP SENSATION VESTA STREETWATER, IN FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA’S SCI-FI EPIC, MEGALOPOLIS. SHE HOPPED ON ZOOM WITH US TO TALK ABOUT HER ATTITUDE TO ARTISTIC SUCCESS, FAME AND VULNERABILITY. SHE ALSO REALLY LOVES HER CAT.

Dress and boots **Zadig&Voltaire**, jewelry **Chanel**

So firstly, let’s talk about Megalopolis, what drew you to working on the film with Coppola?

Well, I’m a big believer in things happen for a reason, and usually when my life brings me something I’m not expecting, it ends up becoming something I deeply appreciate and become passionate about. I gravitate towards people who celebrate what they don’t know, and Francis is one of those people, in that, he explores everything he wants to.

When he described my character Vesta, she sounded like me, but obviously in a very exaggerated way. The pledge of a musical virginity, this budding pop princess and it just made me think of this transitional point in my life, where I knew I was so cherished as a child star, but I felt awkward and pressured to stay this caricature of my youthfulness. I felt so inspired working with Coppola, and he really gave me so much freedom in this role to develop Vesta.

Coat **Zadig&Voltaire**, jewelry **Dries Criel**

Acting and music are both equally vulnerable professions, as you’re putting yourself out there for others to judge. Have you found it hard navigating it all from such a young age?

I feel that so much of my life was screaming at me to explore the freedom I have and just be who I am. I’ve lived such a constricted life, and I feel everyone in the industry I’m in, just wants to be the person who knows the most, which is the epitome of limiting your knowledge and your learning. I know how fragile my feelings are, and I’ve waited a long time to lean into them personally, these untapped traumatic feelings inside and I was never ready until now to confront them. I just knew it was the right time to tell my story in my music, and it’s liberating to reveal a lot of pain, and I’ve worked a lot for someone my age, so now I’m doing this for myself, which gives me an invincibility to any fear of what people might think or say.

Full look **Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello**

You say this is the right time to release new music, but as a songwriter, is there a moment when you just know it’s time to turn an experience into a song?

Well, an experience and song can fester within me for a while and the greater the feeling, the longer it festers! I’m very disconnected from myself for someone who is a songwriter [laughs], but then that’s why I like writing, because it’s the only time when I can fully connect with my emotions.

Left Suit **Zadig&Voltaire**, jewelry **Dries Criel**
Right Full Look **Prada**

So, we’re seeing a reinvention of you as an artist, but an emotional evolvement of you personally. How will that play out in the new music, and the album?

I’m calling this album a project, rather than an album, because I want everything that’s gone into it, to feel like performance art and tell a story, and one of the central themes of the project is the pain of girlhood to womanhood, and the romanticising of girlhood into the resentment of womanhood.

What form will that take visually, in terms of the storytelling, as it sounds like you’re moving away from the traditional standing up on a stage and touring live?

Well I’m imagining it as an art exposition, so it will have a title, the theme and each song is an art piece around the room, and that format will make up the spirit of the album, like you’re walking through a story, and there will be mixed mediums, from imagery and dancing, to my love of colours and colour theory, a lot of stuff I’ve never done before.

Left Suit **Zadig&Voltaire**, jewelry **Dries Criel**
Right Dress Prada, jewelry **Dries Criel**

Where did you take visual references from, were you making mood boards?

I’ve been exposed to so many different visual expressions and inspirations in my life, from art and painting, to acting, architecture, interior design, poetry and strong symbolism. I wanted to look within and deconstruct why things were impactful to me, like, when I read a poem, was it the words, or the flow that drew me in? Or looking at fashion and the juxtaposition in an Alexander McQueen dress, that feminine silhouette fighting against a restrictive material like leather or corsetry. I wanted to take that dagger of honesty behind everything and work out how I can bring that same intensity into a song, and that’s what’s really driven me in this project. I love Pinterest, I’m a very visual person, so it was great for making collages and finding the “that”, whatever “that” is [laughs], but you know it when you find it, it just happens, and it’s about trying to express that inside the performance.

Left Coat **Zadig&Voltaire**, shoes **Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccerello**
Right Fur **Zadig&Voltaire**, jewelry **Dries Criel**

Well, you’ve teased us with a couple of single releases already, and we can hear the new direction in your sound, so when can we expect the rest of the project to launch?

Early next year, that’s all the teaser you’re getting for now!

Left Right Fur **Zadig&Voltaire**, jewelry **Dries Criel**
Dress and boots **Zadig&Voltaire**, jewelry **Chanel**

And will you be doing a Taylor Swift and taking your beloved cat with you for the performances, I know you two are inseparable!

We really are! I can’t do sleepovers with anyone or meet friends for more than 5 hours because we just can’t bear to be apart [laughs]. She’s such a coward though, she’s scared of everything and gets really overwhelmed, so I want to take her on tour, but I’ve got to work out how we can make this happen, how she can adapt, because I was away from her visiting family for two days, and I cried so hard!