When we first got the call up to do BIGSOUND this year, the name Grace Chia drew my attention immediately because it’s not the sort of name that someone from my background is used to seeing in Australian music (more on this below). But after listening to her music, I knew that exactly the right interview opportunity had just slid across my desk.
Hailing from Tasmania, Grace first started out in the world of slam poetry before turning her artistic focus towards hip hop. Reflecting her poetic roots, Grace takes a very lyrical and conscious approach to her music, which explores bold concepts and brings attention to the social injustices that she sees in the world around us. Whenever she’s behind the mic, it is indeed the Season Of The Lioness. Grace spits her bars with such conviction that it’s impossible not to fall silent and simply listen.
With three albums and a mixtape out since 2023, she already has quite the impressive discography, with each release exploring different concepts, influences, and themes. She’s collaborated more on her most recent album The Human Grey, which has quite the number of features, and also shows off more of her singing too. The album only just came out in July but after my first listen, it left me already very intrigued to see what the next chapter holds for Grace, because it certainly appears she’s keen to keep the momentum going.
Grace was gracious enough to squeeze in an interview with us in between her very packed BIGSOUND schedule to answer some of my burning questions:
1. Have you always wanted to do a song about your heritage like Guanyin and it just wasn’t the time until now? Or was there a more recent moment where you were like “I want to do a song about this”?
OB: Now I do have to admit, what intrigued me most about your music and made me want to interview you was that track. For context to anyone reading this, both Grace and I are Chinese. I’ve read that it was inspired by your grandmother. And I was fascinated by it because I don’t often see our background represented in music, arts, or even just in the media.
Grace: Totally, especially in hip-hop as well. I had done a song in 2022 about being from an immigrant family, but not just specifically like about China like my history and my heritage there. But when I was writing this album, it’s from The Human Grey, which is kind of about different outlooks on the complexities and the commonality in people.
And when I found out about Guanyin, the Chinese deity of compassion, I was really inspired by how her honour and generosity was her strength. And I feel like in Western culture that’s seen as like a naivety, and in Eastern culture it’s like really honourable. And I think that’s tied into the album. And then that made me research like all these amazing women in Chinese history and write that song.
2. There are quite a few clever cultural references in that one, is there one that you’re particularly proud of?
Grace: I don’t think you hear many rappers talking about eating ox tongue, you know, things like that. I loved the idea of like being in a room of men and being the only female, which is really common in my scene, and then comparing that to Fa Mulan, like things like that, which was fun.
OB: Loved that one!
3. You mentioned The Human Grey before. I came across an interview where you explained that it was about seeing the shades of grey in-between in humanity. Trying to see a bit of you in other people rather than seeing people in black and white. Have you experienced any moments where you’ve come to understand someone more because you took their perspective?
Grace: I think I wrote the title track in that time of making those realisations and realising that like we’re all scared people, you know. That is what drives us, it’s like fear and love is what drives our decisions. And recognising that people who are making crazy decisions out there are scared. Even people who are really nasty to you are scared. And like finding that commonality made me feel so much less overwhelmed by the world and being like “You’re a little bit like me, I’m a bit like you”. Maybe we don’t agree with a lot of things, but I felt more connected in that way and less anxious as well.
OB: Is there a more recent moment that you can name where you experienced this?
Grace: I think that in a time where like there’s just really horrible things happening, especially with war in the world, and trying to work out like how we can make sense with that; really realising that everyone is afraid. And I don’t agree with the decisions that happened from that, but I think the way that we can move forward is finding some kind of humanity in each other.
OB: You are very right that a lot of people have become very fear driven.
Grace: Yeah, and super segregated because of that.
OB: Well, I actually recently found out I had quite a lot in common with other people today. We interviewed a band called L.O.W before this and I realised talking to them that I knew all the people that they knew. In fact this question that I had for you actually came to mind during the interview!
4. Since 2023, you’ve released three full length albums and you also had Himalaya in 2024 which was a bit of a shorter project. How do you feel your artistry has evolved over the past few years from your first full length Marsapollo to now?
OB (pointing over to the corner): You’re prolific but you do have a bit of time between releases to look back on it all. Unlike King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard who are being interviewed over there who crank out an album more like every month.
Grace (also looking over in the corner): I know, it’s crazy! Yeah, hundred percent.
[Both laughing]
Grace: So much has changed. I think Marsapollo was a really nice thing to debut with in the sense it was very creative, it was very out there. It was a concept album about like a fictional story. And then the next year I did a single a month which became Himalaya.
And then Undulation of a Healing Heart was a very personal journey and it was exploring different genres. And over that whole time I was starting to sing more in my hip-hop as well. And with this new release (The Human Grey) it feels like a really complete, mature project as well from where I’d started. Lots of collaboration which I hadn’t done as much before.
5. I want to understand the meaning of Undulation of a Healing Heart. What does it mean to you?
OB: To me it sounds like something out of a Buddhist scripture so it’s only appropriate that Guanyin was mentioned.
Grace: So for me it was like undulations as in like the rise and the fall and in a natural rise and fall of healing through heartbreak, but then also like the physical like rising and falling of your heart and the way that your nervous system regulates once you come out of that heartbreak.
6. How was your set last night? How was the crowd? Do you reckon you made any new fans?
Grace: It was so fun last night. I haven’t played in Brisbane since 2023 and it was a really great room of people, heaps of energy. People stayed through the whole thing. It was so fun. So I had a really great time and I really can’t wait to play tomorrow night.
OB: Have you played an industry showcase like this before?
Grace: No, I haven’t. Yeah, super exciting!
OB: Over here we have like little stuff like the QUBE Effect but I am finding for a lot of people that BIGSOUND is their first industry thing. They’ve got more like this industry stuff over in the US, but I think Brisbane is the only place here that you really do one.
Grace: Yeah, totally. And me being in Tassie, we don’t have anything like that there.
OB: Jed, one of our founders, he does Party in The Paddock every year. He was like that’s probably the one thing that Tassie actually do get.
Grace: Yeah, that and Dark MOFO brings a lot of people in.
7. Speaking of being at your first industry event, these won’t come out until after the festival is over, but what or who are you on the prowl for at BIGSOUND 2026? Have you been successful so far?
Grace: I’m looking for a booking agent and I’m looking to just have a bit more industry knowledge as well, make some connections through that. Some partnership deals. It’s day two, so it’s early days, but I’ve been having some great meetings.
OB: I’ve asked most artists this question. We’ll put them up afterwards and see if this slides across anyone’s desk. If you’re reading this and are interested in working with Grace, please make yourself known!
8. This is your platform now. What’s one thing that you want everyone in Australia to know one thing about you and your music?
Grace: I’m so passionate about speaking truth, sharing stories, and creating change. And I do that through many different avenues of art. Mainly through music, but I’m also really inspired and passionate about community. Creating community and connecting community. And so I know that if people find my music they’ll find connection in some way. If they come to a show they’ll find belonging in some way. And I hope they feel inspired and empowered.
OB: Awesome answer! Thanks for your time with us today.
Now passion and community are two things that I thought Grace might talk about before the interview even happened. Because they are two things in this world that you can’t fake and two things in this world that we need more of. Yet, we’re losing more of both by the day. Passion is replaced by the pursuit of profit and communities have become fragmented. The solution to both of those problems has already been articulated by Grace herself in the title of her track from Himalaya: It Starts With You.
If we want a scene that’s about music and not materialism, then we need to create the community around that. And the best thing that the average punter can do to support that is go to a local show! If your friend is playing at the start of night on a Wednesday, they’re probably not being paid.
So grab a ticket, cheer them on, buy a drink or two to keep the venue lights on, and strike up a conversation with a fellow fan. If enough people do that, then I think we might actually make some serious headway. And all that takes is a bit of passion for human connection which I’m sure that almost anyone has.
We will definitely keep you updated on the next time that Grace heads to Brisbane, I’m hoping to be right up in the front row like always. A massive thanks to James Latter (@jvmeslatter) for all the photos in this article.
Make sure to watch the music video for Guanyin and keep up to date with Grace by giving her a follow below:
