Gracey Has Written For Pop’s Biggest Artists, But Ladybug Is For Her

About a year and a half ago, Grace Barker started seeing ladybugs everywhere. The London-based songwriter, who goes by Gracey professionally, didn’t understand why — until she learned about the yellow car theory, which states that if you want to see something (like a yellow car, a pair of shoes, or a ladybug), you’ll start noticing it more often. This realization sparked an idea.

“That’s an overarching theme in this period of my life, where I'm realizing things that have always been in front of me that I've never really seen before,” the 27-year-old tells NYLON in London’s Kentish Town. “I've done a lot of therapy and work on myself, and I was writing songs that are really honest about where I am — and honest in a way that’s not heartbroken and f*cked up. I love my life. That became the theme of Ladybug.”

You may not know Gracey by name (yet), but you’ve certainly heard her songwriting — since 2016, she’s worked on hits like Dove Cameron’s “Romeo” and Anne-Marie’s “PSYCHO.” On her new five-track EP, out now, she describes her own sound as “a love child between the witchy melodies of Caroline Polacheck and Kate Bush, mixed with the guitars and shimmery synths of the ‘80s.” It’s Gracey’s most joyful project to date, especially in comparison to her darker, Lorde- and Imogen Heap-referencing first EP about a breakup.

Here, she shares more about how Ladybug came to be, and who she’s dreaming of collaborating with next.

You’ve been a songwriter for years and have written for so many big artists. How did you get started?

I grew up in a household that wasn't musical, but I was always writing songs when I was a kid. I’d just sit there singing with my window open, thinking f*cking Simon Cowell was going to drive past in his limo. Genuine story.

I started uploading stuff to SoundCloud, and the guy who wrote “Believe” by Cher [Brian Higgins] found me and invited me to his studio to audition for a girl band. He created this production company called Xenomania, which did a bunch of U.K. pop I had grown up on, so I was gassed. I don't know where the audacity of 16-year-old me came from, but I was like, "I'm not going to be in a girl band. I want to be a writer." I'd go after school on Fridays and write melodies for this guy. Creating cool, intelligent pop music, whether it's for me or for other people, has always been this drive and obsession for me.

Do you have a favorite artist you've collaborated with?

I’m really inspired by Rina Sawayama because she's so artistic and incredible. I wrote a song called “Catch Me in the Air,” which is on her second album. It was wicked to see someone come into the studio with such a vision. As the artist, you're the captain of the ship, and you get to be the creative director, but as a songwriter, you’re there to help focus the lens of someone else's camera.

With Dove Cameron recently, she came in with a lot of the lyrics in “Romeo” already written. She writes poetry and I was like, "Wow, this girl is genuinely really f*cking talented." It’s amazing to be with artists who are able to articulate their own minds really well.

When you're writing a song, how do you decide what's yours and what's someone else's?

That has changed over the years, because I started as a songwriting girl who maybe would do an artist project someday. When I wrote my first single, I was thinking I would pitch it to Little Mix. But then it was quite clear in the session that it was something that would start my own artist project.

Now I don't do that. If I'm going into a session, I know it’s either a Gracey session or a session for someone else, even down to the concepts I bring in. This is why I love being a songwriter because you can have so many ideas that would work, but Ladybug isn't about writing a heartbreaking, crushing song. I can give that to someone else. This project is about realizing things I've struggled to see in the past, but now I've come to terms with, which is really fun.

Social media has become such a part of artists’ lives now — it almost feels like something has to have viral potential to be a strong single.

It's difficult to balance songwriting and being an artist with the amount of stuff you now have to do. I've always said music goes hand-in-hand with having a creative idea behind it, and we've seen the decline in music videos and the increase of TikTok being used to frame a song. Regardless, it’s the same thing of creating a world around a track, and in that sense, I love it. It's really cool to see artists playing around with trends and ways to digest a song so quickly.

Where it gets frustrating is that it does feel a bit fickle sometimes. You don't dream of getting into music to be on your phone recording videos all day. But I've learned to enjoy it as much as I can. It's not my No. 1 forte, but I don't dislike it.

What can you tell me about “Steep,” the newest track on this EP?

“Steep” is about my first-ever ex. I could never get my head around why we weren't working, but it was because my bar for this man was on the floor. I’ve since realized, "I just need to raise the f*cking bar. This man can't come running back because he won't be able to reach me. It's too steep." Some songs feel like they take ages to put together, but we wrote this in one session.

I really wanted to have one track on the EP that played with less is more in terms of the production. The first chorus is super stripped — it's literally just the beat, the bass, the sub bass, and my vocal. It's matter-of-fact and focuses on the lyric. It brought a different energy to the EP.

Who do you admire the most in pop music right now?

I’m a Lorde stan until I die. I'm obsessed with everything she does. I was 15 or 16 when she was first getting big, and I would listen to her albums on my bed, with headphones in and blackout blinds on the windows. She was doing such intelligent pop music, and she inspired and developed me a lot as an artist.

Gaga's my favorite human to ever live. Chappell Roan is amazing — I love how all the girlies are building worlds around themselves. Charli XCX is doing it perfectly, and she's always said, "It's not about who can sing the best. It's about how you create a space where your fan base can live." I think that's a super amazing thing.

What’s next for you?

As much as I love touring, I’m in such a creative space that I just want to get back in the studio and write. If it's for another project for me, amazing. If it's for other people, amazing. There's so much inspiration in the music world right now, and I want to be around creative people writing f*cking cool songs. Once Ladybug settles in, I’ll just keep creating and see where it takes me.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.