Mckenna Grace Premieres New Song For ‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping’ Soundtrack — Exclusive

Paris. Sydney. London. Madrid. The press tour for Mckenna Grace’s new movie, The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping, has brought her everywhere and back again, and today is no different. In a few hours, she’ll be in Mexico City for a fan event, but right now, the 20-year-old actor is in L.A., where she is dialing in from the backseat of a car en route to the airport. It’s also 6:45 a.m., but the early wake up call can’t kill her good spirits: “Hey, I'm up,” Grace says cheerfully, clearly unbothered by the grueling demands of the press tour junket. “I'm excited to talk.”

Over the past month, she’s had to answer a myriad of questions about her character Maysilee Donner, her past as a Hunger Games fan editor, and her reference-heavy red carpet looks. Today, however, we’re talking about her new song for the Sunrise On The Reaping soundtrack “Half Alive,” the music video for which is premiering exclusively on NYLON. If seeing the former child star’s name listed on the soundtrack alongside hitmakers like The Smashing Pumpkins, Stevie Nicks, Lizzy McAlpine, Kacey Musgraves, and The Cure surprises you, it shouldn’t — Grace has been making music for five years now, with her most recent single, “Bones And All,” having dropped back in September. She’s also proved her bona fides as a soundtrack artist several times over, having made songs for previous projects like Scream 7 and Ghostbusters: Afterlife. But when it came to her involvement in the Sunrise On The Reaping soundtrack, she had to volunteer herself as tribute, as it were.

“I had been telling [director Francis Lawrence] the entirety of shooting that at some point or another, he was probably going to have a song for the soundtrack being pitched by me. It's kind of my favorite thing to do on a production these days,” Grace tells NYLON. “I went and wrote it, and I was so nervous because it's Francis Lawrence, [who is] not only the head of all Hunger Games [but] also the coolest music video director ever. I texted him like, ‘Hey, I just thought that you'd want to hear this. I wrote a song for Maysilee,’ and wasn't even pitching it to him to go in the film or the soundtrack.” He loved it so much that he promised to slot it into the album right then and there, and the rest is history.

In between L.A. traffic dead zones, Grace talks to NYLON about the cast Easter egg featured in “Half Alive,” the legacy of Hunger Games soundtracks, and teases an end to her fan-edit retirement.

Did you write the song from the perspective of your character? Or was this more from the perspective of Mckenna Grace?

I would say that it is a bit more leaning from the perspective of my character. It’s definitely about [Maysilee’s] relationship with Haymitch, and some of it touches on her relationship with herself and her other tributes and her sister. When I was writing the chorus, I was thinking of her and Haymitch in the Games. But whenever I was listening back to it, it did really make me think of who was there on set with me whenever I felt half alive, holding me throughout that. It made me think of [Joseph Zada] and I's trials and craziness that was shooting the games in Spain. It made me think of Ben [Wang] and how he was kind of there for me in Berlin whenever I was just drudging through it and coming to him with all my problems, and he was just so wise and sweet and would have dinner with me every night. So it was based on Maysilee and her perspective, but it really made me think of my relationship with Joe and Ben and the rest of the gang and all of the beautiful friends and family that I made on this project. It's sentimental for a lot of reasons.

I wrote this song, and I really tried to make it sound as Hunger Games-themed as possible and incorporate all my favorite elements from the soundtrack and scores, but there were certain sounds I wanted that reminded me of the movie. What made me the most happy was that over the end of the instrumental of the song, I put all of my co-workers' — all my all my friends' — voices. I put Joe, Ben, Iona [Bell], and Molly [McCann], and you can all hear them talking at the end of the song and us singing “Happy Birthday” to Joe, arguing about random things, and Joe telling me, "Go away." It's just all these really cute little video moments that I captured on my digital camera during shooting.

That’s a great little Easter egg. You are famously a huge Hunger Games fan, and there's such a legacy that comes with being part of a Hunger Games soundtrack. What does it mean to you to be featured?

It means the world. I spent so much time on set listening to the soundtrack and all of the scores and instrumentals, but there's so many good songs between “Can't Catch Me Now,” “Safe & Sound,” “Atlas,” and all of the songs that Lorde had throughout various soundtracks. To not only to be a part of the Hunger Games soundtrack, but also slated between all of these incredible artists — Smashing Pumpkins, Lizzy McAlpine, Stevie Nicks — it's crazy to see my name on there. It's crazy to see my name on a vinyl record. It's just a crazy thing all around, so it's such an honor to get to be a part of it.

How do you approach writing soundtrack songs?

I try to lean into whatever kind of the sound is within the fan base with what they use in their playlists for characters or their edits of the trailers. I try to listen to the sounds that people associate with the film if it has an existing fan base, or I just try to write. For Hunger Games, it was the most that I've leaned into a character's perspective because I spent so much time with her. I approach it differently every time, but every time I'm in the studio hoping to write something and I'm like, "You know what? I'll pitch this for the movie. This sounds like it could be a part of it. Who knows what'll happen?" It usually is just a fun thing — we're not putting a ton of pressure on it, but we're like, "Okay, I'll send this over and hopefully they'll like it."

What do you hope fans take away from the song?

I hope that fans of the film feel a little bit more connected to her and me. It's about her defiance, and that's something that I hope people take away from her character. I don't want people to hang their heads and not plead for life, so I hope that maybe Maysilee's perseverance and strength will inspire anybody, whether it be through this song or her character. I also hope that people can relate it to the people that hold them throughout their life whenever they feel half alive. That's what I'm thinking about whenever I listen.

Which characters would you like to see an edit of set to this song?

I'm going to be honest, I was thinking about coming out of my edit hiatus since I got found out. Since the film hasn't come out yet and the song's coming out before, they wouldn't let me use a lot of the clips from the movie that I wanted to so that we didn't spoil it, which is understandable, but I may try and get the clips once the movie comes out and stitch together my own thing.

Whenever I listen to this song, I have every moment from the movie pictured in my mind. I was thinking a lot of Haymitch and Maysilee, and Maysilee and Merrilee when writing it. Also, I was thinking about Maysilee's journey, whether it be becoming a sister to the other tributes or standing up for herself. I was thinking of her journey as a whole, so I have so much in mind.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.