Gracie Mae Smith is a diverse multidisciplinary artist specialising in drumset who has lived and worked in Perth, WA, for the past five years. Originally from regional WA, she brings over a decade of gigging experience and seven years as a professional session drummer, tutor, and educator.

Since joining the experimental band Tangled Thoughts of Leaving (TToL) in January 2019, Gracie has toured Europe and Australia, and co-wrote and drummed for the show Ragnarokkr, which toured Perth and Adelaide Fringe in early 2020. She has also performed with cabaret stars Reuben Kaye and Bernie Dieter, and continues to thrive in Perth’s experimental music scene, playing festivals like Audible Edge and Outcome Unknown, while touring with Bernie Dieter (UK, Japan, Australia). Currently working on follow-up albums to TToL’s Oscillating Forest, Gracie is exploring new solo projects under the name The Grace He May Experience. Despite recently losing hearing in her right ear, Gracie remains committed to pushing her craft into new, innovative territories.

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Interview

Gracie expressed her enthusiasm about the residency, saying, “I am immensely grateful for this opportunity to explore and deepen my artistic practice. I hope to use the space to review my daily instrumental practice process with the intention of creating new work. I recently lost half of my hearing which has affected how I perceive the world dramatically. I aspire to a contemplative methodology of practicing and composing that is playful yet constantly pushes my limits, combines my interests, challenges my ideas within to explore the world without, deepens expression and is able to generate inspiration day to day. I also envision it as part of a greater devotional and self-care practice which is aligned with my values and the view that life itself is the ultimate performance art piece. I hope to explore process, body, movement, perception, rules/games/beliefs and the exploration of the self as the lense through which reality is presented to the individual and how continuous self-inquiry can alter one’s trajectory through time and space. 

But most of all, to channel the precious eternal moment and to get to the heart of what life and music is (and should be) about, which is to play.”

Lyndon Blue, associate curator of music and public programs for the City of Melville and member of our selection panel said, “Gracie Mae Smith is both a highly established voice in WA’s music community and in some ways an “emerging” artist – undertaking a period of transition in her practice, exploring new directions, and radically reconsidering what music-making means for her following significant hearing loss in recent years. Her artistic output to date spans drumming with local heavyweights Tangled Thoughts of Leaving, co-creating shows for international festival circuits and embarking on noise and guitar-oriented music making; Gracie embodies the type of adventurous creativity and commitment to expanding and refining her practice that we look for in applications for the Felix Burrows Music Residency. Motivated by a desire to explore new ground, forge creative relationships, challenge herself and work across disciplines, we see Gracie as a perfect fit for the type of residency offered here: open-ended, peaceful, and playful, with scope for both introspection and new collaborative dynamics.” 

WAM’s former Strategic Relationships and Development Manager, Georgia Kennedy pioneered the development of the Felix Burrows Residency Program to provide funding and facilities to support the development of artists and their work. Georgia said, “The selection panel overwhelmingly agreed that Gracie be the next recipient of the Felix Burrows Music Residency. The competition was tight and the calibre of applicants highly competitive, but ultimately, Gracie’s response to the criteria around the use of the residency on the development of her practice really made her application stand out. We know she’s going to make such great use of such a valuable opportunity and be an important part of building the legacy of the Residency. This program is so close to my heart, and I feel privileged to be invited to remain involved as an ongoing panellist; an opportunity that will allow me to continue a resonant connection to the future of the program, and Perth’s incredible musical creatives.”