Born in Waitsfield, VT, Grace Potter grew up in a family that encouraged her artistic pursuits in areas from music to theater, the latter of which she was studying at St. Lawrence University when drummer Matt Burr heard her singing at an open-mike night in 2002 and asked if she would form a band with him. She declined, but when her high-school friend and bass player Courtright Beard enrolled in their college, she reconsidered the invitation, and the three of them began to write and perform jazz-influenced songs, Potter also taking duties on the Hammond B-3. Soon, guitarist Scott Tournet joined, and the bandmembers, calling themselves Grace Potter & the Nocturnals -- thanks to their late-night practice habits -- began to think seriously about making music their careers. When Burr graduated in 2003, they decided to move back to Vermont to some land that Potter's parents owned and dedicate themselves more fully to their craft, replacing Beard (who chose to stay at school) with Bryan Dondero in the process. In 2004 they self-released their debut, Original Soul, receiving positive response and comparisons to artists like Norah Jones and early Bonnie Raitt. This in turn garnered major-label offers, but the band preferred to build its fan base by constant touring and festival appearances. Word of their electric performance spread, and shortly after their second album, Nothing But the Water -- also self-released -- came out in 2005, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals signed to Hollywood Records, with their third full-length, This Is Somewhere, hitting shelves nationwide in August 2007. In 2010, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals was released; Hollywood pulled out all the stops in order to break the band internationally. ~ Marisa Brown, Rovi
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In the years that followed the release of her widely acclaimed 2015 album Midnight, Grace Potter considered never putting out a record again. Having endured the tumult of the breakup of her band and subsequent divorce-- as well as far more joyful events like a new marriage and the birth of her first child-- Potter continued writing on her own, but had no intention of sharing those songs with the world. "Too many things had happened, and I needed to take a step back," says the Vermont-born artist. "There were moments where I thought, 'Maybe I'll just go back to painting houses.'"
But by the end of 2017, Potter began to feel the call of the studio and soon started laying down tracks in the Topanga Canyon home she'd recently settled into with her husband, Midnight producer Eric Valentine. Unsigned and entirely free of any pressure to appease, Potter slowly carved out the songs that now make up Daylight: an album that emerges as her most emotionally revealing, musically daring, and exactingly realized body of work to date.
"In the past, I've aimed to write songs from a universal perspective; so that anyone who heard my music could relate, but that actually made it harder for me to take ownership of my own perspective. This new collection of songs were all written so that I could process - and be accountable for - my own life experience," Potter says. "I had just pulled the ripcord on my whole life. It was an incredibly jarring, private experience. When the dust settled a bit, the last thing I wanted to do was tell the whole world about it. It was a very gradual process of re-framing music and its purpose in my life. So when I finally started writing songs again - I did it for me."
Potter's seventh full-length and first release for Fantasy Records, Daylight was created in close collaboration with producer/mixer/engineer Eric Valentine. In constructing the album's wild collage of rock-and-roll, blues and soul, Potter tapped into her tightly honed musicianship while harnessing the untamed energy of her live performance for the very first time. "I had kind of resigned myself to the fact that I was always going to be better live than in the studio - but Eric was determined to tap into that raw energy that I have onstage." she says. "He chased down a few different approaches, ultimately creating a kind of live music venue setup in his studio, so I could feel the sound reflecting off the walls and interact with the band instead of just singing into a void."
For Potter, the making of Daylight marks a return to the unfettered creativity she felt upon first discovering songwriting. "I really dug back into the roots of my creativity. When I was 12 or 13, I would sneak away to write songs because I didn't want anyone to hear me bearing all," she says. "It was all so honest, because I had no awareness of how people might perceive me." At the same time, she made use of the masterful chops she's developed over the course of her career, a 15-year run that's included playing nearly every major music festival (in addition to launching her own festival, Burlington's Grand Point North. "Throughout my career, I've always been a bit of a tinkerer; experimenting & exploring all these different facets of who I am through music," says Potter. "But this album isn't an experiment: it's a statement."
As she shares that statement with the world, Potter hopes that Daylight's fearless honesty might inspire each listener to embrace their own truth, in all its messy complexity. "This album is about being able to take complete ownership of your feelings, without any anger or hate or shame. And that can be absolutely terrifying-- but once you get to the other side, it's exhilarating. It's the feeling of knowing that you're finally home."
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~~~~~~~~~
In the years that followed the release of her widely acclaimed 2015 album Midnight, Grace Potter considered never putting out a record again. Having endured the tumult of the breakup of her band and subsequent divorce-- as well as far more joyful events like a new marriage and the birth of her first child-- Potter continued writing on her own, but had no intention of sharing those songs with the world. "Too many things had happened, and I needed to take a step back," says the Vermont-born artist. "There were moments where I thought, 'Maybe I'll just go back to painting houses.'"
But by the end of 2017, Potter began to feel the call of the studio and soon started laying down tracks in the Topanga Canyon home she'd recently settled into with her husband, Midnight producer Eric Valentine. Unsigned and entirely free of any pressure to appease, Potter slowly carved out the songs that now make up Daylight: an album that emerges as her most emotionally revealing, musically daring, and exactingly realized body of work to date.
"In the past, I've aimed to write songs from a universal perspective; so that anyone who heard my music could relate, but that actually made it harder for me to take ownership of my own perspective. This new collection of songs were all written so that I could process - and be accountable for - my own life experience," Potter says. "I had just pulled the ripcord on my whole life. It was an incredibly jarring, private experience. When the dust settled a bit, the last thing I wanted to do was tell the whole world about it. It was a very gradual process of re-framing music and its purpose in my life. So when I finally started writing songs again - I did it for me."
Potter's seventh full-length and first release for Fantasy Records, Daylight was created in close collaboration with producer/mixer/engineer Eric Valentine. In constructing the album's wild collage of rock-and-roll, blues and soul, Potter tapped into her tightly honed musicianship while harnessing the untamed energy of her live performance for the very first time. "I had kind of resigned myself to the fact that I was always going to be better live than in the studio - but Eric was determined to tap into that raw energy that I have onstage." she says. "He chased down a few different approaches, ultimately creating a kind of live music venue setup in his studio, so I could feel the sound reflecting off the walls and interact with the band instead of just singing into a void."
For Potter, the making of Daylight marks a return to the unfettered creativity she felt upon first discovering songwriting. "I really dug back into the roots of my creativity. When I was 12 or 13, I would sneak away to write songs because I didn't want anyone to hear me bearing all," she says. "It was all so honest, because I had no awareness of how people might perceive me." At the same time, she made use of the masterful chops she's developed over the course of her career, a 15-year run that's included playing nearly every major music festival (in addition to launching her own festival, Burlington's Grand Point North. "Throughout my career, I've always been a bit of a tinkerer; experimenting & exploring all these different facets of who I am through music," says Potter. "But this album isn't an experiment: it's a statement."
As she shares that statement with the world, Potter hopes that Daylight's fearless honesty might inspire each listener to embrace their own truth, in all its messy complexity. "This album is about being able to take complete ownership of your feelings, without any anger or hate or shame. And that can be absolutely terrifying-- but once you get to the other side, it's exhilarating. It's the feeling of knowing that you're finally home."
Born in Waitsfield, VT, Grace Potter grew up in a family that encouraged her artistic pursuits in areas from music to theater, the latter of which she was studying at St. Lawrence University when drummer Matt Burr heard her singing at an open-mike night in 2002 and asked if she would form a band with him. She declined, but when her high-school friend and bass player Courtright Beard enrolled in their college, she reconsidered the invitation, and the three of them began to write and perform jazz-influenced songs, Potter also taking duties on the Hammond B-3. Soon, guitarist Scott Tournet joined, and the bandmembers, calling themselves Grace Potter & the Nocturnals -- thanks to their late-night practice habits -- began to think seriously about making music their careers. When Burr graduated in 2003, they decided to move back to Vermont to some land that Potter's parents owned and dedicate themselves more fully to their craft, replacing Beard (who chose to stay at school) with Bryan Dondero in the process. In 2004 they self-released their debut, Original Soul, receiving positive response and comparisons to artists like Norah Jones and early Bonnie Raitt. This in turn garnered major-label offers, but the band preferred to build its fan base by constant touring and festival appearances. Word of their electric performance spread, and shortly after their second album, Nothing But the Water -- also self-released -- came out in 2005, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals signed to Hollywood Records, with their third full-length, This Is Somewhere, hitting shelves nationwide in August 2007. In 2010, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals was released; Hollywood pulled out all the stops in order to break the band internationally. ~ Marisa Brown, Rovi
~~~~~~~~~
In the years that followed the release of her widely acclaimed 2015 album Midnight, Grace Potter considered never putting out a record again. Having endured the tumult of the breakup of her band and subsequent divorce-- as well as far more joyful events like a new marriage and the birth of her first child-- Potter continued writing on her own, but had no intention of sharing those songs with the world. "Too many things had happened, and I needed to take a step back," says the Vermont-born artist. "There were moments where I thought, 'Maybe I'll just go back to painting houses.'"
But by the end of 2017, Potter began to feel the call of the studio and soon started laying down tracks in the Topanga Canyon home she'd recently settled into with her husband, Midnight producer Eric Valentine. Unsigned and entirely free of any pressure to appease, Potter slowly carved out the songs that now make up Daylight: an album that emerges as her most emotionally revealing, musically daring, and exactingly realized body of work to date.
"In the past, I've aimed to write songs from a universal perspective; so that anyone who heard my music could relate, but that actually made it harder for me to take ownership of my own perspective. This new collection of songs were all written so that I could process - and be accountable for - my own life experience," Potter says. "I had just pulled the ripcord on my whole life. It was an incredibly jarring, private experience. When the dust settled a bit, the last thing I wanted to do was tell the whole world about it. It was a very gradual process of re-framing music and its purpose in my life. So when I finally started writing songs again - I did it for me."
Potter's seventh full-length and first release for Fantasy Records, Daylight was created in close collaboration with producer/mixer/engineer Eric Valentine. In constructing the album's wild collage of rock-and-roll, blues and soul, Potter tapped into her tightly honed musicianship while harnessing the untamed energy of her live performance for the very first time. "I had kind of resigned myself to the fact that I was always going to be better live than in the studio - but Eric was determined to tap into that raw energy that I have onstage." she says. "He chased down a few different approaches, ultimately creating a kind of live music venue setup in his studio, so I could feel the sound reflecting off the walls and interact with the band instead of just singing into a void."
For Potter, the making of Daylight marks a return to the unfettered creativity she felt upon first discovering songwriting. "I really dug back into the roots of my creativity. When I was 12 or 13, I would sneak away to write songs because I didn't want anyone to hear me bearing all," she says. "It was all so honest, because I had no awareness of how people might perceive me." At the same time, she made use of the masterful chops she's developed over the course of her career, a 15-year run that's included playing nearly every major music festival (in addition to launching her own festival, Burlington's Grand Point North. "Throughout my career, I've always been a bit of a tinkerer; experimenting & exploring all these different facets of who I am through music," says Potter. "But this album isn't an experiment: it's a statement."
As she shares that statement with the world, Potter hopes that Daylight's fearless honesty might inspire each listener to embrace their own truth, in all its messy complexity. "This album is about being able to take complete ownership of your feelings, without any anger or hate or shame. And that can be absolutely terrifying-- but once you get to the other side, it's exhilarating. It's the feeling of knowing that you're finally home."
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~~~~~~~~~
In the years that followed the release of her widely acclaimed 2015 album Midnight, Grace Potter considered never putting out a record again. Having endured the tumult of the breakup of her band and subsequent divorce-- as well as far more joyful events like a new marriage and the birth of her first child-- Potter continued writing on her own, but had no intention of sharing those songs with the world. "Too many things had happened, and I needed to take a step back," says the Vermont-born artist. "There were moments where I thought, 'Maybe I'll just go back to painting houses.'"
But by the end of 2017, Potter began to feel the call of the studio and soon started laying down tracks in the Topanga Canyon home she'd recently settled into with her husband, Midnight producer Eric Valentine. Unsigned and entirely free of any pressure to appease, Potter slowly carved out the songs that now make up Daylight: an album that emerges as her most emotionally revealing, musically daring, and exactingly realized body of work to date.
"In the past, I've aimed to write songs from a universal perspective; so that anyone who heard my music could relate, but that actually made it harder for me to take ownership of my own perspective. This new collection of songs were all written so that I could process - and be accountable for - my own life experience," Potter says. "I had just pulled the ripcord on my whole life. It was an incredibly jarring, private experience. When the dust settled a bit, the last thing I wanted to do was tell the whole world about it. It was a very gradual process of re-framing music and its purpose in my life. So when I finally started writing songs again - I did it for me."
Potter's seventh full-length and first release for Fantasy Records, Daylight was created in close collaboration with producer/mixer/engineer Eric Valentine. In constructing the album's wild collage of rock-and-roll, blues and soul, Potter tapped into her tightly honed musicianship while harnessing the untamed energy of her live performance for the very first time. "I had kind of resigned myself to the fact that I was always going to be better live than in the studio - but Eric was determined to tap into that raw energy that I have onstage." she says. "He chased down a few different approaches, ultimately creating a kind of live music venue setup in his studio, so I could feel the sound reflecting off the walls and interact with the band instead of just singing into a void."
For Potter, the making of Daylight marks a return to the unfettered creativity she felt upon first discovering songwriting. "I really dug back into the roots of my creativity. When I was 12 or 13, I would sneak away to write songs because I didn't want anyone to hear me bearing all," she says. "It was all so honest, because I had no awareness of how people might perceive me." At the same time, she made use of the masterful chops she's developed over the course of her career, a 15-year run that's included playing nearly every major music festival (in addition to launching her own festival, Burlington's Grand Point North. "Throughout my career, I've always been a bit of a tinkerer; experimenting & exploring all these different facets of who I am through music," says Potter. "But this album isn't an experiment: it's a statement."
As she shares that statement with the world, Potter hopes that Daylight's fearless honesty might inspire each listener to embrace their own truth, in all its messy complexity. "This album is about being able to take complete ownership of your feelings, without any anger or hate or shame. And that can be absolutely terrifying-- but once you get to the other side, it's exhilarating. It's the feeling of knowing that you're finally home."
show less
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