Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to CJ & Cassie Grae. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

CJ & Cassie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

We both have origin stories that got us into pursuing music. From CJ playing in bands since middle school and growing his musicianship through learning different instruments, producing and songwriting, to Cassie dabbling on instruments and trying to start bands with her cousins in her basement at 7-years-old, we were always moved and inspired by music. We always dissected music and the intricacies by listening to our iPods with our headphones plugged in half-way. Our attention and love for music was deep and over the years, as we developed our skills, we found ourselves with opportunities to grow as musicians publicly. We both were worship leaders at local churches (this is actually how we met) and while we were dating, we toyed around with the idea of maybe starting a duo. It was always a “maybe one day” conversation, but there was no real date or goal in mind to actually launch as a band. We did one cover and then almost a year later, we threw out band name ideas. We chose “XACE” for our name, and just a few days short of our first call to play as a band. Josh Morningstar was coming to our hometown and his opener canceled just a week before the performance, so our friend reached out to us and asked us to open for him. If there was any uncertainty to whether or not we should give this duo thing a shot, this was an opportunity giving us our answer. In the midst of all of that, we were now engaged and writing our vows as a song that we would perform at our wedding. We wrote and produced “40 Years (Our Vows) a month before the wedding, performed it during the ceremony, and released it on Spotify that day under our new band name, The Graes, which just so happens to be our last name. The band that played with us during the ceremony were all groomsmen, which was also cool. From that point on, we made the decision to pursue music seriously with the goal of making music our full-time job.

CJ & Cassie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We are a folk-pop duo, we launched on the day of our wedding! We write songs about the weird, painful, good experiences of our life. We’re both adopted and know what it’s like to feel alone and like the only relatable person around is music. And when we started our duo, we agreed to be honest with ourselves and our listeners. While not everyone may have gone through abandonment as a baby or experience life in foster care, we know people aren’t strangers of feeling lonely or unwanted. Our songs are about the happening of our life since our childhood – the good, bad, fun, and ugly = and we just hope it can make our listeners feel supported , understood, and not alone. During our career, though it only be 2 years into it, we’re proud of the opportunities we’ve had. We work a lot, and work really hard, and we’ve had the chances to be on local magazine covers, in a few movies/commercials, play festivals, be on radio interviews, and our recent accomplishments include playing in Waco, TX at Silobration with Magnolia and hosting our first original show with our own opener. Along with the opportunities, it’s also been cool to make “noise” in our city. We moved to North Carolina the day after our wedding knowing no one. And while we never dream of being famous, we’re very grateful that people in our town recognize us. We’ll be out at dinner, at a craft market, or out and about and people will come introduce themselves and say how much they like our music. All of those experiences are such a blessing, especially for new artists in a new town. For our fans, we call them our Grae Fam, and ones to come, we hope you always know that we appreciate you! We’re just two imperfect humans with a passion and crazy stories to tell over melodies. We’re nothing fancy and we’re no better than anyone else. We’re just here to be your musical pals and hope you enjoy the journey.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

The creative world can be tricky. One thing that has been challenging for us to understand and navigate, let alone to get a non-creative to understand is the weight that social media has to making or breaking it in the music industry. The industry isn’t just based on talent anymore. It’s about how many followers you have and the level of their engagement. But truly, in this era of the music industry, “likes”, comments, saving posts, following – they all go the distance. Personally, we would delete social media if it weren’t such a pivotal marketing tool. If it were the 90s and neither Twitter, Facebook, nor Instagram were around and it was all based on people liking our music and our talents, our music career would definitely look different. Also, it’s hard to grasp the concept of the time-to-product ratio. In the creative world, things just take a really, really, really long time. It’s just the nature of the beast. It’s not uncommon for a graphic, music video, or even cover video to take days. A lot of blood, sweat, tears, and sleepless nights go into making a project for our music for only a handful of people to engage. All that being said, we appreciate that handful and have made a promise that if creating ever became not fun, we wouldn’t do it anymore. We’re having a good time and still going strong.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the impact our music has on our listeners. We create real and raw music and for it to connect with people the way it does is beautiful. Playing live shows and seeing our fans get into it and singing our lyrics means the world to us. It feels as though we’ve tapped into a part of them that we can now bond over. We craft melodic stories that bring to life and articulate the human condition in a way that says celebration and grief, and dreams and daunting realities, can in fact beautifully co-exist.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://wearethegraes.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/wearethegraes
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/wearethegraes
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/wearethegraes
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMb4Q_LLASXFVk7hyFPqBtw

Image Credits
Billy Logan Ashley Santiago