We were lucky to catch up with Grace Theisen recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Grace, thanks for joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?
I grew up in a service-oriented family that was very active in the community. It was expected of each of us to be conscientious citizens and community leaders who set good examples for our peers. With good intentions at heart, my parents decided to ensure their children would become leaders by explicitly making us be leaders. We never ‘volunteered’; we were ‘voluntold.’
‘Voluntold’ is, of course, just a fancy way of saying “you have to do this.” And when you are the youngest of five kids, you get voluntold to do a LOT of things, both from parents and older siblings. But as I have gotten older, I understand that my parents saw the bigger picture at play that I couldn’t always see as a kid, and I learned two things that I harness daily in my job as a full-time musician.
The first thing I learned is despite massive stage fright and anxiety, I could still get up on stage in front of hundreds of people and perform. Due to my parents’ insistence at their children knowing how to speak or sing in front of people, I now have years of performing under my belt, whether from singing at church or leading a small group at youth camp. I have learned how to do things and do them well despite being afraid.
Being a musician is a job full of doing uncomfortable things like putting yourself in the limelight despite not knowing how people are going to respond to you or your message. But at the end of the day, what is the most important to me is that I am DOING it. I am doing a career that most people only dream about because their fear of public performing stops them. My parents taught me from a very young age with all the things we “had” to do… that we can actually DO them despite anxiety.
The second thing this taught me is that I actually DO have a voice that matters and makes a difference. Now as an adult, I can set clear boundaries when people are trying to tell me what they think I should do when it doesn’t feel right for me. I have learned to trust my own voice and intuition, even if it does not conform to expectations. My song Wild Wild Woman is about that exact thing.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I have always done music my whole life but got into this industry in a little different way than most people. When I was 19, I learned about human trafficking in the U.S. and felt compelled to use music as a way of raising awareness about the issue. I ended up co-founding a nonprofit called Songs Against Slavery in which we put on benefit concerts around the U.S. to raise money and awareness to fight human trafficking. I did this for almost 10 years and part of that time was spent living down in Nashville, TN running SAS full-time from 2015-2018. My co-founder and I ended up raising over $375,000 to aid in the fight.
While I was still doing music on the side, my main focus was on booking artists and venues for our shows so I got to learn first-hand how the music industry worked. Around 2019, I moved back to Kalamazoo to pursue music full-time. Working in the nonprofit realm for almost all of my twenties showed me the power music has to create real change and unite all different types of people. We learned not many people wanted to go to a conference to learn about human trafficking but everyone would pay money to see their favorite musicians. If you can pair that with an educational and fundraising portion, it is an incredible recipe for change. We saw people leave our shows feeling empowered to BE the difference they wanted to see in the world versus feeling crushed by the weight of all the darkness and evil that exists. Using music to create change and bring unification instead of division is why I do what I do. It is the undertone for everything I write and sing about. Social justice will always be such a huge part of my career because I have seen how much change can happen when you pair the two together.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
While running my nonprofit in my twenties, I also went through 2 major back surgeries in 2013 and 2017. I have struggled with chronic back pain for over a decade now and have had many procedures and been on and gotten of many different types of opioids and pain meds. I don’t tend to talk about that journey anymore because I do not want chronic pain to be the first thing that people ask me about or have it be my identity as much it used to be. But it has been by far the MOST challenging journey of my life. There is nothing quite like going through not one but TWO major back surgeries in your early twenties followed by months of recovery, physical therapy, depression/anxiety and trial and error with medications and doctors. I had to move home for months at a time with both surgeries all while still trying to finish college and run a nonprofit. It was a lot to manage especially during a decade when most of my peers were off having fun dating, meeting new people, and going out. But now on my hardest days, when I am facing a challenging situation, I say to myself: “If you can make it through back surgeries, then you can make it through this.” It taught me so much about myself but also how to stay fighting for your life when all you can seemingly see ahead of you is ample amounts of pain and darkness. It taught me how to ask for help and that it is OK to not be ok all the time. I have had many intense stints of depression and anxiety that have come along with this journey and one that even landed me in a mental hospital for over a week. I now work hard to prioritize and do the things that I need to do to be OK mentally, physically, and emotionally including therapy, exercise, and taking time to rest and rejuvenate.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I think running a nonprofit at such a young age having had zero business experience beforehand taught me one of the greatest lessons I still use today: “Always surround yourself with people smarter than you and work to stay humble and teachable.” It was something my co-founder and I learned when we started our nonprofit at the age of 19. The first thing we did was to get a board of directors who were experts in their fields that could help coach and teach us on how to run a successful business. When I moved back to Michigan to try and pursue music full-time, I had NO idea what I was doing, but I did know I needed to find the people that were successful and learn from them. I intentionally picked bandmates who are not only insanely talented at their craft but also incredibly willing to answer all my questions and gently guide me along the way. I joke that I always want to be the worst person in my band but in reality, it is how I operate. If I can always surround myself with people who are better than me, it will push me to rise to their level.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.gracetheisen.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gracetheisenmusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gracetheisenmusic
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-theisen-ty-son-a7961a106?trk=people-guest_people_search-card
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/gracetheisen
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/gracetheisenmusic
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2OiP1wtWnUxo4c7h5uFfxf?si=7NkLPmtPRbGJMyz7lg2B7Q https://www.tiktok.com/@grace_theisen https://gracetheisen.bandcamp.com
Image Credits
Photos by Stephen Norregaard, Norm Kittleson and Triptychs Photography