Grace Bowers is stepping into a new era with the announcement of her debut EP, Grace, arriving November 5. The 20-year-old guitarist, who has already built a reputation as one of rock’s most exciting young players, is also putting her voice and songwriting front and center with the project’s first single, “Eat Shit and Live.”
Produced with GRAMMY-winning producer Mike Elizondo, whose credits include Turnstile and Poppy, Grace draws from the punk, grunge and hard rock Bowers grew up on while marking a significant shift from the guitar-focused work that first introduced her to a wider audience.
“Eat Shit and Live” makes that shift immediately apparent. Built around fuzz-heavy guitar, a muscular groove and Bowers’ smoky vocals, the song turns frustration into a blunt rock anthem.
“It’s a sarcastic, angry song about me being fed up with stupid people, pretty much,” Bowers said of the track. The title had been sitting in her Notes app for months before resurfacing during a writing session alongside an old guitar riff. From there, she said, the song came together within a couple of hours.
The sound also brings Bowers back to the music that initially made her want to play guitar. She grew up listening to Guns N’ Roses and learned by playing songs from the Ramones and The Ventures.
“I picked up a guitar when I was nine years old because I love playing power chords with distortion on them,” she said. “And so I feel like these songs are my return to that and why I started in the first place, because I loved punk and rock.”
Bowers has spent the past several years establishing herself as a formidable guitarist, earning recognition from Rolling Stone, Forbes, Guitar.com and others while landing performances on major stages, television appearances and the GRAMMYs. With Grace, however, she is widening the picture of what a Grace Bowers record and live show can sound like.
The EP pulls from riot grrrl, ’90s grunge and contemporary pop alongside Bowers’ rock roots. Much of the material emerged from writing sessions with Elizondo, whom Bowers credits with helping her capture the sound she wanted without stripping away her identity.
That evolution has also transformed her live performances.
“A year ago on this day, I wasn’t even really singing live at my concerts,” Bowers said. “And now, if you see my show, it’s a completely different thing than what I was doing before. It’s a real rock show.”
Rather than treating her previous success as a template she needs to follow, Bowers describes Grace as something closer to a reset.
“In a way, I feel like I’m starting all over again, starting from scratch,” she said. “But I really believe this is what I needed to do. This is me doing what’s in my heart, and I’ve never been more excited about it.”
Grace arrives November 5. “Eat Shit and Live” is out now.
Featured image credit: Norman Jean Roy
