‘A Beautiful Space’
Following a setback, Milwaukee’s Grace Weber releases a new album with Chance The Rapper’s creative team.
A decade into her music career, Grace Weber was poised for her big breakout — only to face a big setback.
The Milwaukee native, now based in Los Angeles, teamed up with Nico Segal, Nate Fox and Peter CottonTale — aka the Social Experiment, the Grammy-winning production team for Chance The Rapper — for her next album. In 2018, she signed with Capitol Records, the label behind the Beatles, ABBA and the Bee Gees, and current stars like Halsey, Sam Smith and Katy Perry.
But after releasing her debut single for Capitol, “Mercy” featuring rapper Vic Mensa, in 2018, the label dropped her a year later.
On Friday, Weber is finally self-releasing the album produced by the Social Experiment, “A Beautiful Space” — and it’s clear from listening to it that Capitol dropped the ball.
It’s by far Weber’s finest work, and one of the best R&B albums of the year, with Weber’s open-hearted lyrics and wondrous, gospel choir-trained voice supported by the Social Experiment’s radiant production.
“Signing to Capitol was this moment like, ‘Oh my God, this is the culmination of everything I am working for,’ ” said Weber, who launched her career after performing for a singing competition on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in 2009. “I felt like I arrived at a certain place and things would be different.”
“When ‘Mercy’ didn’t do as well as they wanted, the marketing team thought maybe we should pull back,” Weber said. “It was this stressful period, to use the cliché term, of feeling like I was shelved, and not being able to put out art and not being sure what your next move is.”
New album’s theme: Resilience
Getting dropped was “a punch to the gut,” Weber said, but being able to release the strongest album of her career, after facing her “biggest fear” in getting dropped, speaks to the theme of resilience that makes “A Beautiful Space” so compelling.
“Happy Thoughts” recalls the catharsis and cadence of Aretha Franklin’s simmering sung sermons, supplemented by classic cinematic strings, a modest marching drumbeat and shimmering vocal effects. “Played Yourself ” initially plays off like a sparse, ’50s R&B throwback, before the synthesized gospel choir waves and Weber’s cutting, confident lines addressed to a manipulative ex-lover come in.
And on the uplifting “Other Side,” with its crisp hip-hop production, warm piano melodies and triumphant trumpet work from Segal, Weber offers hope and strength to anyone “whose life is kicking them down.”
These are the kinds of compelling songs that come with rich talent and experience. But the experience of making music with the Social Experiment actually made Weber “feel like we were little kids again,” where she was able to strictly focus on the pleasure of singing and writing songs.
“We have worked with a lot of people and can kind of gauge the feeling in the room, as well as the artist’s Godgiven talent,” Segal told the Journal Sentinel in 2017, following a mentoring session the Social Experiment had with teen musicians for Grace Weber’s Music Lab at the Radio Milwaukee studios. “As long as we felt (Weber) can feel comfortable in herself, we knew she was going to produce the best version of herself.”
Fitting into the ‘sonic landscape’
Weber’s working relationship with the Social Experiment started in August 2015 after they felt an instant kinship at a songwriting session.
“We had met in this transitional phase where we were making a lot of beats for people, and starting to work on our music and thinking about what that meant for our own collective.” Segal said. “Grace naturally fit into the sonic landscape of what was happening.”
“Her voice was so huge and I was sold,” CottonTale added in that Journal
Sentinel interview in 2017. “She was a great artist in our eyes.”
They continued working together, which not only included sessions for her album, but creating the music that would become “All We Got,” the opening-track to Chance The Rapper’s Grammy-winning mixtape “Coloring Book.” Weber has a writing credit and contributes vocals on the track, which also includes Kanye West. (Chance also agreed to do the guest verse for “Thru The Fire,” the lead single for “A Beautiful Space.”)
“We were producing for a lot of people, working with a lot of rappers, working with a lot of different vocalists, but we weren’t working with a lot of singers, especially singers coming from Grace’s musical background,” Segal said. “It was a new thing for us to work with a real singer.”
“Musically, it all started from scratch,” Segal continued. “We told Grace going in we’re not guys that just pick a tempo and make you an album. We take our time and make sure we’re all fully invested in it and feel good about it.”
Planning some shows this fall
Now that “A Beautiful Space” is out — and live music is coming back with vaccinations climbing and COVID-19 cases dropping — Weber is planning to play some shows this fall before she does a bunch of touring in 2022.
But just being able to finally release the album is its own reward.
“Where I have fallen on this journey is when I put the pressure and expectation on myself to be perfect and hit certain numbers,” Weber said. “This time around, I am fully committed to … the joy of being an artist.”
Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.
Piet also talks concerts, local music and more on “TAP’d In” with Evan Rytlewski. Hear it at 8 a.m. Thursdays on WYMS-FM (88.9), or wherever you get your podcasts.