For Gracie Coates and Rachel Ruggles, the music connection started in high school in, of all things, a dance class where the pair were thrown together to craft music for a dance piece. They became fast friends and instant collaborators, but it wasn't until after they'd studied at separate Universities that the structure of Gracie and Rachel started to form in earnest. In 2017, after releasing their self-titled debut, NPR's All Songs Considered listeners voted them among their favorite new artists.
Fast forward to 2020, and Gracie and Rachel's sophomore album Hello Weakness, You Make Me Strong - released on Righteous Babe, the label founded by Ani DiFranco. Displaying a wider variety of sounds and textures than their instrumentation (piano/violin) would seem to allow, Gracie and Rachel have crafted a collection of beautiful chamber-pop songs that wash over the listener.
With growing skills on the technical/producer side of music creation, the duo was able to re-create some of the multi-layered songs from the new album from their home studio.