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Reliably informed
Celia Grace talks to Erin Jones about her journey to recovery, artist identity and coming back to music
Image by Amelia Read
When nursing a brew in a rare quiet corner of Middlesborough’s Off the Ground Coffee House, people watching becomes customary. Soundtracked by the everyday clichés of a local café, whole worlds continue to unfold, briefly collide and simply keep on turning.
“That’s another thing I realised,” Celia Grace explains, “the world goes on, do you know what I mean? No matter how distressed or sick you are, the world just moves on.”
For the Hartlepool singer-songwriter, while the rest of the world continued in motion, her own world – one built on music since the age of 11, filled with BBC Introducing sessions and flourishing with local festival line ups – was unexpectedly upended by her leukaemia diagnosis back in December 2023.
“I was in denial a lot at the beginning, when I first got sick,” Grace recalls, “I remember the video I posted, where I was like ‘I’m still gonna release music, I’m still gonna play A Stone’s Throw’… but it was so far from the truth. I was always one of these people who thought nothing could happen to me because I am so young. It was such a quick change; everything happened to me overnight.”
On track to pursue her music degree in Manchester, and already harbouring success across the Teesside circuit playing Twisterella, Stockton Calling and her hometown’s Tall Ships Festival, at only 19, Grace suddenly found herself trading regional stages for biopsies, IV drips and intensive chemotherapy, a teenage experience now incomparable to the complexities of coming of age she had once etched into her debut EP Sports.
“Cancer literally ripped me into pieces and chewed me round, and at the end of it, spat me back out,” Grace explains, but now, after spending a year in treatment and another in recovery, she is learning to pick up these fragments to put herself back together again anew.
A brand new addition to Wipe Out Music’s artist roster and with a stunning set of autumn live shows following the dreamy release of her sophomore EP, Grace is now stepping confidently into a new chapter. Leaving behind former name Cosial, she now fully embraces her title as Celia Grace – a change that has allowed her to feel more grounded, authentic and at home both in her music and her artist identity.
I want to be more front-facing, because I feel a lot more connected to the music that I’m making now, and I’m proud of it
“There have been times in the past where I felt like I was pretending,” Grace adds, “I think going through all this has made me a lot more confident and authentic. When I first started releasing music I really wanted to be anonymous, I was only 17 or 18 so I was just insecure and didn’t want to be seen. I want to be more front-facing, because I feel a lot more connected to the music that I’m making now, and I’m proud of it.”
The new EP, A Way Of Life, dives into the formidable ‘what now?’, orbiting around change, becoming and the arrival to that becoming. Just as Grace has transformed into an amalgamation of different versions of herself in navigating her sickness and recovery, her new sound emerges as a soft folk patchwork of the natural discomfort found in becoming something entirely new and alien, the nagging desire for familiarity, and the quiet beauty of growing from something which had intended to shrink you entirely.
“There was such a long period of time where I didn’t feel creative at all. I didn’t have any inclination for it; I didn’t reach for it; I wasn’t curious or inspired by it at all,” Grace says. “But now, I feel intuitive and I’m really just following my gut. I’ve definitely lost the pressure on myself to write all the time; I’m a lot more patient with myself and I feel quite free and liberated from that.”
From what was a truly turbulent, unpredictable time in a young person’s life, surfaces peace, patience and an appreciation for life’s simple pleasures. Learning that you have to be okay with not being in control comes hand in hand with learning to press pause on a world while it carries on without you, knowing that when you are ready it will be there to welcome you back with open arms.
“It definitely does feel like visiting an old friend,” Grace concludes, “I’ve really enjoyed getting back in touch with people and talking to people about the music. I’ve taken the time to build a world around it; I feel like when I’m listening to it it’s opening up this space and this feeling of reflection. I’m excited to be back at it.”
Grace’s world of songwriting finds itself in motion once again, with the stars of a future full of promise aligned to herald her long anticipated homecoming to music.
The new EP A Way of Life is out now.
You can sign up to the Anthony Nolan Charity here to help save a life through stem cells.
