GRXCE

Writer: Joseph Maranta

Images: Nikola Jokanovic | @linear.wave.sampler

A new era of GRXCE is on the horizon. 

First making their mark in Eora’s scene with their 2022 debut Pretty Boy, the-then quartet’s ensuing 24 months were characterised by a slew of power-pop anthems and a relentless touring schedule which saw them play over 60 shows in 2023 alone. 

Not one for the road more travelled, their debut EP Sorry For Being Sad was released alongside a 20-minute short film featuring star cameos from the band themselves, with the EP serving as the film’s soundtrack. 

Fast forward 12 months and GRXCE are days away from their second EP, things i should probably keep to myself. 

The trio’s latest project remains underpinned by cathartic songwriting and all encompassing crescendos, but dives head first into a newfound appreciation for unorthodox production, embracing a heavier edge signifying an assured confidence in the band’s direction. 

Composed of Alex Berger (Drums + Production), Jonathan Amirzaian (Guitar) and Jamila Grace (Vox + Guitars), GRXCE continue to distill their ethos with every proceeding release. 

JOE: Thanks for welcoming me to Sydney guys, so tell me GRXCE’s origin story!

JONO: I was studying law at Macquarie University and I had some extra electives, so I chose to fill that time up with music subjects and that’s where I first met Jam. 

JAMILA: I kind of peer pressured him into joining the band — it was originally just a solo project of mine. Jono had played guitar for an assessment with me, and I remember asking him could you learn something by ear?

So I gave him this piece of music, and it was basically a secret audition. When I first asked him to join the band he said no, and I eventually convinced him. He said that he’d stay until I could find someone else, and here we are three years later.  

JONO: There was a facebook page called Sydney Musicians Network and I put out an ad there, and fortunately for us the first two people to respond were Alex and our old bassist Emily. 

JOE: There was close to a two-year wait between your debut single and your debut project, in hindsight are you happy you waited so long to release your first EP?

JAMILA: Yeah, I think so. Honestly we could’ve waited even longer looking back on it. 

It probably hasn’t been until this forthcoming EP, where we’ve felt like yeah, this is it. 

I think sometimes people can jump into putting things out there, but I think it’s good that we’ve figured out what we’ve wanted to say. I’m not a massive fan of putting EPs together for the lols, I wanted the EP to be a concept, and to have a narrative which makes sense as a body of work. 

Even when we released our first single, we wanted everything to be professional from the get-go. We didn’t want people to think oh yeah, this is just another band. 

It was the same idea with that first EP, we wanted it to be a moment. 

JOE: Your EP rollout definitely stood out compared to other band’s, I can’t think of many other artists who put together a 20-minute-long accompanying short film. What made you want to combine mediums?

JAMILA: Before I was a musician I used to be a dancer, and when I was 18 I’d torn a bunch of ligaments and I didn’t know where to go in my life after I couldn’t dance anymore. 

Someone at the dance school then asked me what I wanted to do in the future, and I had this random desire to create a body of work where the visuals and everything else ran into one another. It really grew from there I think. 

JONO: The process was very intentional as well. We spent two years figuring out exactly what GRXCE was, and we were playing as many shows as we could just trying to get out there, so by the time it got to releasing the EP - Jam had a very clear vision of what she wanted the songs to be about as well as what she wanted from the film itself. 

In terms of putting together a team for the film - we actually ran into our eventual videographer after a show at the Shark Bar in Manly. 

Literally on the same day we’d just started talking about making the film, Riley O’Toole came up to all of us and said hey I shoot music videos, I’d love to work with you guys one day. 

ALEX: Specifically - we were talking about how we were going to find a videographer to do this within our budget. We essentially summoned him I guess. 

There are so many talented creatives out there, but unfortunately being a small band we aren’t able to pay people what they’re worth. The people involved in it had to really believe in the project and fall in love with it. We had to call in a lot of favours but it worked out in a serendipitous way. 

JOE: Your latest singles are definitely grittier than your past releases, what’s spurred the change in sound?

JAMILA: Alex and I were having a conversation about this the other day actually, but I think I used to view the world through the lens of what relationships I was in at the time, whether that’s with family, friends or romantic ones. Relationships have always been a vehicle for me to understand the world around me. 

When we were about to begin writing the EP, I realised that I didn’t know what I had to say at that time in my life, I didn’t know what I wanted to write songs about. But two weeks before that initial writing session, I got broken up with, and I was like guys, don’t worry I got this.  

But the sonic shift came from many things, we all tuned in to our overlapping tastes which came through in bands such as Fontaines D.C. - bands who were a bit heavier and a bit rockier. 

I’ve always been a big pop girly, but there was a collective want to delve heavier within the band. The first song where we went heavier came from our ex-bassist Emily, who wanted to make a shoegaze song, which ended up being Shirt Song. We all really enjoyed the creation of that track, and we were able to figure out what sounds we liked and I think that process has bled into the rest of our work. 

It’ll be interesting to see what comes next though, there’ll always be heavy emotions behind whatever I write since I feel things very deeply - so I’ll always be reflecting on life. 

ALEX: I tell Jamila that we’ll never be a coffee table band. By that I mean, we’ll never write a song about a coffee table. I think our subject matter will always have depth. We’ll be very invested in whatever we talk about, meaning is more important to us than writing lyrics which are catchy or memorable. Coming from a break-up record, it’s now like what else do we have to say? We’ve experienced heartbreak so now what other perspectives do we have to offer?

JOE: You’ve said you have a lot of admiration for bands / artists such as Momma, Wednesday and Phoebe Bridgers, so who would you say is your GOAT frontwoman?

JAMILA: That’s such a hard question. 

ALEX: Marie DeVita from WAAX. Being an Australian artist, she gets up on stage and puts her heart out and connects with everyone in the room. The way that her voice breaks up in those major moments, it’s because it comes from such an emotional place. We got to play with her and it was incredible watching her perform, it was what she was made to do. 

JAMILA: I think mine would be Hayley Williams. I’ll sometimes play without a guitar and I really look up to her when it comes to her ability to command a stage, and the way she’ll boogie during songs. 

But I’d also say Gwen Stefani in the No Doubt days, such an icon as a frontwoman. 

JONO: Mine would be Hayley Williams as well. 

JOE: Alex, you’re now the main producer for the band, so what approach do you take producing for yourself, compared to producing for other bands?

ALEX: It’s something which I had to think long and hard about when we first made that shift. Obviously my personal taste will bleed through regardless of who I’m producing for, and with GRXCE being an indie-rock band which has now moved in a heavier direction — I’ve removed a lot of our constraints in a way. 

But with other bands, I set far more constraints within the production. As a producer you have to contend with four or more people who have no constraints in their mind, but it has to become something which satisfies the entire band. 

But with GRXCE I’m not thinking so much from the perspective of a producer, the focus is now to become as creative as possible. 

JOE: I noticed that on tracks such as Spit it Out and Sabbatical, where you’ve leant into a unique glitchy sound. Where did that come from?

JONO: That was led by Alex. 

ALEX: Yeah when Jono was pushing for that electronic sound, I’m sure that’s not what he imagined it to be. 

JONO: But that’s the beauty of his interpretation. There will always be something which sounds like what you’re after, but you’ll never be able to find it exactly. So it then becomes, what now works for this specific song? 

JAMILA: It was Spit it Out where we first dove into the glitchiness. We’d finished recording it initially and it had a very traditional pop-rock sound, and while Alex was mixing it, he sent through a copy with that glitchy effect in the chorus, it was something he just wanted to chuck in there. 

They’re little Alex-isms which have become our thing in a way. It wasn’t out of a desire to have a ‘glitch’ in every song, but it’s something which we felt made it ours. 

JOE: The band has gone from a quintet to a trio since forming, how has that affected your creative philosophy?

JONO: In terms of the band changing personnel, we do miss having an extra voice in the room at times. 

JAMILA: I really miss our old bassist Emily. 

JONO: Yeah Emily in particular. Shirt Song, for example, when she wrote that bass line I remember being blown away by how it hit all the right spots.

Alex probably doesn’t feel the same as a producer, since there can sometimes be too many cooks in the kitchen when it comes to production. But now that there are less of us, there is more room for us to sit and develop our own ideas. But there’s also more boundaries we need to set, like we might sit for an hour or two hours and get nowhere on a song. 

JAMILA: Emily was such a major part of our process. Although we started with five members, we weren’t a quintet for long. Once we started releasing music we were a quartet. 

So the transition from five to four wasn’t hard, but losing Emily was very hard because we all love her so dearly. She left to follow her dreams in London, so it's nice that she left the band for such an incredible reason, we couldn’t be more supportive of her decision. 

Her leaving has made the three of us closer, and there’s a part of me which will always be doing this for her. She’ll always be a part of this project, even if she isn’t physically or creatively part of GRXCE anymore. 

But now there’s three of us, there is more room for bigger opinions, but we also have to make sure we’re entirely locked in to this and that we all maintain that love for one another. 

JOE: You’ve built a reputation for being an incredibly hard-working band, even being anointed the title of ‘The Hardest Working Band in Australia’ — have you learned any good habits which have prevented burnout within the band?

JAMILA: Haha, someone said that about us — we promise we didn’t say that about ourselves. I think it might’ve been our PR person at the time who said that. 

But yes we’ve learnt some good habits, do we always stick to them? No. 

JONO: We’ve been better this year at being more responsible and acknowledging the fact that we have full-time careers outside of playing music. 

JAMILA: Communication has been a focus with that, we’ve become better at telling each other when we need alone time. We’ve also learned that sometimes it’s worth it to pay the ridiculous amounts of money it costs to fly at convenient times for us. 5AM flights are not worth it. Even when it comes to driving, getting a good sleep is more important than leaving at 4AM. 

I have chronic fatigue myself, so I’m not built for the road as much as I try to tell my body otherwise. 

JONO: Earlier on in the band’s origin, we made a conscious effort to be present for the shows we play at, and to be around the artists who we play with. We do have the benefit of getting free tickets to a bunch of shows, and it’s amazing being able to see such a wide spread of talent. 

ALEX: We don’t want to be off our face at every show, it’s disrespectful to the other artists we play with. 

JONO: Us getting drunk wasn’t something we were ever really doing, but it’s become a bigger part of the way we operate. That being said, if we’re away and we have nothing on the next day we can hang out and enjoy ourselves too. 

JAMILA: We’ve played shows in the past where you play with a band and they disappear to the smokers and chat with friends, and they don’t really connect with you or chat to you and it just isn’t the greatest feeling. We never want to do that to another band. 

ALEX: One thing I’ll say with touring habits is that it does annoy me when bigger bands say oh you have to do X, Y & Z, because I think bigger artists can give answers which are a bit detached from the reality of smaller bands. My perspective regarding avoiding burnout, does depend on where you are in the industry. If you’re driving from Sydney to Melbourne, good luck getting sleep and being rested — you just won’t have that privilege. You’ll always have to make sacrifices as touring musicians whether it's financially or physically. I think at the lower end you have to make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. If you want to travel across the country to get pissed, that’s great, but something will have to be sacrificed there. 

JOE: Jamila, you have a great breadth of experience in artist management, Alex you’re a full-fledged producer and Jono you’re a solicitor so I guess you’re the band’s lawyer. How important is autonomy to GRXCE? 

JAMILA: The autonomy comes with its pros and cons. 

No one will ever care about your project as much as yourself, finding the right team is so relationship based. I don’t recommend that every band should be self-managed because it is a particular skill set which you need, and it’s okay if you don’t want to dive into that. But I do think it’s important that artists have the independence to have their own opinions, as I’ve seen bands who will blindly follow the advice of managers because they see them as ‘experts’ or as if the manager must know what the right choice is. 

It’s important for artists to ask questions and have opinions even if they aren’t experts in that field necessarily. 

For me at least, it’s very important that I’m across everything. But I think that’s just down to my personality. Even if we had another manager I’d still be heavily involved. It’s very full circle for me, I think who I am as an artist feeds into who I am as a manager and vice versa. 

JONO: That segues into the point I was going to make actually, but for me it’s the trust you have in those around you. Everyone exercises their autonomy within the context of the band, but the way we’ve been able to find ourselves in this position is because we trust those around us to make decisions in the best interests of the band. 

That’s not to say I or anyone else involved doesn’t ask questions, we’re always asking questions and we’re very inquisitive, but I don’t worry about reading Jamila’s emails or anything because I don’t feel the need to do so because of the trust I have for her. 

It’s the same with Alex exercising autonomy in his production, we’ll nitpick a bunch of stuff he does but at the end of the day I know that we’re all going to be very proud of it because I trust the process. 

JOE: The muso life can be very arduous as you’d know, but what is a moment for each of you, which has made all of the hard work worth it?

JAMILA: Playing SXSW in Sydney was something which I’d put a lot of pressure on myself in terms of my performance. I’ve been going to industry conferences for three years, doing it for other artists as their manager. 

But this time around playing, I didn’t want to let anyone down as an artist. On Wednesday night we played at the same time as Ninajirachi so there wasn’t a crazy turnout, and it was a smaller crowd than I anticipated, and I honestly felt guilty. I worried that as the band’s manager I hadn’t spoken to the right people in the lead-up and that I hadn’t done a good job of building hype for our show. 

So heading into our Friday show I was pretty scattered and I really didn’t know what to expect, but that show was completely packed — there were people filing out of a corridor outside of the room itself. It was just so special that the people who came, and who were at the front, were fans. People who really cared about being there. It was so heartwarming, we even had a particular fan right before we started playing, come and hand us a little card they’d made and I actually felt like crying right before the show. 

JONO: It’s the little pockets of time for me. Looking at it broadly, everything we’ve done until now is forever. It doesn’t matter the impact you make, the legacy is still there. The thought that in 10, 20 or 30 years time — the music will always be there. 

Working in law, it’s a very taxing industry. It does make me anxious whether or not I’d be able to commit myself enough to this project, but with the support of Jam and Alex I’ve been able to do that. 

But those small seconds when I’m thinking man, I get to do this, it’s something I’d never imagined I’d be doing three years ago. That’s what makes it worth it to me. 

ALEX: What matters to me is someone like Dean Valentino, one of our old PR agents, showing up to our SXSW set to watch us instead of someone like Ninajirachi. If there is one person who truly connects to our music, that’s enough for me to give 100% to the music. 

I don’t care too much for the legacy of the band, I care about the moments, something both Jamila and Alex alluded to earlier. 

All that I care about is what myself, Jamila and Jono get from this. 

Knowing that we’re making music that is authentic to us, and that it’s something we enjoy, that makes it worth it to me. 

GRXCE LINKS -> | EAST COAST TOUR | INSTAGRAM | SPOTIFY | MERCH