We had the good fortune of connecting with Joey Grace and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joey, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Over the past two years I have started taking bigger risks in my music career. The biggest risk I took was filming my Beautiful Storm music video, where I was completely naked and body painted! It was a risk to go completely solo as a musician, learn how to produce my own songs, learn how to edit music videos, learn how to make a website, fund my projects myself, and basically 100% advocate for what I want to accomplish. When you are able to get to the point where you simply don’t care what people think of you, it is incredibly freeing because you are making your art in a way that is true to you, instead of trying to fit into what’s currently “cool”. I’d rather stay true to making what I love and have ten fans, versus be a sell-out and have millions of fans. I’ll just keep doing what I do and taking risks along the way, and if other people like it, then that’s rad.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Over time I have been able to find a balance between having a steady income through my teaching career, and being an artist. I am a full time special education teacher by day, and a musician when I am not at work. It took a while to find that balance, but I made it happen because I’m not truly fulfilled and happy if I’m not creating. I can’t just do my job and then go home and do nothing. I believe I was born to be a performer. Music is my love.

Any great local spots you’d like to shoutout?
I’ve lived in Los Angeles for 16 years, 10 of those being in downtown LA. My current neighborhood is the Arts District. I love that the Arts District is right next to Little Tokyo, so you can literally walk everywhere! My favorite spot for sushi is Oomasa. I’m obsessed with the white pizza and garlic knots at Pizzanista. And, they have the most incredible green tea ice cream at Tea Master Matcha Cafe! Oh, and Twinkle Brown Sugar is my go-to spot for boba!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to give a shout out to Aaron Lawrence, an incredible designer in San Francisco. His Instagram is @letterlapse. He’s a talented artist and he has been extremely supportive of my music endeavors.

Website: https://www.joeygrace.com/
Instagram: @joeygracemusic
Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHwx1y35Tm6zPARomuCJRlg/videos?view_as=subscriber
Other: I am currently accepting new clients age 5-13 for live, virtual online music lessons for singing and/or piano! If anyone is interested, they can email me at: joeygracemusic@gmail.com