After fronting synth-pop-punk band The Pink Slips, the 23-year-old grows up with her new solo project and debuts a new song and video below.

&quot;This might sound cheesy but I always knew I wanted to be a performer,&quot; 23-year-old Grace McKagan tells&nbsp;L&#39;OFFICIEL.&nbsp;&quot;When I was about three, my mom&rsquo;s friends would come over before they went to dinner but they couldn&rsquo;t even leave the house because I would put on my little sunglasses and a dress and put on a show to the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/music/international-womens-day-top-female-artists-playlist">No Doubt</a> album.&quot;

McKagan, whose dad is none other than Guns N&#39; Roses bassist <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/duff-mckagan-tenderness-guns-n-roses-interview-837548/">Duff McKagan</a>,&nbsp;has been performing in bands since she was 15, most notably fronting the grungy synth-pop band <a href="https://www.altpress.com/features/the-pink-slips-seek-you-video/">The Pink Slips</a>. McKagan became known for her over-the-top live shows where she performed as <a href="https://www.papermag.com/new-royals-meet-budding-rock-star-grace-mckagan-aka-grave-1427559193.html">Grave</a>, the singer&rsquo;s musical persona who ends each set by sacrificing herself to the rock &lsquo;n&rsquo; roll gods. Lots of fake blood is involved.&nbsp;&nbsp;

After several years of writing and performing with The Pink Slips&mdash;with notable gigs at legendary venues like LA&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/the-50-greatest-concerts-of-the-last-50-years-127062/elton-john-at-the-troubadour-204778/">Troubadour</a> and the <a href="https://pagesix.com/2018/08/03/infamous-sunset-strip-rock-club-the-viper-room-sold/">Viper Room</a>&mdash;McKagan decided it was time to strike out on her own. &ldquo;With The Pink Slips I was much younger, and this is my new chapter,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve changed so much every year, both as a person and an artist.&rdquo;&nbsp;

McKagan debuts her solo project with &ldquo;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rpUmaKUi3o&amp;feature=youtu.be">Surrender</a>,&rdquo; a stripped-back anthem that still has plenty of alt-rock influence. The music video features McKagan covered in butterflies, signaling the young musician&#39;s transformation from pop-punk frontwoman to spellbinding solo singer.

We caught up with McKagan on her musical inspirations, discovering&nbsp;her sexuality, and her obsession with Miley Cyrus.

@gracemckagan

L&rsquo;OFFICIEL: Tell us a bit about what your creative process is like and where you find inspiration.

Grace McKagan: I don&rsquo;t play any instruments but I know exactly what I want to write and how I want things to sound. I write with my boyfriend Blues Williams and our producer <a href="https://riffmagazine.com/album-reviews/awolnation-angel-miners-and-lightning-riders/">Isaac Carpenter</a>&nbsp;[of Awolnation] who&rsquo;s this amazing drummer. We&rsquo;ll go over to Isaac&rsquo;s garage and I&rsquo;ll usually say, &ldquo;I want to write a riff like this, this is how I&rsquo;m feeling,&rdquo; or make a reference to a song and then we&rsquo;ll build from there. I&rsquo;m always writing lyrics but it&rsquo;s easier for me to write when I have a riff to go off of.

&nbsp;

L&rsquo;O: Who are your biggest musical inspirations?&nbsp;

GM: I love <a href="https://pitchfork.com/news/light-in-the-attic-announces-nancy-sinatra-reissue-campaignandnbsp/">Nancy Sinatra</a>&mdash;her whole ambience and confidence and vibe both sonically and visually. I&rsquo;ve always loved <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop%20culture/rock-star-supermodel-couples-david-bowie-iman-jerry-hall-mick-jagger">David Bowie</a> and Ziggy Stardust; I think he embodies a free spirit and a genuine artist. Iggy Pop is my number one favorite of all time, and&nbsp;I also love Peaches, M.I.A., and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I love anybody who creates beautiful music and has a very strong sense of who they are and what kind of persona they wish to convey.

&nbsp;

L&rsquo;O: Your new song &ldquo;Surrender&rdquo; has a very empowering and strong message. What does the song mean to you and what was the process of creating it like?

GM: I wrote the song almost two&nbsp;years ago, but I think now is the perfect time for it to come out. I hope some people can relate and won&rsquo;t surrender to how crazy this year has been. I wrote the song when I was going through a really hard time. I was&nbsp;depressed, I gained 30 pounds, I was not treating my body the way I should, I was in a relationship that turned emotionally abusive, and I had lots of band members I thought were my best friends. I just felt really bad. And I felt guilty for my obvious privilege. I felt like I didn&rsquo;t deserve anything that I had, like who am I to have all this? What is my purpose of being here? Why am I alive? I was having a crisis. So I wrote the song because I was suffering from heartbreak in many different ways, and&nbsp;these lyrics represented how I wanted to see myself&nbsp;and how I wanted to believe in myself again.

Writing the song was very therapeutic, but the process was actually pretty happy and I had fun writing it with Blues and Isaac. In the process of writing all these songs I was so fortunate to fall in love with Blues at the same time, and we bonded and connected over these lyrics so it ended up being a&nbsp;beautiful process. I&rsquo;ve been really eager and excited to share this song and the other songs we have to come.

L&rsquo;O: &ldquo;Surrender&rdquo;&nbsp;is a bit more dialed back than what we&rsquo;re used to hearing from you with The Pink Slips. Is that something we can expect from your solo work moving forward?

GM: Definitely! I just feel like I&rsquo;m a bit more mature now. With The Pink Slips I was much younger, and this is my new chapter. My old stuff was definitely more <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/rock-star-hair-evolution-joan-jett-miley-cyrus">punk</a>, and I love punk music but I think I&rsquo;m in a place in my life now where I feel a bit more vulnerable and even a little more sexy. I wrote these songs when I was 21 and discovering my sexuality and not only feeling empowered within myself but in my body and being a sexual person. It&rsquo;s fun. It&rsquo;s liberating!

&nbsp;

L&rsquo;O: Big, energetic live performances was a big part of your persona as Grave with The Pink Slips. Do you have any special theatrics planned for your solo shows?

GM: I&rsquo;m sure there will always be because that&rsquo;s just who I am. I want Ziggy Stardust! I love the theatrics, I love being extra, and I love the wow factor, that&rsquo;s so much fun to me. Maybe the blood will come back one day and maybe it won&rsquo;t, but there will always be some sense of theatrics and it&rsquo;ll always be fun to watch.

L&rsquo;O: How has it felt to not be able to be on stage&nbsp;for so long?

GM: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/gracemckagan/">Instagram</a> reminded me that one year ago today was the last time I played a show. It&rsquo;s crazy, it&rsquo;s been a whole year! I miss it so much and it sucks that we had to postpone it all but I know that in time we&rsquo;ll be able to play our shows again. Even when Blues and I are at home just drinking wine we&rsquo;ll listen to music and I&rsquo;ll put on a show for him using my wine glass as a microphone.

&nbsp;

L&rsquo;O: If you could collaborate with anyone&nbsp;who would it be?

GM: I&rsquo;d definitely say <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/miley-cyrus-style-evolution-plastic-hearts">Miley Cyrus</a>. I love her. In high school we had superlatives that compared people with Disney characters, and I got Hannah Montana because I was Grace by day and Grave by night, and I guess my dad can be looked at as Billy Ray Cyrus.

I grew up with [Miley]. I love her, I think she&rsquo;s badass and such an amazing artist and true to who she is. I remember seeing the <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/bangerz-118705/">Bangerz</a> show at the Staples Center in high school and that show literally changed my life.

Meet Grace McKagan, the Alt-Rock Darling Striking Out on Her Own

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