By: Eleni Dimitrakos | Editor-in-Chief
As someone who is personally and academically rooted in the creative field, I have always been fascinated with the stories of those who have also decided to follow a similar path. Creative careers, though considered to be un-traditional and perhaps fruitless by some, are in fact the very foundation of our society. Writers provide stories, connect people across the world, and keep literacy alive. Artists manage to convey hard conversations through an emotional medium, allowing us all to connect on a deeper level, keeping us in touch with our humanity. Musicians ensure that the life we are living is filled with a wonderous symphony of emotion, filling the gaps of the world with melody.
These are the careers that make life worth living.
On this note, it is extremely impressive and commendable when a young adult decides to listen to their heart and pursue their creative passion; especially in a world where creativity and passion are consistently undermined and undervalued. Grace Kasten is one of these people. As dear friend of mine and someone who I am deeply proud of, I wanted to have a conversation with her about her introduction to and passion for music and, most notably, her newly formed band, the Cliffwalkers. Here are some quick things to know about Grace:
Hometown: Mendon, MA
Year: Junior (2027)
Major: Music
Minors: Communications/WSG
Favorite Spot on Campus: An Angelus practice room or the Cliff Walk
Fun Fact: She was a cheerleader for 10 years!
Due to being in Ireland for semester study abroad with an 8-hour time difference, Grace was gracious enough to find a time in her schedule to hop on a Zoom call with me to chat.
Before getting into the details of her new band, I was eager to learn about the origins of Grace’s passion for music. “Music has been my life since before I remember,” she told me with a smile. “My parents were both kind of musical people. My dad has been playing guitar since before I can remember, they both did musicals when they were younger. But singing has just kind of always been my thing.”
She explained how each member of her family had their “schtick” and when she was little, she just followed along with what her parents and brother were doing: gymnastics, cheerleading, soccer, even football.
“Singing and music was literally just my thing and was just the thing that stuck with me,” she explained. “I remember I would go to my after-care in elementary school and I would as to sing in front of the kids on the rug.” She told me that all throughout middle and high school, musical theater was her passion. She said up until her junior year of high school, she thought the rest of her life was musical theater.
“I thought that college was going to be a BFA at a big conservatory and I was going to Broadway and that’s what I wanted for the rest of my life.”
“And then COVID hit,” she said with a sigh. “And so much of my life, the highlights of it, was interacting with other people—the biggest thing for me was live performances and the world shut down and I couldn’t do that anymore. I kind of fell out of love with theater.” Though theater still held a special place in her heart, she had a feeling that it wouldn’t be the rest of her life anymore.
Time eventually came to apply for college and Grace found herself in the unknown. She had no idea what she wanted to do, especially since she had decided to branch away from musical theater. She ended up applying to colleges as a communications major. Her voice teacher in high school, who just so happens to be her current voice teacher at Salve, Julie Krugman, got a position at Salve and convinced Grace to apply for fun. Upon getting in, she toured Salve and spoke with Peter Davis about the music program. “The second I got on campus,” she said, “I talked to Peter Davis and I applied to be a double major in music and communications. I hadn’t really figured out what in music I was going to do, I was obviously still going to be a vocalist, but my only love in life was theater music. But I didn’t want to be a theater major and I didn’t want to do the musicals; acting just wasn’t a part of who I was anymore.”
Over the next two years, she would rediscover her niche after taking a clean break from musical theater. “Around the end of first semester sophomore year, I had realized that singer/songwriter was what I wanted to do and that was where theater left a part of me, that’s where songwriting and commercial music filled it back in.”
Now knowing Grace’s story, we were able to talk about how her band, The Cliffwalkers, was born. The band consists of six members:
- Grace, lead female vocalist
- Noel Christopher, lead male vocalist
- John Amaral, guitarist
- John Gilleese, keyboardist
- Dave Kahn, bassist
- Paul Harty, drummer (sometimes substituted by Alex Miranda, Grace’s step-dad)
“I’m very lucky that my step-dad has a bunch of connections. My step-dad is also a very musical person and he has connections from past bands of his own. He knew this guy named John Amaral and they (along with a couple other people who are actually in my band), played in a band in the late 90s called Joypopper. They were an originals band and wrote their own music and their band made it onto the cover of Billboard magazine in 1999 as a finalist of one of the Top 10 unsigned bands of the year.”
“John and Alex were talking and Alex introduced John and I,” Grace told me. He said that the two of them should get together and perform around Newport (thankfully John lives Downtown). They ended up speaking and at first, picked some random songs to sing together. It was initially just going to be Grace singing and John playing the guitar acoustically. Though this never really took off at first, John and Grace have since revisited this idea and have officially started a separate acoustic duo called 30 Years Apart!
Grace continued telling me that the group started texting and they actually had a gig lined up before they had even all met up in person. Their first gig was booked by finals of last year, they had first rehearsal in January or early February. Unfortunately that first gig got cancelled, but thankfully it was put back on. The band had one three-hour rehearsal and then performed a four-hour gig!
I then asked Grace what type of music The Cliffwalkers perform; I had seen clips of them covering songs but was curious what their scope was. “Right now, we are very much staying in the land of covers,” Grace said. “We mostly have rock and pop rock, but once we start booking venues like Blues and Pelham, where it’s more college student oriented, we’re going to change it up. Because I think it needs to match what we listen to.” She admitted, though, that they have the ability to perform anything ranging from pop music to hardcore rock.
Previously to this interview, I knew that Grace had been working on some original songs of her own, so I asked if the band would ever venture down that route. Grace nodded. “John and I have talked about maybe having some original stuff written, but we haven’t really gone anywhere with it.”
I wanted to shift the conversation back to Grace and her plans for the band and her future endeavors.
“After college,” she began, “I’m hoping I’ll still be gigging with these guys. I have nothing against the path of going down the more classic path of an artist, surviving off of gigs, finding a day job, and living vicariously through whenever I get to do a gig. I do have a double minor, so finding a job that more aligns with a career in those paths, I’m totally not mad about.”
I asked, if she decided to follow the path of her minors a bit more for day jobs, I was curious if she planned on writing and releasing her own music. “Yes, 100%. That’s definitely the end all be all, is writing and producing and performing and putting out my own music. That’s what I want to do.”
“What is that process like?” I asked. “How do you get your stuff out there?”
“It’s hard to say because it can happen in so many different ways. Obviously you just have to write your own music, some people are self-produced, some people have friends who know how to do it, some people pay for it to be produced. You can make a demo and send it out to record labels. Or you can write your own song and put it out somewhere like Spotify or Apple Music. A lot of people have gotten famous by putting their music out on SoundCloud.”
She smiled softly with a small laugh. “It’s definitely a hard process because there is so much effort that goes into it and unfortunately unless you’re a mega billionaire or A-list celebrity, the profit that you get from that is not very high. You make, off of a single stream off any platform, you make fractions of a penny.”
She smiled wide after this and simply said: “I’m sure that it’s very rewarding though.”
I nodded and made it a point to mention that the fact that she’s brave enough to even pursue this must be rewarding in its own right—not many people are courageous enough to make the decision to pursue their passion, especially if it has anything to do with the arts. That in and of itself deserves praise.
Out of curiosity, I asked, “If you wanted to be in another band and do gigs with other people, could that happen, would that be a possibility for you?”
She nodded and smiled. “Because we’re just a cover band that’s local people can perform wherever they get the chance to, there’s no hard lines or ties that says you can only perform with us and that’s all you get. All of these guys have been in other bands and been doing gigs long before the thought of us being a band existed.” She specifically mentioned that they have all been playing and performing for well over 20 years. “You can be in a million bands at once. Whoever you want to make music with and whoever you can work with to get your name out there.”
“I’m the only person in the group where this is my first experience doing gigs,” she admitted.
This was the perfect segue into one final topic I wanted to discuss with Grace. She stated that she is the youngest person in the band, they have all been playing for decades, etc. “What does it mean to you to be the youngest person in this band and also the only woman as the lead female vocalist?”
She chuckled as she replied, “It’s something that I literally can’t put into words. It’s the coolest thing in the world. To be able to even be considered up to par with these guys’ level is crazy to me.”
“Being the only woman is quite a unique experience as well,” she continued. “Because I’m playing with five people. Being the only woman is kind of fun because I do have my own little spotlight moment.” (Absolutely! As you should). It’s also kind of intimidating, because when we get up to A-list celebrity level, you see a lot of female artists dominating that world.”
“In our scene, local Newport gigs, a lot of the bands are male dominated. For what our level is, I see a lot of male dominated spaces and it’s very intimidating, but it’s also kind of cool to be able to pat myself on the back and tell myself ‘I can be the only woman, that’s fine. Let me show you what I can do.’”
“I’m extremely lucky to be able to step into this new world on such another level that I’m working with people who have been doing this for thirty years; that is very much a privilege and I’m very grateful for it. I would not be in this situation without that level of networking and the time that has been going into this.”
“Even though you’re new to the experience of being in a band,” I asked, “do you think that because you’re younger you have things that everyone else has learned from you? And vice versa: have you learned anything from the people you’ve been playing with?”
“The biggest thing I know I have to offer is…making sure the songs we have on our setlist are actually going to connect with people our age. Because these guys have been playing for so long; at least a generation or two above me. They have in their wheelhouse so many go-to songs that they know will kick and work on setlist, that I don’t disagree with. But Newport is absolutely a college city. There were so many songs I had to veto because I knew nobody would know them. I think it would definitely be helpful for us to have some interchangeable songs for us depending on the venue we play.”
“The biggest thing I’ve learnt through literally doing gigs, is, in the nicest way possible… nobody gives a s**t what you’re doing. Every performance in my life up until this moment has been “you’re here to watch me, you’re here to see the show I’m putting on. If I mess up and make it obvious, you’re going to know something went wrong, because the point is to have all your attention on me.” I think going into gigs, I was insanely freaked out, because I thought if I messed up, people were going to know.”
Upcoming Gigs:
- 30 Years Apart Debut: May 16th @ 6:30PM, Vieste Simply Italian
- The Cliffwalkers: May 30th @6-9PM, The Reef
- The Cliffwalkers: August 22nd, The Deck
Grace is also the President-elect of one of Salve’s Acapella groups, Pitches with Attitude. So, at one of the next Pitches performances, be sure to keep an eye out for Madame President!
Thank you to Grace for speaking with me about this incredible journey and opportunity. Everyone here at the Mosaic sends our best wishes and luck to her current and future endeavors—we’re 100% positive we’ll hear her name on the radio and other major platforms soon!
Stay tuned for future logos and the band’s upcoming website (Cliffwalkers.com), as well as any updates on their social media (thecliffwalkers and 30.years.apart)!
Photos Provided by Grace Kasten and Instagram
