“For Rolling Stone’s September 2026 cover story, ‪@GracieAbrams‬ visits an art studio in Brooklyn for a portrait #painting session with Senior Writer Alex Morris. Over easels and easy banter, #Gracieabrams opens up about the partnerships that helped her write #DaughterFromHell, including those with her boyfriend, #paulmescal, and her frequent collaborator, ‪@thenational‬’s Aaron Dessner. She also discusses the creativity her relationship inspires, her coming foray into acting, and whether or not she really was a daughter from hell.

Gracie Abrams on collaborating with partner Paul Mescal: “I feel very lucky to be generally inspired by him as a person and by his brain, and I think it’s just the easiest thing to make stuff together…We’re a very musical household, and so there’s always something brewing.”

Gracie Abrams on performing live: “I think it is sort of the antidote to the times we’re living in right now in terms of it being a space where people are connected. The least cynical thing you could do is go out of your way to show up somewhere and sing with a bunch of strangers.”

Gracie Abrams on her teenage self: “I don’t think ‘rebellious’ is the right word, but I wanted to dare to do things, and then I was also really afraid. So there were these funny contradictions that, looking back now, I have fondness for, but I think in real time I would get frustrated with myself a lot. I think there was lots of self-deprecating thought that made its way into my songwriting when I was little, and I think I was quite judgmental to be honest—of myself.
“I think my ambitions were not always ones that felt safe for my parents as the people responsible for me and the people that luckily loved me…I’m doing better today, but Jesus Christ, it really was not pleasant.”

Gracie Abrams on being in her mid-twenties: “What I’m appreciating the most about this time in my life is that in-between quality…this decade where you are sort of one foot in a past life and one foot in the future. I don’t think any of us have any real idea at this point like how it’s all going to pan out, but I do feel grateful for what this decade thus far has allowed me to reflect on with more softness and grace.”

Gracie Abrams on resisting the pressures of the music industry: “I think there’s so much pressure for women to have to reinvent themselves or create a new image in order to stay relevant. I feel really grateful to have grown up in this era of female artists who have advocated for just saying, ‘Fuck the box that people put us in’ and ‘Just make art that is reflective of where you’re at and for yourself.’”

Gracie Abrams on how music helped her metabolize her emotions: “I have always used music to process my feelings in the past, where I wasn’t able to kind of take a step back in the moment and try to consider whatever situation I was in with a bit more perspective and an attempt to right-size things. Music was where I would dump all of that. And if I’m lucky, I think that will always be true.”

Gracie Abrams on songwriting from a place of stability: “I don’t want to be someone that needs to be hurting in order to make things that I’m proud of. I wasn’t always hurting so bad while making Daughter from Hell, and so I feel grateful to have had a recent experience making my favorite album I’ve ever made with some perspective and balance.”

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