Name: Khadeeja Carter aka Khadeeja Grace
Nationality: American
Occupation: Producer, singer, songwriter
Current release: Khadeeja Grace's new single “Shed” featuring SaraProblem, is out via Grace Galaxy.
Recommendations: Music: Giant Steps by John Coltrane; Book: Boundaries, When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life

If you enjoyed this Khadeeja Grace interview and would like to stay up to date on her music, visit her on Instagram, Facebook, twitter, and Soundcloud. We also recommend our earlier Khadeeja Grace interview about Production, Technology, and Creativity.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

I listen with my eyes open. But I usually feel chills when I hear modulation and chromatics.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

I was in a marching band at the age of 15-18 and it gave me a strong dedication to it. I realized I was married to it in my soul and couldn’t stay away from it after experiencing it so deeply in those times.

Today … not much has changed in how I feel about it. But my level of sacrifice has greatly increased.

Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics, etc. play?

The impulse comes from hearing music in my dreams and running to the studio to make it a reality. Dreaming about music and wanting it to become a reality has been the process from the very beginning.

How would you describe your own relationship with your instrument, tools or equipment – is it an extension of your self/body, a partner and companion, a creative catalyst, a challenge to be overcome, something else entirely?

My production space has been like a spouse … something I’m emotionally and mentally married to.

If I stay away for too long, I will certainly run back and start creating because there is a love affair between me, my faith in God and this music.

Are you acting out certain roles or parts of your personality in your music which you couldn't or wouldn't in your daily life? If so, which are these? If not, what, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music?

In my music I’m less shy. I’m bolder with the words I’d like to express and I’m finding that it becomes more unapologetic as the years grow in my journey.

Music allows me the freedom to say what I want without judgment.

Music is a language, but like any language, it can lead to misunderstandings. In which way has your own work – or the work of artists you like or admire - been misunderstood? How do you deal with this?

I don’t expect to be understood every time and I’ve often spoke in metaphors.

Some get it and some won’t but I will reveal what I meant if asked.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

Living in Chicago gave me the opportunity to hear or embrace the noise from a big city and make music out of it.

Taking trains or simply walking around downtown I’ve heard beats from machines hammering into the ground causing me to participate; adding my own interpretation of what I was hearing.

There were times I practiced what I created from a construction site until I memorized it; then go home and record it in my studio. To me this is an example of what I would call a music.

There seems to be an increasing trend to capture music in numbers, from waveforms via recommendation algorithms up to deciphering the code of hit songs. What aspects of music do you feel can be captured through numbers, and which can not?

Through numbers you can capture what moves certain regions, age and sex.

But you will never determine the QUALITY of music through the numbers alone because some of the best artists aren’t given opportunity to reach larger demographics.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

I live a clean life and so my music tends to be less provocative in language. I don’t judge others who do and in fact I listen to provocative music sometimes but I personally don’t make music that doesn’t reflect my very nature.

I’m about love, wisdom, faith …

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold? What role do headphones play for you in this regard?

I adore SILENCE because it allows me to hear what’s inside that needs to come out into the world.

I only wear headphones when I want distraction or I am getting fed from some outside source.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Music is part of who I am on a deeper level. I cannot express my pain or past traumas that I’m working through in those mundane tasks as I am able to in music.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values which don't appear to have any emotional connotation. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a seemingly counterintuitive way – and what, do you think, is happening here?

Los Conquistadores Chocolates (5.22):



I always want to cry when I hear this part because it’s stimulating a part of my brain that enjoys hearing chromatics.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I would like to see more elders in the music mentoring children or creating environments for the youth to know about publishing, royalties and things that would set them up for success in the music business before going out there and discovering it from bad experiences.