Who influenced Gracie Abrams, and what came after

Every connection with its receipt

Gracie Abrams writes bedroom-intimate confessional pop from a Los Angeles filmmaking family, routing diary-style songwriting through the folk-leaning production of Aaron Dessner. This mix traces the singer-songwriter lineage she draws on, the LA scene around her, and the younger writers now following her lead.

The Kynda mix for Gracie Abrams

• Key Influence · Red by Taylor Swift (2012). Abrams has been open about growing up on Swift's catalogue, and the connection became literal when Swift chose her as an opening act for the Eras Tour in 2023 and 2024, later duetting with her on 'us.' from The Secret of Us. Red is the pivot record where Swift's diaristic country writing met pop production — exactly the hinge Abrams works from, narrating specific rooms, dates and text messages rather than abstractions.0
• Influencia Obscura · songs by Adrianne Lenker (2020). Lenker's solo album, recorded to tape in a one-room Massachusetts cabin, is the quieter end of the lineage Abrams works in: fingerpicked guitar, room noise left audible, lyrics that dwell on bodily specifics instead of choruses. Abrams has pointed to Big Thief's songwriting as touchstone material, and the unvarnished, almost eavesdropped quality of songs maps closely onto her habit of releasing voice-memo-adjacent recordings.0
• Local Roots · Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers (2020). Bridgers grew up in Pasadena and built the LA sad-indie scene that Abrams emerged alongside; Abrams has named her among admired songwriters. Punisher codified the register — deadpan specificity, apocalyptic imagery delivered at a murmur, strings arriving late — that defined Los Angeles songwriting in the years Abrams was releasing Minor, and the two occupy adjacent corners of the same city's confessional ecosystem.0
• Beyond the Medium · The White Album by Joan Didion (1979). Didion's Los Angeles essays are the prose ancestor of Abrams's method: cold, precise inventories of rooms, weather and small objects standing in for emotional collapse, narrated in a flat first person that refuses self-pity. Abrams is a committed journal-keeper who builds songs from written fragments, and Didion's California — anxious, sunlit, diagnostic — is the literary register her lyrics borrow more than any musical one.0
• Peer · Sour by Olivia Rodrigo (2021). Abrams opened Rodrigo's Sour Tour in 2022, the pairing that moved her from online following to arena audiences. The two are close friends and the defining figures of the early-2020s wave of young American songwriters writing unguarded breakup material for a generation raised on Swift — Rodrigo through pop-punk catharsis, Abrams through restraint, two answers to the same inheritance in the same season.0
• From the Canon · Good Riddance by Gracie Abrams (2023). The debut album, produced and largely co-written with Aaron Dessner at his Long Pond studio, is the record where Abrams's phone-demo intimacy met real studio architecture — muted drums, cycling piano figures, vocals kept conversational. It earned her a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist and established the method: long, unresolved verses and choruses that arrive as realisations rather than payoffs.0
• Key Collaborator · Trouble Will Find Me by The National (2013). Aaron Dessner produced both Abrams albums at Long Pond, bringing the guitar-figure-as-engine approach he developed in The National. Trouble Will Find Me showcases the craft he imported into her work: interlocking arpeggios, drums mixed as texture, arrangements built to cradle a low, unperformed vocal. Hearing Dessner's own band clarifies how much of Good Riddance's atmosphere is his architecture under her diary.0
• Legacy · Junebug by Alix Page (2022). Page, a Southern California songwriter from the same post-bedroom-pop wave, has openly placed Abrams among her reference points and has supported her on tour. Junebug carries the inheritance plainly: acoustic-led, diaristic, built on specific names and places and delivered in the same unraised voice, proof that Abrams's whisper-register confessionalism became a usable template for writers a few years behind her.0

What influenced Gracie Abrams

• Joni Mitchell (1943). The article reports that Abrams named Mitchell as a songwriting inspiration and musical idol. (also via River, Blue) “Abrams has cited Taylor Swift , Joni Mitchell , Lorde , and Phoebe Bridgers as her biggest songwriting inspirations and musical idols.” (Wikipedia)
• Olivia Rodrigo. The article identifies Rodrigo as an inspiration for Abrams. (also via Good Riddance, SOUR) “Abrams has also been inspired by her contemporaries such as Olivia Rodrigo .” (Wikipedia)
• Phoebe Bridgers. Abrams singles out Bridgers’s use of humour in music as something she admires. (also via Good Riddance, Punisher) “Phoebe especially, I’m just her biggest fan. I just think she’s so sick because of how she puts her humour into her music in a way that I haven’t really seen anyone else do.” (nme.com)
• Elliott Smith. Smith is listed among artists who inspired Abrams. (also via Either/Or) “It sent me down a spiral of just loving Elliott Smith. His production inspired me massively.” (interviewmagazine.com)
• Bon Iver. Bon Iver is listed among artists who inspired Abrams. (also via For Emma, Forever Ago) “Other artists that have inspired her include Robyn , Simon & Garfunkel , Elvis Costello , Bon Iver , Elliott Smith , Kate Bush , Lana Del Rey , the 1975 , James Blake , Metric , and the Killers .” (Wikipedia)
• The 1975 (2002). The 1975 are listed among artists who inspired Abrams. “She’s cited Joni Mitchell, Simon & Garfunkel , Elvis Costello, Bon Iver, Elliott Smith, Kate Bush, the 1975, James Blake, Taylor Swift, Lorde and Phoebe Bridgers as her musical influences.” (heyalma.com)
• the Killers. The Killers are listed among artists who inspired Abrams. “From a writing perspective, the people that really stood out for me in middle school were Joni Mitchell , who I grew up with, but also Metric , Phoebe Bridgers , Matty Healy and, like, The Killers , randomly.” (nme.com)
• James Blake (2009). Blake is listed among artists who inspired Abrams. “She’s cited Joni Mitchell, Simon & Garfunkel , Elvis Costello, Bon Iver, Elliott Smith, Kate Bush, the 1975, James Blake, Taylor Swift, Lorde and Phoebe Bridgers as her musical influences.” (heyalma.com)
• Lana Del Rey. Del Rey is listed among artists who inspired Abrams. (also via Norman Fucking Rockwell!) “Other artists that have inspired her include Robyn , Simon & Garfunkel , Elvis Costello , Bon Iver , Elliott Smith , Kate Bush , Lana Del Rey , the 1975 , James Blake , Metric , and the Killers .” (Wikipedia)
• Lorde. The article reports that Abrams named Lorde as a songwriting inspiration and musical idol. (also via Good Riddance) “Abrams has cited Taylor Swift , Joni Mitchell , Lorde , and Phoebe Bridgers as her biggest songwriting inspirations and musical idols.” (Wikipedia)
• Metric. Metric are listed among artists who inspired Abrams. “From a writing perspective, the people that really stood out for me in middle school were Joni Mitchell , who I grew up with, but also Metric , Phoebe Bridgers , Matty Healy and, like, The Killers , randomly.” (nme.com)
• For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver (2007) “Other artists that have inspired her include Robyn, Simon & Garfunkel, Elvis Costello, Bon Iver, Elliott Smith, Kate Bush, Lana Del Rey, the 1975, James Blake, Metric, and the Killers.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• River by Joni Mitchell. Mitchell's song inspired the wording of Abrams's tattoo. “She has a tattoo of the word "river" inspired by Mitchell's song of the same name .” (Wikipedia)
• Robyn. Robyn is listed among artists who inspired Abrams. “Other artists that have inspired her include Robyn , Simon & Garfunkel , Elvis Costello , Bon Iver , Elliott Smith , Kate Bush , Lana Del Rey , the 1975 , James Blake , Metric , and the Killers .” (Wikipedia)
• Elvis Costello. Costello is listed among artists who inspired Abrams. “Other artists that have inspired her include Robyn , Simon & Garfunkel , Elvis Costello , Bon Iver , Elliott Smith , Kate Bush , Lana Del Rey , the 1975 , James Blake , Metric , and the Killers .” (Wikipedia)
• Blue by Joni Mitchell “Abrams has cited Taylor Swift, Joni Mitchell, Lorde, and Phoebe Bridgers as her biggest songwriting inspirations and musical idols.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Kate Bush. Bush is listed among artists who inspired Abrams. “Other artists that have inspired her include Robyn , Simon & Garfunkel , Elvis Costello , Bon Iver , Elliott Smith , Kate Bush , Lana Del Rey , the 1975 , James Blake , Metric , and the Killers .” (Wikipedia)
• Simon & Garfunkel. Simon & Garfunkel are listed among artists who inspired Abrams. “Other artists that have inspired her include Robyn , Simon & Garfunkel , Elvis Costello , Bon Iver , Elliott Smith , Kate Bush , Lana Del Rey , the 1975 , James Blake , Metric , and the Killers .” (Wikipedia)
• Either/Or by Elliott Smith (1997) “Other artists that have inspired her include Robyn, Simon & Garfunkel, Elvis Costello, Bon Iver, Elliott Smith, Kate Bush, Lana Del Rey, the 1975, James Blake, Metric, and the Killers.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Red by Taylor Swift (2012) “She also performed as an opening act on Olivia Rodrigo's Sour Tour (2022) and Taylor Swift's Eras Tour (2023–2024).” (en.wikipedia.org)
• The White Album by Joan Didion (1979) (openlibrary.org)
• Just Kids by Patti Smith (2010) (openlibrary.org)
• Lady Bird by Greta Gerwig (2017) (themoviedb.org)
• Songs by Adrianne Lenker (musicbrainz.org)

Peers and kindred spirits

• Taylor Swift (1989). Abrams and Swift collaborated on “Us.” (also via Guts, Red) “It was just really fun to watch the chemistry of Gracie and Taylor bouncing off each other, Gracie in total wonder and awe watching how Taylor records and produces her vocal performances and builds the world.” (billboard.com)
• Aaron Dessner. Abrams created “Rockland” alongside Dessner. “Working with Aaron was genuinely unlike anything I’ve done with anyone else. When I was in high school, I was writing all the time, it was such good practice.” (interviewmagazine.com)
• Noah Kahan. Abrams featured on a remix of Kahan's song. “the new cut of "Everywhere, Everything" turns the apocalyptic love song into a duet, with Kahan singing the first verse and Abrams helming the second.” (consequence.net)
• Big Red Machine by Big Red Machine (2018) “He is best known as a founding member of the rock band the National, with whom he has recorded ten studio albums; a co-founder of the indie rock duo Big Red Machine, teaming with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon; and a collaborator on Taylor Swi…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Joel Little. Abrams collaborated with Little on Minor. “In July 2020, Abrams released her debut extended play , Minor , which saw her collaborating with producers such as Joel Little and Blake Slatkin .” (Wikipedia)
• Norman Fucking Rockwell! by Lana Del Rey (2019) “Other artists that have inspired her include Robyn, Simon & Garfunkel, Elvis Costello, Bon Iver, Elliott Smith, Kate Bush, Lana Del Rey, the 1975, James Blake, Metric, and the Killers.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Paint My Bedroom Black by Holly Humberstone (2023) “== Discography == Paint My Bedroom Black (2023) Cruel World (2026) == Concert tours == === Headlining === Deep End Tour (2021) Sleep Tight Tour (2022) This Feels Like The Truman Show (2024) The Holly Humberstone Show (2024) The Cruel Wor…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Blake Slatkin. Abrams collaborated with Slatkin on Minor. “In July 2020, Abrams released her debut extended play , Minor , which saw her collaborating with producers such as Joel Little and Blake Slatkin .” (Wikipedia)
• Ivory by Omar Apollo (2022) “As a student at NYU, Slatkin worked with Gracie Abrams and Omar Apollo as a producer and songwriter and served as an executive producer on both of their debut projects.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers “Abrams has cited Taylor Swift, Joni Mitchell, Lorde, and Phoebe Bridgers as her biggest songwriting inspirations and musical idols.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• SOUR by Olivia Rodrigo (2021) “She also performed as an opening act on Olivia Rodrigo's Sour Tour (2022) and Taylor Swift's Eras Tour (2023–2024).” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Benny Blanco. Abrams and Blanco appeared together on “Unlearn.” “In March 2021, Abrams featured alongside Benny Blanco on "Unlearn".” (Wikipedia)
• Immunity by Clairo (2019) (musicbrainz.org)
• Preacher's Daughter by Ethel Cain (2022) (musicbrainz.org)
• Trouble Will Find Me by The National (2013) (musicbrainz.org)

Who Gracie Abrams influenced

• The Good Witch by Maisie Peters (2023) (musicbrainz.org)
• Junebug “Page began songwriting in high school and has since released 2 EPs and was support for multiple tours, including Gracie Abrams and Jeremy Zucker == Early life == Alix Page was born November 19, 2001, in Orange County, California.” (en.wikipedia.org)