Dave Malloy talks about that, because there have been these critiques about the show like, ‘There’s all these different styles going on in here!” but that’s exactly what happens in ‘War and Peace.’ It’s a mishmash of styles. There’s a narrative, but there’s also philosophy, but there’s also history, and it’s all things at once jumbled together, and that’s what makes it so beautiful.” McLean has also performed in “Sleep No More,” “Brooklynite,” “The World is Round,” “Bedbugs!!!” and more. As a singer, McLean writes and performs original music with her band, Grace McLean & Them Apples. She said that her boyfriend describes her music as “blueeyed funk soul,” whereas she calls it “loopy soul pop—loopy both in that it’s, ‘She’s weird!’ but also that I use a looping station.” She got a looping station a few years ago so that she could accompany herself with her voice. Her last EP was “all looping stuff,” she said, and the full-length album that her band will release next year is a mix of songs with and without the looper (visit gracemclean. bandcamp.com for free singles being released in the year leading up to the album release). The band consists of her, a percussionist and a bassist who also plays keys at the same time. Grace McLean & Them Apples has performed at venues like Rockwood Music Hall, Joe’s Pub, Ars Nova and The Flea Theater. They performed at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook two years in a row. In April 2015, the band traveled to Pakistan on an artistic ambassadorship program through the U.S. State Department. McLean is also writing a musical, “In the Green,” about 12th-century nun, mystic, musician and artist Hildegard von Bingen. McLean studied medieval art in college, Photos courtesy of Grace McLean and von Bingen’s work stood out to her because “her work wasn’t like anything else that was happening at the time” and because she’s one of the first composers students learn about. On top of all that, McLean teaches voice lessons, focusing on “the voice as it connects to body and emotions and psychology.” “I’m interested in the human voice and all of its potentials and all of its ugly, raw, broken sounds, because those are a part of it, and I don’t want to scrub anything clean for anybody, but I want people to embrace all aspects of it, because when you can acknowledge that all of this stuff is in there—all of the weird screamy stuff and the broken things—it makes the stronger stuff stronger and more honest.” Visit greatcometbroadway.com and gracemclean.com for more information on the show and McLean’s other projects. OCTOBER 2016 I BOROMAG.COM I 35
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