Local Artist Spotlight – Grat

Chace Giusti, musically known as Grat, is a Kent State Freshman Public Relations Major minoring in Theatre Performance. Noting his minor, Chace has been drawn to music ever since he was just eight years old as a member of his school’s choir. Giusti’s journey began as a member of the third-grade school choir where he began to learn the basic fundamentals of music theory. At the age of fifteen, Giusti sincerely began his musical career which developed into his passions of musical theatre, show choir, and started creating his very own music. 

As a freshman in high school, Giusti produced a lighthearted diss track directed at his friends. After some positive feedback from his friends, he realized he had a talent for music and his passion for music escalated. Upon this realization, he set a goal to produce quality music that he would be proud to release, opposed to “catchy diss tracks.” Quality music to Chace means a creative approach ranging from indie-pop to hip-hop. An interesting approach to his music is not limiting himself to one genre, something that more artists are beginning to attempt.

When asked about the most rewarding part of his music career, Giusti emphasized releasing his debut project, “The Way To Be”, during his senior year of high school as a key highlight. He received recognition from classmates that he ordinarily never spoke to. He also noted that reaching 50k streams on his song “Stars”, as a more quantifiable accomplishment. His personal favorite song that he produced was “Space” and added, “I always boast that fact that it’s nearly a word for word real experience. I think it’s super cool how lines I used in that song are 100% how it happened.”

When facing challenges producing music, Giusti strives for individuality. He stated that avoiding redundancy can be a challenge, which most artists tend to face. He recalled that oftentimes he would begin producing a song, only to realize that it sounds strikingly familiar to a song that had been lurking in the back of his head. In a sometimes watered-down creative environment in music, it’s refreshing to recognize artists that are attempting to be unique.

Closing out the interview, Chace recognized “Solitary” as the song that resonates with his emotions in the strongest sense. He mentioned that this song is a hypothetical message to someone that he didn’t know at the time but will meet in the future. The underlying theme he recognized was hope. At that time, he wasn’t in the best mental state but remained positive remembering that with time things always get better. As a secondary note, he is working on a song related to the positive influence that came about stemming from his girlfriend’s involvement in his life. Chace has music on all platforms which include Apple Music, Spotify, and SoundCloud. Go check Grat out!