Wish Queen To Mark One-Year Anniversary of Debut Album with Special Grog Shop Show

Last year, Grace Sullivan, a local singer-songwriter who performs and records as Wish Queen, recorded her debut album, Saturnalia, with local musician and producer Austyn Benyak. They worked out of Benyak’s dad’s garage all last summer.

Now, to celebrate the album’s one-year anniversary, Wish Queen will play a special show with Jet Star, Frida and the Mann and Jsszca on Friday, Nov. 22, at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights.

“The year has gone by so fast,” says Sullivan via a Google Meet call from Italy, where she was attending a wedding and vacationing. “I can’t believe it’s coming up on a year. It’s been great. I’ve been very, very busy. I played my first shows out of state in Nashville and New York. I’m just blown away at how many people have listened to the album because for a while it was just my friends. My New York shows were great. It was so exciting to be in New York. But I will have to say that my favorite show was the release show at the Grog Shop last year. It was Halloween, and everyone dressed up.”

Local and national media have provided her with positive feedback too. Her website features links to articles published by the Fader, Under the Radar and Ideastream.

“We got some great press from Under the Radar and Atwood Magazine and these respected music publications,” Sullivan says. “I was blown away to be featured in some of those articles. I don’t know how to describe my music myself. Hearing other people describe has helped me understand it a little better.”

Sullivan has also released two new singles, “Feeder” and “Floral Sheets,” since the release of her debut. “Feeder” begins with a low, ominous sounding hum and then lets Sullivan’s ethereal vocals take over. “Floral Sheets” pairs upper-register vocals with a gentle guitar riff and slowly builds in intensity.

“Saturnalia is a breakup album, and these new singles are love songs,” she explains when asked about the new tracks. “It’s the first time I’ve written love songs. I normally can only write when I’m sad, and my songs can be a little dark. There’s a different quality to them that I want to explore more. I am thinking about a new album, but I want to take my time to let everything percolate a little more before the second album. It’ll have some of the same qualities, but I want to walk toward a new phase of writing.”

She says the two new singles work as a unit since the sound of chirping birds comes at the end of “Feeder” and then returns at the beginning of “Floral Sheets.”

“’Feeder’ came out of nowhere,” she says. “It was one of the songs that came out of a note in my phone. I was reflecting during the days when my relationship was getting more serious. It was love and obsession, but I couldn’t quite tell where it was going, and if it was going to be consuming in a bad way or a good way. I thought that being in love would fix everything that was ever wrong and that’s just not realistic. A lot of that is there. I’m still grappling with those things.”

She says she visualized “Feeder” as “a big long reflection intro that would break into ‘Floral Sheets.'”

“I recorded the nature noises on my iPhone in my yard,” she says. “I wanted it to sound personal. I wanted to write something romantic. I wanted to write a true love song, different from everything I’ve done before. After the darkness and doubt and grappling of ‘Feeder,’ ‘Floral’ opens into this sweet pure love song. One had to give way to another.”

For the Grog Shop show, Sullivan says she’ll play Saturnalia in full for the very last time since she wants to start writing and recording more new material and place the focus on the next stage of her career.

“It’s going to be kind of bittersweet to play it in full for the last time,” she says.