Gustavo Requena Santos Photo
Radio Stevie.
“I wrote all my feelings down on white lined paper. I don’t always tell you what I’m thinking, baby.”
The heartfelt admissions begin, and the beats build, becoming a straight-up bop as memories of “the 203” become a plea to go back to a sweeter time in “Elm City,” the latest song from New Haven-based rapper, singer, songwriter, and producer Radio Stevie, also known as Stephen Grant.
“‘Elm City’ at its core is about honesty and the journey to get there,” said Grant about his new single, though there is also that “obvious” reference to his hometown. Written in pieces while living away from New Haven and released this past Friday, Grant notes he was “missing home” and having “bouts of loneliness, but I was also happy and fine and curious” during that time.
Gustavo Requena Santos/Radio Stevie Photo
Elm City cover art.
“All of those cycles when I was away from home snuck into the writing of this love song, asking this question of ‘do I stay or do I go,’ and the feelings about being away from home and away from New Haven. It’s a love song that happens in New Haven. I’m happy with it.”
Like many others in 2020, Grant became more familiar with being at home more often as his job switched into work-from-home mode due to Covid-19 restrictions.
“In 2019 I got a job in New York City and had been commuting, and then with Covid-19 I started working from home and got time back,” he said, noting that it also resulted in being able to focus more on his music. “The not commuting” and “less hustle and bustle” allowed him “to be in the zone.”
Grant said he initially had “no major plans for 2020” musically. But with the newfound time he “started to revisit a lot of lyrics from the past.”
“That’s kind of my practice anyway, to come back to them, and I was not commuting so I had a lot of time to make beats,” he said. “It was a good release to me as things happened. A lot of beats came out of me.”
This resulted in Grant having multiple singles released in 2020, as he combined these fresh beats with revisited lyrics pulled from what he refers to as “the vault.”
“Creating in 2020 I focused so much on the music side, making beats with no sort of plan except my own release. Making them at home, everything at home, I was dumping these feelings out, just letting it out, putting these emotions into these beats. Then I go into the vault and say, ‘what are the lyrics that have the mood?’ and I make the connection between the two.”
“Heartbeat”, released in June, “was going to be more lyrical and I ended up taking them out,” he said. “I wanted to just dance, to make something that was a moment of peace.”
“Recipe,” released in November, “is another song I also worked on a while back. I sat with it with fresh eyes and feelings in 2020, and it spoke to me all over again. It felt very timely.”
“Prejudice,” a song he recorded with JUNE, an artist from Brazil who he met in 2016 in a showcase while living there, was released on May 29.
“Gay/queer musicians are not alone,” said Grant. “We fight proudly to be who we are.” Grant worked on the lyrics in 2018, recorded it in 2018 with JUNE, and released it through Sony in May. “The song is about a fight for freedom, to be who you are,” said Grant. “Those words I wrote in 2018, it was like an older version of me talking to me in 2020. Everything I said in 2018 was true in 2020.”
“To revisit that song and hear it again, the emotions connected to the world,” Grant continued. It was released four days after George Floyd was killed. “That song was about me fighting back and standing up for my right to be me 100 percent. It was an interesting way of experiencing my own music this year. In a lot of ways, in particular this song, it’s a reminder of what it’s been like to be Black and queer. Those emotions in 2018 — in “Prejudice” and in “Elm City” — they are still there. A reminder of how some things don’t change, but I’ve always been there for myself. I’m saying ‘yes, you are going to fight for yourself. You always have.’ And to revisit that emotion and say ‘we’ve been here, we know what to do, we’re going to do that,’ that is how we get free.”
Grant realized as he revisited these songs he “loved myself just as much as two years ago, and with ‘Prejudice’ also saying ‘you’re not alone,’ in addition to fighting back. I’ve always had me. I’ve always been there for myself.”
MF Digital Photo
Performing at The State House.
Grant was able to perform a couple of shows this past year, including one digitally for Pride Week in New Haven, but his main focus now, as it has always been, is on simply creating.
“Before I am a performer — before all that stuff, all that is secondary — music is the thing that guides me, that navigates me in this world,” he said. “All of this is just so deeply embedded in my survival in this world. It is who I am.”
“As long as I can remember, music and creating music is what I leaned on,” he continued. “As a kid being in my bedroom with my brother, banging on shoe boxes and tin cans and freestyling. That’s what we did, that’s how we survived. This can bring me joy; this can help me understand, release my frustrations with the world, and realize my dreams. It’s who I am, not just a hobby. This is just honestly truly who I am. When someone asks me, ‘how do you do it?’ it’s like answering ‘how do you breathe?’ These are emotions, feelings, experiences.”
Gustavo Requena Santos Photo
Performing at cafe nine.
And Grant wants to share that with his audience, be it through his recordings or during a show.
“When I perform live, I always open by saying ‘this is a show about freedom,’” he said. “It’s always about freedom and survival. It’s not about me on stage. It’s about everyone tapping into that energy. And I always try to end with an instrumental so we can dance it off. Bringing in that atmosphere of music so someone else can have this experience that I can get.”
Grant has no immediate plans for another record — “right now ‘Elm City’ is my little baby,” he said — but he hopes to put out more singles this year and maybe an EP by the end of the year. Either way, he will continue to make beats, cultivate his creativity and be inspired by the work of others.
“The arts come with this whole other world,” he said. “What drives me to work with art is I’m inspired by art, by someone else’s survival and life. It’s not for prestige. It’s to be engulfed in the experience of art and that experience you get with creativity. That’s the key.”
“Elm City” and the rest of the songs mentioned can be found on Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Spotify and other streaming services, as well as through Radio Stevie’s website.