Shadowing Practice: Gracie Abrams | Audacy Check In - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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The first songs that we made for this album,
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The first songs that we made for this album,
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we wrote two years ago.
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One of them is the last track on the album,
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which I wrote and recorded the day that we recorded
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That's How True and the day that I wrote and recorded I Told You Things.
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And so there were these little clues along the way,
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but this was like the most I've ever been involved in production.
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this is your odyssey check-in we are at the hard rock
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hotel in the rock star suite with gracie abrams it is
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so good to see you good to see you thanks for
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having me of course bone to pick with you before we
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get started last time we hung out like all you did was lie to me oh um i don't know
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if you remember i was like oh gracie who's gonna be
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any features on the album who's gonna be on the album you're like no nobody
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and taylor was on the album
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and then i was like oh Are you going to go down the acting path at any point?
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You were like, no, I hate acting.
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I'm only doing music, and now you're about to be in this movie.
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So I just don't know how I could trust you.
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Well, it's not a great start for us, is it?
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It's not great for me.
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Right, right.
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Hopefully you will be more forthcoming.
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You can be because, I mean,
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you've announced a lot of the things.
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Certainly.
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Well, that was not in the cards until it was.
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So that can't have been a lie.
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And if I was protecting a Taylor secret, sue me.
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Right, right.
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You have to sign paperwork for that.
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I mean, I understand.
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Briefly, tell me about the A24 thing,
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how it came about, and the audition process, all that.
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Yeah.
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Helena Raine is a brilliant artist.
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She wrote the script.
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She's directing the film.
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I knew her in the tiniest amount.
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We had met three years ago.
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And didn't even stay in touch, really but she reached out to me asking if I would read the script,
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which felt like the greatest gift in the world.
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And I did not interpret it as read the script to potentially audition if you connect with it.
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But I read the script and it made me feel like I was being electrocuted.
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Like it was just so aliveness.
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And she's such a force.
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And yeah, and then again with the audition process,
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every round was just a gift.
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and I would go home at the end of the day being like,
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I'm the luckiest girl in the world.
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I got to just read her work to her.
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And in my mind, that was the end of the road.
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But for whatever reason, she's letting me attempt.
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And hopefully I make her proud and do her justice.
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But it's very humbling already.
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And I have a lot to learn.
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So I'm excited to get into it.
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I love it.
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Did you walk away from those auditions like,
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I crushed this or were you like totally in your head?
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No, I wasn't like, I wasn't,
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no, I just felt like it's so much fun to play like that.
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I don't know.
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That's like such a corny way to put it.
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But it was like, I don't know,
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with music, I am so personally connected to the stories.
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And I think as a reader,
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I'm so excited when I find a book that feels like the inside of my head,
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but also as somebody else's entire life,
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you get to escape into that.
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And that was my experience with Helena's script.
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So then to be in a room and get the opportunity to like
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actually pretend that you are the person you loved escaping into.
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It just was a lot of fun.
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But again, it's funny to talk about it before having stepped on set for it.
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So I can only say what it felt like to be introduced to this universe she's created.
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But it was exciting.
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Would you, could you contribute musically to the project at all?
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Like, would you do something new for it?
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Or is there something from the album that, yeah.
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Definitely not from the, I don't imagine this album belongs in the please world.
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But maybe, I don't know.
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It's up to Alina.
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It's like, I am not the guardian of any of this information.
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So it's funny to chat about.
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But yeah.
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Hit the Wall is wonderful.
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Thank you um you you linked back up with aaron for
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this i am for the album um what is it about you
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and him
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that just works like what how does he bring out what
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he does from you i think his his skill set uh it blows my mind his his the fingerprint
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that he leaves on everything that he makes it's
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so distinct to me and also so specific to the artist who he's working with.
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I think because of his history as an artist in the National,
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he has got this really holistic understanding of what it feels
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like to be on all sides of this industry as a touring musician and a writer and a player and a producer.
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He's got the biggest heart and I think
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that allows him to connect with the people that he's working with to bring out I think the best in them.
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And he and I have known each other for six years now
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and he's like family to me so there's there is a real sometimes harsh in the best way like honesty.
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So we challenge each other
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and some of my favorite experiences you know in the studio with him is
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when we disagree because it always teaches me something
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and I love him for a million reasons but i really appreciate
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that he's kind of helped instill in me
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that you don't need to make a radical change in order
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to put out a new album like it doesn't have to
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sound a hundred percent different than your last thing it can be a continuation and like a discovery of what
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made you fall in love with writing in the first place
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so this album to me um feels like a an elevated version of our process working together
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and i'm very proud of it it's so interesting
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because you you're saying like you know it doesn't have to be completely different to show growth
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and it's it's interesting because recently jack antonoff i forget what like interview it was
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or something but he was talking about you know
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because it was all this big hoopla about him not being involved in taylor's later latest project
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and he was like it's not normal for people to solely work with one person
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or one team throughout their career and i i think it's interesting because
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I imagine there's pros and cons to it because maybe if you are only working with one person,
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you could feel stagnant at some point.
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But then there's people like Billie Eilish who pretty much work with Phineas,
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but have still found ways to push themselves and go outside of the box.
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I think it's so personal.
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It's like it's like a collaborative relationship is like any other relationship,
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like friendship, romantic relationship, familial.
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It's like these are such intimate spaces.
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And I also think, you know,
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one's art reflects where they're at.
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And I think if, you know,
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any one of us feels like something's not working,
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for this particular time we're in um i think it should
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be celebrated you know the the exploration of new partners
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and in my experience like not from a success point of view
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but just from like a personal fulfillment point of view i've
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been able to like as a mentee of aaron's basically learn
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so much um under him and um with him and uh
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so speaking from my personal experience which is the only one I can reference.
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It's been a privilege to spend the past six years in the studio with Aaron.
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And yeah, he's just the greatest.
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When you are writing, do you ever have to Google the definition of a word?
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That's funny.
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That's so funny.
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Like, oh, I really want to use Slipknot here,
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but let me just double check on this.
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Well, I knew Slipknot.
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Okay.
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But there have definitely been instances,
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like I think for sure there have been times where you
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yeah like I'm trying to think of it as an example
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why can't I think of anything specific I've like absolutely opened
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the dictionary before I've been like I'm this word fits so
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so perfectly and wanting to make sure I'm like
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but can I will it make perfect sense in the way
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that it sounds correct I'm like want to make sure
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but um I tend to think my songs the the the vocabulary it's like conversational enough
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that i've never i've you know you're it's not too frequent
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at the dictionary yeah yeah yeah like you've used it before in the wild like it's something
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that you know it's also fun i i i was i read an interview a long time ago
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that rem did and they they were talking about um writing their songs
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that sometimes they would take a book
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and flip it open to a random page just put their finger on a word
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and use that as the jumping point
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that is a fun way to to i mean that's completely
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and that's just an entire pivot
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but anyway yeah thinking about opening books in the studio it's very fun
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and very inspiring sometimes dictionary or otherwise
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so how was how was this uh creative process this recording
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process on this album different from the last one would you
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say it was easier i don't know i was actually not
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i think it was we it was more intricate um as
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a whole it was more intricate i feel like we everything
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we we ran all of it through with a fine tooth comb
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and and um this was like the most i've ever been involved in production before
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and aaron and i have such a shorthand like our the way that we describe sounds or what we want,
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it's like the very exciting part of being in the studio together.
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And so to see it come to life in the way that it has with this album means a lot to me.
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But the process of getting there was not always easy.
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And I think the first songs that we made for this album we wrote two years ago.
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One of them is the last track on the album,
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which I wrote and recorded the day that we recorded That's
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So True and the day that I wrote and recorded I Told You Things.
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And so there were these little clues along the way,
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but I think what differed in this,
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this, with this process was like being off tour
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and having like five months of not being on the road to sit with all the songs
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and to let my nervous system sort of reset.
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I feel like there's a lot of,
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um, there's more patience, kind of less like manic energy in this music more,
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um, uh, yeah, more, I guess more,
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it feels more patient to me.
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It feels more thoughtful, but I think that also just comes with like age
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and time and having a bit more giving yourself and the subjects of your songs a more grace.
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And so hopefully that's felt.
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I love that.
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Awesome.
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Before we wrap up, let's do just a few random questions that I couldn't weave in seamlessly into this interview.
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So for the Met Gala,
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was there anybody you met for the first time there that you kind of had a cool,
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you know, first time experience with?
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Amanda Seyfried.
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Oh, yeah.
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My queen.
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I love her so much.
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I've loved her so much.
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I think her career arc is incredible.
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I think she's so cool.
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And we were chatting for a bit,
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and I said it to her,
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which is just how I've always felt about her
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that i think there are like some people that do public facing jobs
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and they've navigated it so well where like she seems to be
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so herself yeah yeah in the fishbowl which like is hard to do
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and um i just think she is sick
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and i got to tell her that to her face so
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that felt really nice that's awesome
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and um um who else did i meet for the it's such a blur
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and do you just like roll up
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and tap somebody on the shoulder like hey i want to meet you
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or how does that do you bump into each other
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stepping on people's trains
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and things stanley tucci accidentally stepped on my train for a split second we didn't even meet
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but he was like oh i'm so sorry i was like anything for you
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like rip it yeah yeah um no every everyone was very lovely
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and um it's a very cool thing to be in
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that museum like after hours
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when you get to walk up very close to the all the art
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and you know that was me like trying not to fall over
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but yeah yeah um have you listened to noah khan's new
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album do you have a favorite song on there i love porch light i love porch light
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and i i love all the music you know
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that i think what aaron has added to the you know noah con verse um is exciting
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and it feels so alive and so like noah's directly in your head
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and i think he's such a remarkable storyteller and so is Aaron.
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And so for them to team up just made the most sense in the world to me.
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Cool.
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And I was lucky to hear some of it before it came out.
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So I've been living with it for a while and it never disappoints.
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That's awesome.
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Yeah.
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Well, you are wonderful.
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Your music is wonderful.
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You're wonderful.
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Thank you so much.
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I appreciate it.
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Good to see you.
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Why practice speaking with this video?
This engaging interview with Gracie Abrams provides an excellent context for English speaking practice. The natural flow of conversation allows learners to immerse themselves in authentic language use while exploring topics like music, acting, and personal experiences. Through the shadowing technique, you can repeat phrases and sentences after Gracie to enhance your pronunciation and intonation. As you listen to her discuss her journey and projects, you’ll not only improve your speaking skills but also gain insight into music and culture, which can further motivate your shadow speech practice. Utilizing popular media like this aligns perfectly with the modern approach to learning; you can learn English with YouTube effectively.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
Throughout the transcript, several key structures can help learners enhance their language skills:
- Past Simple Tense: Gracie frequently uses this tense, as in "I wrote and recorded," to describe actions completed in the past. This helps learners practice detailing past events clearly.
- Future Intentions: Phrases like "I’m about to be in this movie" highlight how to express future plans, which is essential for conversational English.
- Direct Questions: The interviewer uses direct questions ("Are you going to go down the acting path?"), which provides models for asking questions correctly in conversations.
- Expressions of Emotion: Gracie’s comment "it made me feel like I was being electrocuted" showcases how to convey strong feelings using vivid imagery, enriching your vocabulary for expressing emotions.
Common Pronunciation Traps
While practicing with this video, pay special attention to certain words and phrases that may be challenging:
- Electrocuted: This word has a unique pronunciation with emphasis on specific syllables, which can trip up non-native speakers.
- Preparing for Future Sounds: Phrases like “I hate acting” require smooth transitions between the words, which can improve your fluency.
- Names and Terms: Gracie mentions several names, such as "Helena Raine" and "A24." Proper nouns often have unpredictable stress patterns, hence practicing them can enhance clarity in your speech.
Using the shadowspeak method to imitate her tone and rhythm can significantly bolster your confidence. With focused practice on these structures and sounds, you'll find yourself speaking more fluently and naturally in English conversations.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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