Grace Graber Releases ‘PUNK X PRAISE Vol 1,’ Following Viral Social Media Success

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Grace Graber has released her highly anticipated of punk-flavored worship covers, PUNK X PRAISE. The project was produced by Josiah Prince (Disciple) and Blake Cross, featuring worship standards like “Oceans” by Hillsong, “Gratitude” by Brandon Lake and “Build Your Kingdom Here” by Rend Collective alongside a new original track.

The punk rock singer and songwriter has achieved significant virality with previously released tracks from PUNK X PRAISE, with clips on social media exceeding a cumulative 6 million views.

“I had this idea of turning Christian songs punk for a while,” Grace Graber shares. “I was in the studio with Josiah, and I said, ‘What would it take to make this work?’ And we sat and we just said, ‘What if this went punk?’”

They spent a day in the studio playing with the idea, which yielded the first track, “Lemonade.” What started as an experiment quickly became a plot-twist moment: it worked. The song blew up on social media.

“It reawakened the idea of imagining these songs as my own,” Grace says.

That’s how PUNK X PRAISE was born. Whether it’s making older hits like “Oceans” her own or putting a spin on the radio-climbing single “Gratitude,” Grace Graber began to bring her signature punk rock sound to worshipful moments. She discovered that she’d tapped into a hunger she didn’t even know was there, as cover after cover reached punk fans who begged for more of her worshipful takes.

“I took ownership with some songs that I have always had weird emotions around,” Grace admits. “Taking ownership and making these songs my own was therapy for me.”

She took additional ownership by adding the original track “Why I Still Believe,” co-written with Daniel Spriggs.

Grace recalls, “When we wrote that song, I envisioned why life at that point felt full-circle. Boy, was I in for something fun, because now my life is even more full circle. All of these elements, all these little pieces in my life, they're all reflecting like a disco ball: they're reflecting the light of the Lord. I can see pieces of God's glory and all the things that have happened in the last year, and honestly, in my whole music career. I see little flecks of the light of God, just shining down on different aspects of my life. That’s why I still believe: because I can witness the glory of the Lord, reflecting off of all of the things that have happened to me, all the pieces I've been given.”

Not all of those pieces have been easy ones. Grace has always been authentically open about her struggles with anxiety, depression, and PTSD, about how a Hawk Nelson song stopped her from attempting suicide as a teenager. She spent her coming-of-age shaped and changed by the genre that she is now leading for a new generation — even down to hearing from others now that her songs saved their lives.

The significance of this is not lost on the Grace, who sees God’s loving fingerprints all over this moment in her work and her worship as an artist.

“This album is why I still believe: God really thought about my story,” the singer says, harkening back to the heart behind the new original track “Why I Still Believe.”

She continues, “He thought about how Christian pop punk saved my life. He thought about how much my childhood heroes meant to me. And now I'm put in a spot where I'm carrying on the legacy, carrying the torch for this genre. All my adolescent heroes are in the background cheering me on. That's why I still believe: because those are glimpses of the glory of God.”

That gratitude infuses every track on PUNK X PRAISE with rowdy reverence, including “You Say” by Lauren Daigle and “Dusty Bibles” by Josiah Queen. The gift that the project has been is evident even in the fact that a listener chose to fund the album’s completion, allowing Grace Graber to complete it following fast behind her last collection of original songs, the Everything You Ever Wanted EP.

“I'm humbled by God and how intentional He is,” Grace says in conclusion. “I have seen how God can bring something so full-circle. He thought of me as the next generation when Hawk Nelson was putting out Letters to the President. He thought of me when these songs were written. And He knew I would need to reflect on the lyrics of ‘You Say’ too: He thought of all of that. I couldn't do this without Him.”