22-year-old singer-songwriter Caroline Grace has a knack for creating pop earworms. Grace first started writing songs at the tender age of 14. While studying writing at the University of Southern California, Grace captured the attention of Grammy-nominated songwriter/producer Jason “Poo Bear” Boyd (Justin Bieber, Usher) and together they’d go on to co-write Grace’s debut single, “Show Me.” Since then, Grace launched her independent record label / production company, Illuminate Creative Group, and shared her debut EP “Afraid Of The Dark.”

“I initially got the idea for ‘Afraid Of The Dark’ when talking to my mom about how you develop film in a dark room,” Grace explains. “I began to think that everyone has a dark room within their mind. A place where they hide all the shit they don’t want to deal with or don’t want anyone to see. Just like how you can’t bring a photo into the light until it is fully developed, a person can’t be their best true and authentic self until they are fully developed, which only happens when they open up their dark room and have the courage to clean it out. It is only then that you can truly Illuminate (my motto), inspire other people, and shine through the darkness. Often times, we think, myself included, that no-one wants to see all the stuff we hide. That people only want the best version of us or nothing at all. So we hide away all of our dark parts (a lot of which actually make us who we are) out of fear of being rejected. The EP was sort of my way of dealing with the clutter in my dark room.”

Listen to “Afraid of the Dark” below and check out Grace’s playlist of songs that inspired the record, a FAULT exclusive.

Julia Michaels – Falling For Boys

LYRICS, lyrics, lyrics, lyrics. The first four lines of the song tear my heart up because I have been there way too many times before. I feel like every girl in their twenties will hear this song and feel like they wrote it. I have so much respect for and am inspired by her honesty. It’s so courageous and is truly going to help so many people change the way they look at and treat themselves.

Social House – Magic in The Hamptons (feat. Lil Yachty)

My party song!!! At the end of the day, I love a song that just makes you freaking happy. I found this one right when it came out last year, shared it with all my friends and legit called that it would blow up.

Netsky – Big Hearts (feat. Stargate, KYLE)

I found this tune right after doing a few tour dates with KYLE last year. I absolutely fell in love with it especially the production. It became a big inspiration for a song off my EP- “Let You Go”.

Sasha Sloan – Older

Once again lyrics, lyrics, lyrics. I am so inspired by this kind of straight forward and honesty lyricism. I saw Sasha open for LANY at The Greek a few weeks ago, huge fan.

Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiments / Chance The Rapper – Sunday Candy

Just my favorite song of all time, so thought I would throw it in here. My little brother showed it to me and it was actually the firs time I was introduced to Chance. From then on I have been such a fan of not only his music, but his career.

Bazzi – Myself

This song is a huge inspo for the direction I’m taking the music I’m currently working on. Bazzi blends R&B and pop so beautifully. I love the darkness/ grittiness of this song. Listen for a sneak peak of the direction I’m going in, haha.

Destiny Rogers – North$ide

I found Destiny by listening to some random Apple Music playlist and I immediately went and listened to her EP. This chick is incredible. I am a huge fan, she’s going big places. The production in this song in particular is another one I look to for inspiration for the music I’m working on at the moment.

EX – Kiana Ledé

I love everything about this song, from lyrics to melody to production. It reminds me of the stripped down R&B I found in my song “High”.

LAUV – Sad Forever

Goodness, I just love it. I think LAUV has made all of my favorite music for the past three years. I can listen to him all day everyday and never get sick of it.

Maggie Rogers – Light On

BE A LIGHT IN THE FREAKING WORLD! Talk about making music with purpose. This song is a huge example of what power music has to serve as a light in the world.

For more Caroline Grace music head over to Spotify.