Grace Cuell is Narrabri’s Baby Cool

Grace Cuell is home in Narrabri taking some well-deserved time off after a whirlwind six months, launching her solo project ‘Baby Cool’ and embarking on a European tour.

Nationally, she’s known as a dreamy co-frontwoman rocking the big stage with her Brisbane-based psych band Nice Biscuit, but around here she is a self-proclaimed regular country kid from a family of four.

After releasing her 2023 debut solo album ‘Earthling on the Road to Self-Love’ written about her “weird world journey”, it’s fitting that all roads led Grace back to Narrabri to film ‘Daydream’, one of three music videos, which also starred her sister Erica Campbell and four nieces.

“I always wanted to make a three-part series of videos to go with my album, and ‘Daydream’ is the final piece,” said Grace.

“Part one is in Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island), and the other is in my backyard in Byron Bay.

“I wanted it to end in Narrabri because it’s where everything began, and the story with the three parts mostly tells the story of me – “the earthling” – frolicking around this weird world trying to find some solace and meaning.

“And I meet these little creatures who help me figure things out.”

With the help of a Brisbane-based photographer, filmmaker, and artist, the three worked together on her parent’s Jack’s Creek Road property “Orandumbie” and her sister’s Kaputar Road property to bring the special project to life.

An album was the inevitable product of a woman finding her journey through life and embracing her destiny as an artist and singer, but “Baby Cool” is all Grace.

Grace on set with her sister and nieces filming the “Daydream” music video: Florence Cuell, Isabela Campbell, Olivia Campbell and Nina Campbell.

Experiencing a ‘fork in the road moment’ after high school, she stared down the ‘logical’ decision to undertake a communications degree at Armidale University, but her heart was calling yonder.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do but I knew I wanted the experience of moving away,” said Grace.

“So, I moved to the UK for a year and became a nanny, that experience opened up my whole world.”

After travelling around Europe, Grace headed to Brisbane and decided to give the communications degree a go, changed to graphic design, then found her home in the arts.

During this time Grace kept her singing and songwriting tightly under wraps.

It wasn’t until meeting her now Nice Biscuit bandmates in 2015, that jam sessions turned into performances all over Brisbane, that turned into a national sensation.

“I was singing and playing guitar, but no one ever heard me, I was painfully shy, and performing was never on my radar,” said Grace.

“Starting a band was like a constellation of aligning moments, I never intended on doing anything that serious with it, but as soon as we started playing, we just took off.”

After playing shows in Brisbane and cities Australia-wide, the band’s momentum landed them in many ‘wow’ moments, including supporting their psych heroes King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Allah Las, and going on to release their debut LP ‘ Digital Mountain’ in 2018.

“Psych rock was having its renaissance; it was a good time to be starting out and we gained a lot of momentum that even resulted in an overseas tour in 2019,” said Grace.

All the while, dreams of releasing a solo album were becoming realer every day.

“I was working on my solo stuff for a while, I’ve always had folky roots so always wanted to do that kind of album.

“The songs were rough melodies and ideas that had been floating around since 2018, but I finally decided to sit down and turn them into demos during the COVID lockdown.

“It took a month to put it together, once it was recorded, I had to sit on it for a bit to figure out what to do with it.

Nice Biscuit performing in Brisbane: Jess Ferronato, Grace Cuell, Billie Star and Nick Cavendish. (Kurt Melvin on drums).

When Grace started working with Andrew Parisi and Simone Ubaldi; renowned managers of punk band Amyl and the Sniffers, they suggested that ‘Earthling on the Road to Self Love’ was ready to be sent out into the world.

The universe did its thing and Greenway Records, Bad Vibrations and Virgin Music Australia were quick to sign on in the US, UK, Europe, and at home in Australia.

“Releasing something that big feels like you just must birth this project you’ve been working on for so long and then you can’t care about it,” said Grace.

“I’m inspired in general by people that I meet, and everyone’s got something, or says something that you need to hear, like little bits of magic.

“It was quite an intense process; a lot of the album was about my own journey with mental health over the years and learning to look after myself in the aftermath of that and coming home to myself.

“The result is that ‘Earthling on the Road to Self Love’ is a series of songs that’s one long love letter to myself.”

Folk musicians Aldous Harding and Weyes Blood also provided plenty of inspiration for the ‘Baby Cool’ sound, as well as her personal muse; Angel Olson, whom Grace had the ultimate pleasure of meeting while both playing a festival at the Tivoli in Brisbane.

“I played the little stage and I saw her backstage,” said Grace.

“I was a mess – it was after she performed, and I was like ‘You’re amazing, and thank you!’ I couldn’t not say anything.”

After her album release, Grace hit international waters with Nice Biscuit in May of 2023 to embark on their second European tour, this time as solo frontwoman for Baby Cool, with her band in support.

Starting in Brighton, the band made it to London, Paris, south of France, Switzerland, Germany, Leipzig, and Berlin, finishing up in Glasgow.

“It was nice to play continuously because I’m still finding my feet as a solo frontwoman – there’s a lot more pressure, but by the end, I got it.”

“Touring itself is hard work – there’s a real glamour around being a touring musician.

“But there were plenty of servos, we played almost every night for three weeks and we would drive all day, then perform at night, then onto the next.”

Baby Cool performing live in Paris: Jess Ferronato, Kurt Melvin, Drew Heyden, Grace Cuell and Nick Cavendish.

After the tour, Nice Biscuit came home to play their biggest show at VIVID in Sydney, an achievement and reminder of their success, after playing smaller international shows, and Baby Cool has been making her own way too, supporting the Babe Rainbow on a Sydney mini-tour.

For now, Grace is home and soaking up some downtime as she readies to release her sophomore album, which will also coincide with Nice Biscuit’s own second release.

“Even though you’re surrounded by a lot of people in the city you kind of forget they are there.

“But being back here working at Yield, I know everyone that walks in the door, and they know everyone.

“They know your dad and your dog, and it’s so beautiful, but you catch the bus in the city with the same person every day and never ask them their name, it’s crazy.”

Now also seems like the perfect time for a regional tour, starting with bringing Nice Biscuit home to meet Narrabri.

“We have never played in Narrabri, but we should. I’ve been geeing up the band to play out west for a while,” said Grace.

“There are lots of grants and support to do regional tours, and it’s important to get out there.

“I had no access to anything like that growing up, but I really want to do something like that to give back.

“If I saw a girl rocking out in a band when I was 10, I would’ve been like ‘that’s what I want to do’.”