crêpe girl, the indie gem of GJ
Photo courtesy of crêpe girl taken by Honor B (@instasprings)
Formation
I’M NOT BREAKING NEWS when I say that the alt scene has arrived in GJ. I am here, however, to tell you that Grand Junction has found its indie gem, Eliza Grégoire aka crêpe girl.
I sat down with crêpe girl at Copeka Coffee in early June to talk about her music, her process and her place in the city as a musician.
But before that conversation, it was May 27th, a Friday night, the night I first saw crêpe girl live. Behold, one of the most energizing sonic forces in our weird city. In the crowd, in front of me, a sea of chunky-boot-wearing alt-cool kids dressed immaculately. I could barely see over the Doc Martins. Behind me, towards the periphery of the crowd, the granola cool kids of the city wearing the heart of the cultural revolution on their sleeves. They biked here. That night in Copeka Coffee, an amorphous group of age, interests and angst. And no matter what definition we had of hip, sick, rad or tight, we all knew that before us, crêpe girl was all that in more.
“Hello!” Eliza states in her Spotify bio. My name is Eliza and I’m a 21-year-old French American based out of Colorado. I write and produce my music in my room and hope you enjoy it! Thanks for listening :).”
21,285 monthly listeners at the time of writing this piece. Doubling in the short month since our conversation at Copeka.
Get in early while you can because crêpe girl is taking off to places far away from old Junktown.
First inquiry. Why crêpe girl? An odd name, but perhaps perfect for the indie scene. Well, Eliza operates Lulu Crêpe, an organic crêpe stand, out of Kiln Coffee Bar.
The connection is rather obvious. She makes crêpe. She makes music. But with any good nickname or alias, someone else has to give it to you.
Before Eliza was crêpe girl, “Pretty Girl” singer and indie-pop institution Clairo (one of her biggest inspirations) was playing in Denver. Eliza reached out to offer to make crêpes for Clairo and her crew. Not one to pass on a good crêpe, Clairo’s team accepted her offer.
“Two or three days before the show, I thought she and her crew wanted crêpes,” she said. “They wanted them, so I went there and made crêpes for her. I met Marc DeMarco and Snail Mail. People that are my idols. All of this happened, and it still doesn’t make sense to me. I helped set up drums and saw the inner workings of the show.”
They showed her just how badly she wanted to do music.
“I was driving home thinking I can’t not try fully. I want to do this. If it doesn’t work, I still tried. If I can’t do it… I know I need to try. [...] My whole mentality changed. It’s not that deep. You just have to believe in yourself. It’s less magical than you think. It’s about hard work.”
This experience not only acted as the catalyst to Eliza’s pursuit of a successful music career, but also christened her with her stage name, given to her by Snail Mail when she told Eliza, “oh you’re the crêpe girl!”
Photo courtesy of crêpe girl and crepegirlmusic.com
Debut
Crêpe girl came to GJ at 17 from Indiana. She wanted to see something new. A cycling scholarship at Colorado Mesa University afforded her just that.
“I thought it was absolutely gorgeous,” crêpe girl said of the Grand Valley. “The city itself is kinda, eh.”
It was around that same time when crêpe girl started writing music in a serious capacity.
“I was going through the hardest part of my life, which forced me to write things down and use music as an outlet rather than just a hobby,” she said.
“All I was taking seriously was sports. I was getting sick of the ‘win’ mentality. In my experience, the nature of sports is the least artistic and expressive thing I’ve ever done.”
But soon, crêpe girl eased out of her cycling and sports as her music and crêpe stand demanded more and more attention from her.
That same year, she left cycling and CMU, crêpe girl wrote her second-ever song that turned into her 2021 single, “Not Fair.”
A lot of crêpe girl’s stuff starts as a demo. Actually, even before then, she starts with instrumentals. Always starting on guitar, crêpe girl engineers her music sound first, letting the lyrics come to her later.
“I take an instrumental that I’ve made and find meaning through that,” she said. “Some people are incredible and take a poem they’ve written and make a song out of that. I would love to do that one day. I don’t think I’m a good songwriter yet. I’m working on it.”
Building up the courage to release music in a town like GJ is no small feat. At first, crêpe girl would only show her creations to her mom. But during the process of taking her “Loverboy” and “I Try” demos, she met friends and peers that encouraged her to take her ideas and commit to full production.
“I was obsessing to get things to how I wanted them and it takes a long time. Almost every day for two or three months we would record out in Fruita,” she said.
During those months, she realized what she made was worth releasing.
“Was I scared to release it? Yes. But we worked so hard.”
During our chat, crêpe girl talked a lot about working on songs that are worthy. She commits to songs that are worth working on meticulously. And the product is worthy of release because of the hard work that stems from that commitment.
Currently, she sits on a bunch of demos that she doesn’t feel the need or want to make into fully produced pieces of music.
Second inquiry. How does crêpe girl know what is and is not worthy of committing to? When does she know she has a good song on her hands?
“Sometimes it’s timing, others it's feeling. It took two years for “Not Fair” to get ready for release. Some of the demos I have and am sitting on might come back one day to be finished and released songs.”
But whether it's a demo or a freshly written composition, you can probably count on crêpe girl to muse on love.
“I think it’s because I’m a romantic, I guess. I try to keep it to myself. Music is when I don’t keep it to myself.
I actually think crêpe girl enjoys sharing this side of herself with other people. She’s secured big-time crowds, like when she opened for Del Water Gap at Fox Theater and Aggie Theater in Boulder and Fort Collins, respectively.
At first, getting up in front of strangers made her nervous. But! She’s already come that far so…
“I’m freaking out the days before. Anxious to the max. And then I have to do it. There is no other option. I’m there and I’ve gotten myself into it. Now I just have to do it.”
It wasn’t until soundcheck that she was liberated from her anxiety.
“At that point, it’s about celebrating the work that you put in to get ready for [the show]. You’ve taken so much energy and time and mental strength to get ready for the moment, and then you get up there and let go of everything. Then you’re able to have fun.”
Enter flow state.
“I was just hoping they didn’t boo.”
Oddly enough, the most anxious moments in her music career are when she’s playing in front of people she knows. But even yet still, it’s the people that don’t know her but show up to all the shows that leave her in awe.
“I can’t even explain how thankful I am for them because I don’t understand how people care about my music like that. It’s really special. I do everything I can to thank them.”
When recalling her support, her voice trembles.
“I don’t get it still. People like it.”
Third Inquiry. How Grand Junction? I ask two questions in that question. How does Grand Junction react to its local indie gem? And! How does she have so much local support?
Eliza is business savvy, having a successful crêpe stand in the city to draw from.
“It’s very much so a business. As much as you want to focus on the arts, I don’t have a manager, so I have to work super hard on the business side of it. Learning how to present this person, which is me. But I have to learn how to present it to people that don’t know me.”
She envisions a Grand Junction active in the music scene of the state and beyond. She sees the potential the city holds.
“It’s a very good location. Bands tour Salt Lake and Denver. They drive through Grand Junction. It’s a perfect distance. Instead of a 10-hour drive, they can stop here and cut it up. We don’t have a proper venue for this genre and crowd yet, but hopefully, we can have one in the city that operates in a way that is pro-indie artist.”
But I think it’s her work ethic and dedication that truly makes her Western Slope.
“If you want to do something, anyone can do it. It’s a mental game and learning how fight the mental game. Believe in yourself and never stop until you want to stop.”
Photo courtesy of crêpe girl taken by Honor B (@instasprings)
One of us
Real hardcore Grand Junctionites know the local music scene to have a country pang to it. Bluegrass festivals, country acts and indie-folk rule. Farmer’s markets, live music at the breweries, whatever fruit festival, you name it, our music has a drawl.
And that’s because our music reflects our ideologies and lifestyles. We’re GRAND Junction, the last great city of Western Colorado with a capital W dammit.
Yet, maybe the old bastions of GJ are getting a little long in the tooth as the city grows, not only expanding our city in its size, but also in experiences, thought and expression. Every other conversation about GJ mentions how it’s growing so fast.
But I argue GJ is in its chrysalis stage. Moth or butterfly? Who knows? What does each outcome represent? One thing is for sure, Grand Junction is in its cultural infancy. The city’s youth, people in power, loners, stoners, rock climbers, skiers, yoga moms, students, cowboys, crooks and cooks all have a say in how our little western town will evolve.
If we are to take these groups’ history into account, we’re not headed into a very inclusive future. Categorically, GJ is not for everyone.
I do, however, remain hopeful that we enable marginalized communities to thrive in the city’s art, politics, outdoor recreation and beyond.
While crêpe girl isn’t an exact manifestation of that wish, she is to me, and hopefully to many others, a signal that GJ may just have space for them.
“I believe in [the city] a lot. Doesn’t mean that it’s not frustrating to be here for growth. There’s not enough diversity for me. But it’s important to me to stick through that and make a difference. I do believe in this place.”
For now, crêpe girl shows are cool hangouts for queer youth in GJ. Her concerts are not only celebrations of work but also of queerness, expression and un-normativity. And she recognizes that.
“I hope I can be a local LGBTQ+ role model for these kids. I think it’s important for them to feel safe at a show.”
Many younger crowds are online, looking at the vibrant, exciting scenes. Validation comes more and more from our online spaces (which I think is a good thing). Expression is less and less defined (ditto). The art-school-edgecase-coffee shop-library-tote bag-American-traditional-tattoo aesthetic is much more than an aesthetic. It’s a lifestyle. It’s the best representation of who we are in this contradictory, backward world. Bleeding hearts. Fucked, but not hopeless. Everyone wants to move to New York and have what they have.
But here is crêpe girl asking why we can’t have all that here?
Apart from all the heartbreak and love in her music, it's the feeling that we finally have something cool for ourselves. Right here in Grand Junction. Can you believe it?
“The gem of Grand Junction. I want to be that.”
For now, crêpe girl belongs to us. She is from Grand Junction. She proudly claims us and considers GJ her home base for now.
“With social media and the ways we can communicate now, I don’t know why I couldn’t do it from here.”
There will come a day when crêpe girl leaves GJ for bigger and better things. In her wake, hopefully, proof that GJ can be open for whoever may find themselves here.
“I want to be more than GJ. I want to travel the country. I want to expand what I’m doing. But I'd be happy to come back here every time. It would be a good dynamic to go on tour to big cities and come back to Gj as my home. I think that would be very cool.”
“There’s music like mine that’s coming up. People make it but they have to show it.”
“I encourage every single person who wants to make music to do so. I don’t want to be the only one in the scene. I know it’s coming and I’m happy for them.”
As far as what to expect from Eliza/crêpe girl next?
EP late summer, early fall, more shows and hopefully a tour in the future.
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