B-Side Guys

Henry Grace starts with just acoustic guitar and voice, then adds the world. “Things” builds from intimate confession into a warm tapestry of strings, synthesizers, wide-panned guitars, percussion, and the airy drone of wine glasses—a deliberate orchestration that mirrors the early stages of love, where everything simple becomes complex, where one person suddenly multiplies into everything around you. The title track from his upcoming second album Things Are Moving All Around Me finds the British songwriter in his most emotive guise yet, tracing transitions through sonic accumulation.

The production approach reflects Grace’s own evolution from solitary troubadour to frontman of a fully realized band. Co-produced with Blaine Harrison of Mystery Jets—whom Grace met at a songwriting retreat organized by Chris Difford in 2022—the track represents a significant departure from the stark, sparse arrangements of his 2022 debut Alive In America. Recorded at Middle Farm Studios in Devon with Harrison on keys and backing vocals, Brian Love on guitar, Tom Holder from The Heavy Heavy on bass, and Toby Evangelou on drums, “Things” captures the sound of a band playing live in a room, letting the warm fuzz of amplifiers and environmental sounds become part of the recording itself.

Grace’s dreamlike vocals float through the arrangement with tender vulnerability, shaped equally by his California years absorbing Bon Iver and Ray Lamontagne and his London roots where he’s built a devoted following through sold-out shows at The Lexington, Omeara, and The Jazz Cafe. The transatlantic influence runs deeper than style—it’s embedded in the album’s thematic DNA, exploring what it means to move between places and selves, carrying old loves into new cities, trying to make roots somewhere different.

The track exemplifies what Grace describes as a force willing these songs into existence. Unlike the difficulty often associated with making records, Things Are Moving All Around Me apparently had wings from the start—though that ease shouldn’t be mistaken for lack of depth. The album tackles love lost and found, changing cities and selves, the quiet restlessness connecting it all. Grace turned thirty during this period, wanting more from his life and himself, running down a dream while documenting the people and places that inspired him along the way.

For someone championed by Wonderland, Songwriting Magazine, Americana UK, and BBC Introducing—who headlined the 2024 Great Escape Festival and performed at Glastonbury’s Acoustic Stage—Grace has reached a point where the evolution feels earned rather than calculated. “Things” doesn’t just tell a story about early love amid cacophony; it enacts that experience through its production choices, proving that sometimes the best way to capture complexity is to literally layer it in.