Grace Vera grew up in a little town across the ocean called Izmir on the Aegean sea, Turkey. She grew up bi-lingual, speaking English and Turkish. This bi-cultural experience has shaped her as a person and in her music.

She started writing music on a little electric keyboard and an old school macbook when she was ten. She was shaped deeply by the soulful melodies and unpredictable rhythms of Turkish folk music and attributes her bent towards minor keys to the music she grew up hearing as a child. To be a part of an Eastern and a Western world is something she considers a privilege and it has shaped her worldview and who she is today.

When she was 17 she left Turkey and moved to another sunny spot on the globe, California to study music composition at Biola University. While studying she started doing small film scoring projects on the side for film students and quickly fell in love with writing music in the middle of the night with 10 cups of coffee to keep her company and a music theory exam the next morning.

When she graduated she began working in the industry, won a sprinkle of best music awards, had a few babies and founded Jacaranda Music Studios with her handsome Peruvian husband, David Vera. (They own a music teaching studio in Orange County, California! Come check us out!)

Most of the music she writes these days was written with a baby growing in her belly or in between fixing a little person’s hair or giving them advice on their thrifted outfit. She loves Jesus (the real one who loves people instead of judging them) and works as a worship leader and songwriter with her husband when she’s not teaching music.