Graceless is the project of Dublin singer-songwriter Grace Tooher, joined by guitarist Richie McNeill for live shows. Imagine Sinéad O’Connor had an indie-alt affair with CMAT and added a splash of Florence Welch, impulsive choices, poor decisions, and perfect timing.
Having cut her teeth fronting IMRO Other Voices-featured act Staring at Lakes, Grace relaunched under the Graceless name with a clarity of vision that was long overdue. The name started as a joke. She never felt polished enough, never good enough. But somewhere in that irony, something shifted.
“Graceless became something powerful. I was Grace, without a band, and I felt like less. But I came to realise: I am Grace. And I am enough. I just needed to own it and step out.” A quiet kind of defiance. A declaration.
Third single Underwater arrives 1st May 2026: a song about the particular masochism of choosing to stay submerged, feeding the dark dog rather than climbing out. It is the third of four singles forming a debut EP confronting the parts of Grace she usually hides, with one final track still to come.
Live dates at Whelan’s, Smock Alley Theatre, and The Works Festival, plus a sold-out hometown headline show at Nenagh Arts Centre, confirm the audience is catching up to where the music already was. Richie McNeill joins Grace on guitar for live shows, adding depth and fire to the Graceless sound.
UNDERWATER
There’s a particular darkness that isn’t inflicted, it’s chosen. The kind you return to because it’s familiar, because climbing out feels more uncertain than staying submerged.
That is the territory Underwater inhabits.
“It’s about masochism. Knowing you’re drowning and finding something almost seductive in it. The darkness becomes a habit. You stop fighting it because part of you stopped wanting to,” says Grace.
The production mirrors the subject with precision. The track opens in near-silence, building incrementally guitars layering like rising water, drums arriving with the dull inevitability of what’s long postponed. Richie McNeill’s guitar balances restraint and abandon, a perfect tension for a song about self-destruction and self-awareness.
Lyrically, Underwater is Grace at her most unflinching. Self-esteem becomes structural, quietly holding dreams back rather than passing like a mood. It is writing rooted in specificity, where Graceless has always shone. The song offers no tidy resolution. Near the close, a subtle counter-melody surfaces an acknowledgment of light, left entirely to the listener to take or leave.
Underwater is the third of four singles forming Graceless’ debut EP, preceded by The Raven and God’s Plan, and followed by the closing track, Pillow Talk. All four have been road-tested live, already claimed by audiences who have been showing up.
“This EP is me confronting the parts of myself I usually hide. It’s messy, but it’s real. It was never meant to be anything else,” Grace says.
Stay sassy. Stay classy. Stay Graceless.
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