Ellise Shafer Standing onstage at the El Rey Theatre in March, Gracie Abrams seemed genuinely shocked at the turnout for the first of two hometown shows in Los Angeles on her “This Is What It Feels Like” tour. She blushed and stumbled over her words, rattling off a list of thank-yous and interacting with fans in side conversations, as if she weren’t one of the fastest-rising singer-songwriters in her generation playing a sold-out show.Abrams started that performance full of nerves, she tells Variety in a Zoom call from Long Pond Studios in upstate New York, where she is currently working on new music with Aaron Dessner, guitarist of the National (and, over the last couple of years, a primary Taylor Swift collaborator).