| Two years ago David Gray got a phone call from someone in
Dublin wondering if he'd come over to play a gig... Gray thought
they were taking the piss: at the time he was playing to audiences
of 10 or less in England. He came over and within the year was
selling out shows across the country. With a new album Sell
Sell Sell out shortly, he's back again and playing the Mean
Fiddler on Monday 9th as part of a country wide tour which will,
no doubt, sell out. Colette Colfer caught up with him before
a gig in Toronto.
Blessed be the media for they shall have power. Blessed be
Donal Dineen who, in the first few months of his television
show 'No Disco' adopted David Gray and his video 'Shine' and
blasted it out into TV land. According to Dineen that during
the teething stages of No Disco (1994), "Shine kind of
became the classic, the anthem of the year."
Sell Sell Sell is the first release in nearly two years - under
his new label EMI - and is more of a collaboration and band
effort. Produced by Gray along with drummer Clune and guitarist/bassist
David Nolte, Sell Sell Sell is more upbeat than previous albums,
A Century Ends and Flesh, and distinctly more electric than
acoustic.
And what about that title? Projecting those little words Sell
Sell Sell into the universe will create eeny weeny elementals
to swoop down on the multitudes and grab 'em in: this album
will sell. So is this sneaky subliminal selling or a touch of
Gray's ould cynicism creeping through?
"Well it's a line in one of the songs: 'Praise the lord
above and sell, sell, sell'. Perhaps the most cynical line on
the record. I don't know why I was tempted to use it as a title.
I think I liked it because it was simple. Possibly half my mind
was thinking, 'well we'll see what EMI does with this'. It's
the third time I've had a major record deal so I was wary about
how they were going to deal with it after all the big claims
of how successful they would make it et cetera."
For music that so obviously just needs to get out there, get
through the strainers and sieves, a bit of air play could do
the trick - it seems like it should be easy peasy. Not so for
Gray: three deals and still wary.
"Fucked off is probably the best expression to describe
how I feel about the whole business side of things. Part of
me is determined not to dwell on the negative side of it like
the record companies, the commercial failures and the business
not happening." Do not think of an egg, do not think of
failure.
"I'd rather just be making the music that I find uplifting.
I want to concentrate on the good things that do happen cause
otherwise I'll end up a miserable old wreck like you find so
many people in bars grumbling on about the music business and
what should have happened. I'm determined not to be a martyr
to that cause. It does fuck me off but I don't go on about it
too much."
Strong words from the singer songwriter, scratch that, emotive
musical poet. The first line of the biography says 'Do not call
David Gray a singer/songwriter', so I call him one... his doorbell
rings so he has to leave... he does return "It's not that
I hate being called one. I just don't want to be associated
with all the other crap ones. You know there's so many half-baked
lyricists and there's a sort of movement of singer/songwriting
that's happened in the last five years, I was just resisting
being lumped in with that. I didn't make any huge stand saying
I didn't want to be called a singer/songwriter. Somehow it's
come to be put down in the biog so I have to answer this fucking
question all the time." Woah.
Whatever tag we do have attached to him we hear it from reliable
sources that the new songs are better than ever. Donal Dineen
saw him play recently in America and says we will be blown away,
according to Dineen "David Gray comes down in a line from
all the best stuff, all the way through Van Morrisson, Bob Dylan,
all the best songwriters - that's the class he's in. The thing
about him, that he's not successful worldwide, is that he's
definitely out of time, I think he's ahead of it."
An Afternoons Debauchery, New Horizons, the newer beauties
like Smile and Hold On To Nothing we can look forward to them
live. We end on a fitting note as he recites the first few lines
of Mystery of Love down the phone "City gates at twilight
and a red ship sinking behind winter's grey wall. Ice in the
wind and the fire in the embers of your heart as darkness falls".
David Gray's latest album Sell Sell Sell is released shortly
by EMI and he plays in the Mean Fiddler on Monday the 9th as
part of Guiness In The City Live.
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