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The Welsh wonderkid who is HUGE in Ireland is back with a new
album and a tour which will take him all around the country
at least twice. Cat Hughes talks to him about new sounds and
new styles.
Throughout history, the words singer/songwriter have struck
fear into the hearts of any right-thinking people. There was
the odd exception, but for the most part those words conjured
up images of big hair and cowboy boots or socks and sandals.
The singer/songwriter was traditionally a harmless beast, the
rock equivalent of a grumpy Jack Russell. But from the freaked-out
beats of Beck to the late Jeff Buckley's sublime crooning, a
new era has dawned for these lonesome troubadours. And one man
leading the pack and inspiring a generation is David Gray.
"I've spawned a nation of Grayites!" he chuckles
over a mineral water. "We will take over. Forget the millennium
bug, the Grayites, they're the ones to watch!"
Over the past five years, Ireland's pubs have been doused in
David Gray-charm as our new-born singer/songwriters give it
their all to be like their hero. "It's a complement isn't
it? It's nice after all the years that I wanted to be like other
people, it's weird to think that someone wants to be like me.
You see people on stage and you think they're amazing but you
never imagine that someone is thinking that about you. It's
weird, man!"
Gone are the days of the mild-mannered-singer/songwriter cliché.
From an overly festive hotel room, David tells of his plans
to brave a mid-winter Irish tour. "I just like to keep
the spirit of adventure going. We don't want to know what it's
going to be like. It keeps you alive to the whole thing."
With plans for live mixing and sampling, this is nowhere near
Roger Whittaker territory. These days, namechecking AIR and
JURASSIC 5 as influences and still recovering from a childhood
ska obsession ("I'm better at nutty dancing than they were!"),
it was anyone's guess what the new album might deliver.
"WHITE LADDER" tackles house beats and computers,
launching a brand new pop sound. "I started to see just
what was possible. I've been experimenting with that kind of
thing and just enjoying it. You need new stuff to come into
your musical cocktail every now and again. I was just looking
for some way to make it more interesting for me. In a way, it's
more contemporary. I think it's lighter, more palatable. It's
quite an intimate thing but the lightness shouldn't fool anyone
into thinking that there's not as much nourishment in it. It's
been framed differently so it's more accessible, not so intense.
You could imagine it in clothes shops as you're picking out
your new garment!"
With an all-new sound, David has returned with fresh confidence,
giggling his way through interviews with amazing enthusiasm.
"It feels really fertile now. I know that we're on to something
and I'm dead excited by it. I'll stand one hundred percent behind
what I'm doing at the moment. I know unflinchingly that we're
onto something. I'm completely buzzin' about it."
The record closes with a cover of Soft Cell's "Say Hello,
Wave Goodbye", not something you'd expect from a man who
usually deals in acoustic angst. "Sometimes you sing a
song and nothing really happens, but other times you get right
into it. It's as if that one was written for me. It seemed to
take on a life of it's own. And it seemed fitting with the whole
mood of the record. It's a goodbye to that style of things 'cos
that track's more like what I've been doing for the past five
years."
But this is not simply a synth pop extravaganza. "WHITE
LADDER" continues recent singer/songwriters' preoccupation
with matters of the heart. "There is a melancholic feel
to a lot of my stuff. I suppose it's a natural thing. If you
sit alone and quietly pluck your knackered old, wooden guitar,
sad sounds might usher forth. It is a sort of contemplative
occupation."
Yet David Gray doesn't bow to any singer/songwriter stereotype.
Dylan may have written the book, but it's time for a new generation
to re-write it and David Gray seems like the perfect person
to lead the way. "I've been doing this for long enough
to feel relaxed that I make a good sound. You can't worry about
it, you just let it come. Don't force it, don't over do it.
Just let the f**ker happen!"
So, brimming with self-belief, David is unfazed by his mighty
workload. He's doing what he loves and he's ridiculously excited
about it. "At the moment I'm having a brilliant time. Making
this record and doing our own thing has been fantastic. I'm
completely reborn as far as my interest in everything. And the
way we've done the record has kicked down so many doors as far
as the possibilities of where the music could go. I've got so
many songs lying around, I just want to get back in and do more!"
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