David Gray is one of the most successful male solo artists to come out of the UK in the last two decades. After the release of his fourth album, White Ladder (1998), he hit superstar status, grabbing the UK number one album spot, and the attention of the masses. Twenty years on, with many hit albums and singles under his belt, along with multiple BRIT-Award nominations, Gray has just completed his 12th album - his first in four years – and it’s a belter.
Mutineers was made in collaboration with much-talked-about producer, Andy Barlow, and it’s undoubtedly Gray’s best work in years. The musicianship on the record is superb, as are the arrangements, and his vocal performances are right out of the top drawer. Headliner catches up with him in the midst of his US tour in Dallas, Texas...
How
big a decision was it to launch your own label, IHT, from the get go?
Well, I’d
had a few record deals, and they hadn’t gone so well, so I don’t
know how many options were open to me when I’d completed [my debut
album] White Ladder. I had a strong following in Ireland, and
the logical thing to do seemed to be put it out ourselves. It was
certainly the most fruitful option, demystifying the process of just
getting on with it and putting a record out, and obviously the rest
is history, as it went very, very well. It took a while, and was a
spectacular success. That’s to do with the quality of the record,
but also the passion of the people working on it; you break things
down to a small scale, and things begin to succeed. You realise you
don’t need that many people, just the passion and intensity, and
the intelligence of each person involved, so it was a small scale
operation, but a key learning point for me.
How
difficult is that in today's game, would you say?
I
think it’s difficult for artists in any situation, established or
starting out. The key for me is, I have a following, so I can play
live, and live tickets sub everything else at the moment. The record
business has collapsed, and ownership has become a thing of the past,
and obviously revenue is withering as well, so it’s very difficult
to see how this is a sustainable model. I don’t know how on earth
bands can get started; clearly it can’t go on like this, and things
need to be shaken up on a legal level, and the streaming services -
there needs to be better remuneration for people making music. It’s
nonsensical at the moment, so God knows how you’re supposed to get
started. It’s just fall away, fall away, fall away, and I think
this thing with U2 giving their record away to everybody in the world
has been a PR disaster, and it sounds the death bell for ownership if
they’re willing to such a thing. And iTunes have sort of partnered
with them on it; it’s an attention grabbing thing, and they’ve
succeeded in that way, but they’ve got a lot of negative attention.
I don’t know what the logic to it is.
Your
new record, Mutineers, is for me, your best work in years. What was it like working with
Andy Barlow at The Church [Studio, North London]?
Thank you,
and yeah, I totally agree that it’s got something extra. Andy was
very much at the helm on Mutineers. It’s really 'our' record, and
the band also played a huge part: Robbie Malone, Keith Prior, and
Caroline Dale on the cello as well. Those are all the main players on
this one. We recorded a little bit of it at Andy’s place down in
Peacehaven near Brighton, and a couple of bits from my home studio in
London, but 90% of it was recorded at The Church. It cost me a lot to
make it, and there were no stones left unturned in both the sound and
the essence. There was not a glib moment on any song, and there are
no fillers; every second was hard work, and it was a joyous thing
when it all clicked. It wasn’t an easy record to make, and when it
really began to happen, you could feel the intensity, the excitement,
and that moment of discovery; and I think it’s tangible on the
recording. There is a real freshness there, so it’s a big record
for me... And talking about things not making sense, I spent about
one-and-a-half years writing stuff, and then a good year in the
studio, leaning on and making this record... Now how much time and
money I’ve spent on it I couldn’t even tell you, and then you
come out to the marketplace and there’s very little there! [laughs]
It’s not going badly, it could be better, but it’s a battle at
the moment. Everything is.
I love to
listen to an album front to back, but in today's easy access world,
people often just download one song. Does this mean they miss the
message of the record?
Yes, because
the world has changed, and music is consumed in a totally different
way now. It’s instant, and the idea of sitting and listening to an
album is utterly outmoded, but it’s the way I still think. I choose
to present the songs in a sequence that I think unravels a bit like
looking at different pictures in a gallery; you see one, then you
turn a corner and you see another. The juxtaposition between the
imagery of one and the look of another really makes you think. The
songs have inter-relationships that tie together creatively and tell
stories; there is a theme, and the songs echo into other songs. It’s
still the way I consider music, and I listen to albums that way. When
I watch my children and other young people, the way they deal with
music is completely different now; it’s much faster. It’s a bit
like drinking a can of Coke... Pssshhh! I open the thing and then
drink it down before the fizz goes! That’s it. Sitting and
listening for an hour is unlikely to take place in today’s
generation, so that’s the way it’s gone; I don’t think that
means it isn’t important, but personally, I need to complete the
body of work.
How has
your music progressed since the days of your earlier hits, Babylon, Please Forgive Me, and This Year's Love?
I think this
album is the most uplifting poppy thing I have ever done in a way,
and I think my voice and writing is getting better, too. White
Ladder had a certain magic to it, and I love it dearly, so I
can’t put things in descending order of performance, but each
record, I try to make the record that’s in my heart, and I’ve
succeeded in doing that most of the time, so you know, this is right
up there with the best things I’ve ever done, and trying to get it
across to the world and get it heard is a battle. There’s a
stampede out there... It’s hard to recapture that White Ladder
momentum in today’s market, but I am out here playing and
getting it out there, and that’s an honest way to get it across. It
still adds up to something, but it’s a battle.
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