For many listeners, their understanding of British singer-songwriter David Gray begins and ends with ‘Babylon’, the 1999 single that elevated him from humble travelling folk singer to a global-scale performer.
Of course, Gray existed before the song – it did, after all, come from his fourth studio album, White Ladder – and he continued to exist after it, releasing his tenth studio album, Mutineers, in June last year. There is an all-too-common misconception, however, that David Gray is something of a one-hit wonder. The argument might work from a charts standpoint, but then again, one could argue the same for Jimi Hendrix or Radiohead. It misconstrues the point and displays an inability to see the forest for the trees. Gray merely takes it in his stride.
“I think there are different layers of appreciation [from] everyone that ties into something really big when it enters the mainstream,” he says. “White Ladder was that for me – when it happened, it happened on a really big scale. Subsequently, the next few records did quite well, too, off the back of that. That’s sort of what happens when you’re firing in the mainstream. The casual listener is getting to experience what you do, but only on account of it being ploughed down all of the main avenues. When that dies away, people are somehow led to believe that you’ve stopped, just on account of you not getting the same amount of exposure that you were getting before.”
At 46, Gray has been writing, recording and touring for basically half his life. He’s dealt with critical acclaim and platinum sales as well as the release of albums that were more or less universally ignored. Through each high and low, however, he has found ways of connecting with his audience.
“There are other listeners and there are other means of getting music out there,” he explains. “My early music found a home in Ireland, and I think a lot of my later success was because of the foundations that I had built for myself there. It gave me the inspiration to kind of get out there and take on the world. That happened as a kind of word-of-mouth thing. It goes to show that there’s more than one way of getting yourself recognised and validated. There are probably a few people that think I’ve only got a couple of songs, but that’s because those are the only ones that they’ve been exposed to. There’s no educating the masses in that way, but you just keep doing what you do. Who knows how it’ll play out?”
Mutineers has garnered a respectable following since its release, collating yet another mix of sombre, acutely detailed and finely tuned folk rock with the occasional flair for the orchestral blended in. It’s somewhat of a landmark release, given it is Gray’s tenth studio album, some two decades removed from his debut, 1993’s A Century Ends. In terms of Gray’s songwriting, while the method by which he ends up with a new composition may shift, it’s what inspires the songs in the first place that remains a sole constant in his process.
“It’s definitely the same sort of triggers – both in the way that I think about it and the way I capture ideas,” he says. “It’s words. It’s the atmosphere that wants to come with those words. That’s what moves me. I like the sound of words; I like the rub and the space between them. I’m always looking to exploit that. My methods have moved on, in a way. Doing the same things in the same way can become really predictable. This time around, to use a Ghostbusters analogy, I reversed the flow. I started working with lyrics first, going backwards into the music itself. That’s not the way I normally do it, but I was hearing songs in all kinds of places. The way people say things, the conversations people have on the bus – I could just get a snippet of something someone said in the seat in front of me on the bus and I’d think, ‘That’s a song!’”
Next month will see Gray and his band return to Australia in support of Mutineers, heading back to Byron Bay’s Bluesfest for the first time in nearly ten years and performing a run of headlining dates alongside it. When it comes to what constitutes a David Gray show these days, the man himself is quick to admit that there’s a lot to consider. You can’t attempt to incorporate everything from a ten-album discography, no matter how long your shows last. For Gray, it’s all about striking a balance between the old and the new, allowing them to co-exist in the setlist.
“I try and get the balance right, but I’ve got to lean towards how I feel,” he says. “It’s all about the songs that feel the most vital to me at the moment – and that happens to be a lot of the new stuff. That’s what I tend to lead with, but I always make sure to weave in the older stuff, as well as the hits. There’s a part of the show where the band head off and I play solo – that’s a point where I can more or less play anything that I feel like at the time. It’s an easy time to take requests, too. Basically, the main set is never the same two nights in a row. It all depends on how I feel. Two hours might seem like a long time, but it really isn’t when you’re trying to fit in as much as I am!”
Gray is no stranger to Australian shores – as a matter of fact, practically every album he has released post-White Ladder has charted here, including a top-ten peak position for 2005’s Life In Slow Motion. He’s played arenas, festivals, club shows and tiny bars – there’s essentially no side of touring this country the man hasn’t seen. How strange, then, that the very first time Gray toured our land, he was flying away from a parent’s worst nightmare.
“I’d just dropped my daughter on her head!” he begins, which is admittedly one of the worst ways one can start a story. The daughter in question, Ivy, survived unscathed and is now in her tweens. “Total accident, of course, but by the time I was in Australia I’d received about 7,000 messages. Her head had swelled up and they thought they might have to operate on her brain. It wasn’t the easiest landing I’ve had, to say the least. Amazingly enough, though, the first show that I played was in Brisbane, at a venue that I think has shut down now, and it was just rocking. It was a really, really good show.”
“I’ve always loved doing Australia,” he continues, his enthusiasm unshakeable. “The last time I did Bluesfest, I think, was 2006. The crowd was just fantastic; the show was great. Some of the guys in the band still say that’s one of their favourite shows ever. It was a cracker!”
David Gray will be playing at Bluesfest 2015 alongside the Black Keys, Zac Brown Band, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Alabama Shakes, Train and many more from Thursday April 2 – Monday April 6. You can also catch him at the State Theatre on Wednesday April 1 and Thursday April 2.
