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Photo: Yana Van Nuffel

It’s not often that an album of the summer is released during the first month of the year, but Rose Gray’s debut record, Louder, Please, grows stronger and finds more ears as the season approaches. The 12 track LP is carefully crafted to showcase Gray’s singular pop language, truly offering something for every type of listener. We’ve kept it on repeat for months and had to break the album down with the genius responsible. On an oddly sunny February day in London, Gray chats with us about the complexities of dance music, her key to balancing the serious with the playful, and how she approached making such a strong first record. 

OnesToWatch: This is your debut album, which is such an amazing accomplishment. Did you set out to make an album or did the songs just start to come together? What was your process? 

Rose Gray: I have wanted to put out an album for years. I make a lot of music, to the point where sometimes I do a song a day. So, I got to a point where I'd made so much music and I looked at my managers and said, “Guys, I just feel like I need to put an album out,” When there's so much input, you need to eventually experience that feeling of releasing something. I make a lot of playlists of my own songs, so I was already sort of making album tracklists. I had some tracks that, in my head, were already on the album. Then, I did about a month in LA writing every day, which is where a lot of the singles were formed. 

It was really spaced out. I went into the archives of my own music and realized it was missing certain sounds. There's this site called DISCO that I spent days uploading all of my material on, even just ideas. That was really helpful for moving things around. It happened quite slowly, and then I was like, “Oh, I have an album.”

Starting with “Damn”, how did you decide on this track for the album’s opener? How do you think it sets the tone?

I instantly had an attachment to the idea of “Damn” being the first track on the record because it's an explosion of my stream of consciousness. It's maximalist and shocking. Throughout the lyrics, I'm actually saying some of the other song titles. It's definitely a little more alternative and underground than most of the record. I wanted to open with real aggression and then, when it moves into “Free”, there’s a complete switch up of energy, lyric and vibe. I really like it going into “Free”.

In “Free”, I love all of the details you include. How did you decide on a concept for this song?

I spent a lot of time doing inner work on myself. Over the last couple of years, I’ve gone through lots of moments where I'm questioning what really makes me happy. Especially when I’m around events and moments that are meant to bring you up – but actually at my core, I wasn't at my happiest at those times. I love simple things really, underneath it all. “Free” is a very sweet song. It's innocent while the rest of the record is sexy, risky and I talk about lots of things – but “Free” is a moment of a pause where I look around me and realize I've got everything that I could ever want or need. I wrote it with Zhone and Ella Boh in LA. I don't always get instant connections with songs, sometimes it takes me a while to fall in love with them. But, “Free” was instant goosebumps. When we first wrote it, I knew it was really special. I hadn't made something like that before.

The album placement feels so intentional. It flows so well, I have a feeling we're going to keep touching on that as we go. 

Some of my friends admitted that they hadn't listened to it in order and when they started to they were like, “It makes so much more sense.” And I was like, “Yeah, obviously!” [Laughs]

I must say I'm a purist when it comes to that, for the first listen at least! Okay so, “Wet & Wild” - tell us about how that song came about and also, the “Annie, are you okay?” reference gets me every time. It must be a daunting task to incorporate such an iconic reference, but you do it so seamlessly. 

I love a cheeky reference and I did feel quite smart when I wrote that lyric! I work closely with this producer and artist called Sur Back, she is amazing. We write most of our stuff just us two, we don't need anyone else – just us two in a room. She's also a wicked singer and songwriter. So, she brought the track to me and it was basically what it is now. I instantly loved the acid-y synths and was asked, “Can you just give me the mic? I’m gonna play around with melodies.” 

We're very good friends, so she knows all my stories. We were trying to capture the story of leaving this club in New York, pouring down rain, that moment you expect your friends to follow you, but they don’t. You're having your main character moment. So that's the story of “Wet & Wild”. It was originally a joke, when I did the repetitive part of the chorus. I was playing around on the mic and giggling. Then, we went back into the stems and vocal comps and we realized it was actually quite smart. At first we slowed it down so I could learn it in time, then I could do it at the speed that it is now. It's really fun. A lot of my earlier stuff before the album had a serious underground, 90’s dance music feel and this track has the energy of that. “Wet & Wild” and “Just Two” feel like I'm touching on those inspirations.

Like I said, every track just goes perfectly into the next, which is the beauty of this album. I love the warped feel of “Just Two”. What is it about dance music that inspires you the most? 

I grew up with an understanding of dance music, but it wasn't until I got started clubbing and deep dived into some of those insane 90’s records that I truly understood it. You have this female vocalist who is actually saying very interesting, poetic things with a powerful voice, whether it's classical or soulful. Until I was around 20, dance music was what I was hearing on the radio. It was all very clean and the voices sounded quite similar. It wasn't until I went back into that repertoire from the 90s and late 80s that I heard these really powerful women saying really interesting things. I was inspired by groups like Deee-Lite and Opus III. So, I started to find that my voice just works in these worlds, which was new to me because I was always a classically trained singer, told to sing, get the guitar out, write the chords…but that's how I discovered my love for dance music and trying my voice in electronic spaces. 

I really love this song (“Just Two”). I'm getting the vibe that it’s kind of a fan favorite. 

Yeah, me too! From live shows, as well. It feels like I've heard it before, but it’s original and conceptually cheeky. It's about feeling like you've got your person and all you can think about is being with them. No matter what's going on in the world, if you've got that person, it's fun. I've just played a show in Paris and something happened with that song. I had never experienced the crowd having that much energy when I'm performing.

That must be such a rewarding part of making a record like this, getting to see how people respond to it live.

I have played shows for eight years here and there and this is the first time, honestly ever, that I've been like, “Wow, people really can really connect with the music.” They’re dancing, singing and they know all the lyrics. They actually want to fully party to everything that I've put out, which is incredible.

“Tectonic” is so cinematic and has such a powerful emotional impact. How did this song come about? It definitely feels like you're switching sounds at this point in the record.

Yeah, there's a slight shift in the energy. “Tectonic” was actually the first song I ever wrote for the album. I am very in love with this soundscape and could probably do a whole album in this world. There's so much going on musically and I really enjoy how I use my voice on it. I love the word “Tectonic”, I hadn't actually heard it in a song…although I know Charli has a song on Brat where she uses it. I was like, “Oh my god, I've literally never heard someone say tectonic in a song until now!” Knowing that I already had my song, I thought, wow, we must be playing from the same world.

There are so many through lines with music right now, I feel!

I've been talking about it a lot with artists, the concept of “idea space” where we're all connected and channeling the same things without, obviously, even communicating. 

Yeah, I've been talking about it with artists too! It's coming up all the time.

If I were going to go back to university, I think I'd do a thesis on it. But, “Tectonic”...I’m in love with Ray of Light as an album and “Tectonic” to me is kind of in that soundscape.

For sure. I’m a huge Madonna fan and can hear that clearly. Moving onto “Party People”, tell us about what makes someone a “party person” to you?

When we wrote “Party People” in Paris, it was an instant click. Sonically and energetically, me and Sega Bodega just hit it off so well. I wrote over the beat that is there now, but it sounded more like a nursery rhyme. I shaped it more when I went into the edit to make it feel more like a song and less than a nursery rhyme. [Laughs] But “Party People” to me…I've read somewhere that people think I’m being really serious about this song. It's a bit of a slapstick moment, but I am honestly obsessed with party people. 

A party person to me is someone who is the life and soul of the club. I have friends that live for that world and it fascinates me. I love to party, but I also love to observe friendship groups and how they communicate on the dance floor. For so many people, it's a release. This song is an ode to a friendship group that I’m kind of on the outside of. I go to some, but I don't go to all of their parties. There's definitely a balance…partying too much is not healthy, but for those who get the balance right and are able to escape and find their people, it's a good life.

“Angel of Satisfaction” is such a unique take, so much so that you might not notice it upon first listen. I love that these songs can be taken at face value but also have so much to chew on when you break them down. Tell us about the making of this track.

I wrote it with Justin Tranter, who is amazing. I'd been talking a lot about Annie Lennox and how I think she's got the most powerful voice. The track was built and then I started talking about a dream that I had. It was quite deep, it was the feeling I'd been visited by someone who was warning me to be careful what you wish for. I built this whole track about having everything I ever wanted dangled in front of me, while also seeing so many people that are successful and it not being everything that I'd always thought it would be…meeting those characters that I grew up idolizing, being in the same room as them and sensing sadness. It's a very odd thing to be around. I wanted to try and capture it in a song, but I didn't want it to be too deep. So I sprinkled in some cheeky lines like “Whoring for the glory.” I didn't want it to be too serious.

You really do such a good job on this record of balancing themes that are serious with a sense of release, finding a fun way to look at these things.

I'm glad you say that because it was definitely intentional. It's who I am as a person. I am a very deep girl if I want to be, but I also don't take myself too seriously.

We’re getting into my favorite section of the album, which starts with “Switch”. Tell us how you took the concept of everything changing constantly and made it into this banger. 

When I wrote “Switch” in LA, I was really feeling myself. I'd had a really hard couple of years, with COVID and everything else. I got to LA and my career decided to switch up, which is what I said in the initial session. I became really attached to that word and wrote the chorus. There was lots of screaming and dancing around the studio, it happened very quickly. “Switch” was probably one of the most poppy songs I'd ever written, which didn't scare me at all. Twelve year old me was buzzing making it, because this is the kind of music I grew up loving. It’s such a simple chorus, but I hadn't actually heard it before in that phrasing.

“Hackney Wick” might be my favorite song on the album. I'm not sure if it's something you've explored before, that spoken word lyrical delivery. How did that choice come about? 

I have explored it a little bit on some earlier EPs. Pat Alvarez, who I work a lot with, lives in Hackney. He's a brilliant Argentinian producer / DJ, a proper Hackney guy. We built the track and I kept trying to sing on it but it just wasn't working. The mic was on and I just started speaking about a night out, but I was also cringing at the same time. I was giggling, but I basically said exactly what I said on the track. It was maybe two takes, then we just edited a few bits together. It's hard listening to your own voice speaking but when I got over that, I realized this feels like something I would want to be on my album as an interlude, maybe? And then it became more than an interlude when I built that bit at the end where I start singing, almost like a chant. My friend Caroline, Sur Back, created the insane string section. 

Have you been to Hackney?

No, I haven't! But I know about the perception and what it's known for. This track really brings you there.

I love the fact that you connect to it, even though you don't know the area. Because I feel like every city, or every person, has that place they grew up going to.

“First” is one of the most unassuming gems of this album, in my opinion. Talk to us about the track and your exploration of the fine line between competition and admiration. 

Obviously drum and bass is so big in the UK and it’s been amazing what’s happened over the last couple of years with it coming back. Not that it ever went away, but for our generation it’s kinda new. I love singing over drum and bass, and always have. So it was fun to bring that into my album with “First”. 

I am fiercely competitive, it's insane. I don't think most people know unless you’re my best friend, my partner, or my family - they all know it. I wanted to write something about how we get into these bad habits of competing with one another, or competing with ourselves to be honest. This song formed off of the idea that I’m always trying to catch up with myself, which is quite exhausting. 

“Everything Changes (But I Won’t)” holds a special place in my heart and I’m sure so many of your fans as well. Tell me about what this track means to you.

This song is really powerful to me, still. Performing it reminds me how much every word means to me. I grew up with someone, they were my first love. We haven’t had the easiest time but we have remained together, so I wanted to capture that feeling. Sometimes people give long term relationships a hard time, they say you fall out of love but I think when you’ve been through so much together you just get stronger. It’s such a beautiful feeling so I wanted to capture that in a song and create this feeling of being in the eye of a storm, that’s why the production feels very swirly. Even though so much is happening around you it’s just you two in the middle. You against the world. It’s a simple concept, but it’s quite poetic. If someone wrote that to me on a card, I’d be floored. 

The closing track is such a bold choice, not only is it the title track but it’s conceptually different from the rest of the record. Tell us about that distinct decision.

A big part of my personality and as an artist, is that I love alternative soundscape and albums that have space…space to let the audience completely disassociate. I always knew I wanted a track that did that on my debut record. When it formed over a couple of weeks, I knew this had to be the last track on the record. At this point in the album, you’ve had a lot of information thrown at you. Here, I’m bringing it back to simplicity. I love how those beautiful strings and murmurs of “Louder, Please” finish the record off. 

Listen to Rose Gray’s debut album Louder, Please now!