Out of the Gray shadows

David Gray

David Gray has a little fairytale to tell you.

"It was absolutely shit when it all went wrong. It was bad. Then it got worse. Then it got absolutely [expletive] awful," he says of his many misfortunes throughout the 90s.

Don't worry, things got better.

During this time the Manchester-born singer-songwriter got dropped by a couple of record labels, lost almost everything, including loads of money.

However, the main torment was, after releasing three reasonably well-received albums of sometimes tender, sometimes fiery acoustic music, he never quite made the big time. It was killing him.

"If you're taking music seriously, your belief takes a pounding when it goes so completely wrong, as it can do when you sign up with record companies. You can just get lost in the wilderness and start wondering why the hell you ever thought [making music] was a good idea in the first place," he says.

But he stopped feeling sorry for himself, stopped blaming everyone else and set about recording the album, White Ladder, in his London apartment.

Some of the money came from songs he wrote for the film This Year's Love, and "we went around with a begging bowl to people we knew in the industry who had been fans of the music ... And I re-mortgaged my house around the same time and some of that went into it.

"So, White Ladder is the sound of me overcoming my doubts and all the shadows that had grown up around me during my first few records. I think there's a joyful sense of escape on the record. I opened my heart to everything."

And it worked. It was huge and sold more than four million copies worldwide.

In New Zealand it was a slow burner, but after more than 50 weeks in the charts it sold more than 40,000 copies.

In Ireland - the first country to pick up on Gray - White Ladder is still the country's best selling album ever.

With the release of his latest album, Life In Slow Motion, his popularity is still intact with his Auckland show on April 16 already sold out. "It's a bit of a fairy story really," he laughs.

It's been nearly seven years since White Ladder was released and now, when David Gray looks out into the audience at gigs, he sees "a vast cross-section of people. There's everyone from the spotty youth who looks like he's about to steal your car to the guy who works in the bank and is out to let his hair down ... and your spiky-haired punky people. It's a diverse broth of all types of people," he croaks. He doesn't sound too well, even though he's about to go on stage at a sell-out gig in Wolverhampton. He's hoping the pint of Vodka and Cranberry he's sipping on - a pre show ritual apparently - will do the trick.

"Mind you," he says of his fans, "in the last couple of nights they have been all pretty young, which I like to see because you know, your audience get old with you.

"And I had this revelation recently where I was thinking, 'Jesus, some of you are looking a bit old' and, 'God, maybe they're looking at us and thinking the same thing'."

Unlike his previous albums Life In Slow Motion was done in a recording studio rather than a bedroom.

"It was about playing rather than just layering sounds in the sort of bedroom way. And I wanted to play as a band and you need a big place for that. We'd done that bedroom thing, it was time to move on.

"We went for the more melodic stuff, and despite its melancholy atmosphere there's a sense of joyousness to the thing and there's a real musical release - there's some pretty big arrangements there."

This change in direction has meant a change in the live show and at this stage in his career - he released his first single in 1992 - it's about having a bit more fun and keeping things fresh. He changes the set constantly and even chucks in a Cure song too if you're lucky.

"At the moment we're doing Friday I'm In Love ... it's just for a bit of a laugh. But everybody likes it and it's the jangliest song in the world. It's just a nice way to finish the gigs and put a smile on people's faces, not least our own."

How's that for a fairytale ending?  

What: Former bedroom singer/songwriter turned major star
Born: Manchester, 1968, and he was the only Gray in the village.
Latest album: Life In Slow Motion, out now. ALBUMS: A Century Ends (1993); Flesh (1994); Sell, Sell, Sell (1996); White Ladder (1999); A New Day At Midnight (2002).
On tour: April 16, ASB Theatre, Auckland (Sold out)