Back in 2016, a then 18-year-old Gretta Ray got Australia’s attention as the winner of triple j’s Unearthed High. Her hit single ‘Drive’ made it to number 27 on the Hottest 100 that same year, and sparked a whirlwind music career.
Present day, Ray has a new EP titled Here and Now. It’s been received with staggering support, which has blown the young songstress away. “I had no expectation that it would get the exposure it has.
“I was sitting in my kitchen at like 5pm or something and I was like ‘Aw man it’s all over the internet, I might have a little look at the iTunes chart, oh it’s number two, that’s great,’” she laughs. “I’m so overjoyed and I’m really glad that people are connecting with it.”
The past 12 months have been huge for Ray. She’s supported Paul Kelly and The Rubens, played Splendour in The Grass and Falls Festival, as well as toured alongside British musician James Bay, which helped her get back into the swing of playing solo.
“I hadn’t played a solo show for a long time, so the concept of playing just by myself was daunting at first. I was practising a lot, trying to be as best prepared for the shows as I could,” she reminisces. “James himself is such a legend, I’d met him a couple of times beforehand and we got to hang out, that was good.”
Here and Now sees Ray at her lyrical finest, a composition of songs both intimate and uplifting. A perfectionist at heart, it took the singer a while to fine-tune the tracks, learning to write in a new way and present something to her fans she could be proud of.
“I was fortunate to have this audience that was waiting to hear new music, so that put more pressure on myself. I was like, ‘They’re tuning into the lyrics, they’re analysing the concepts, I need to do my best work here.’ Some of the songs are quite happy, narrative-wise, and I hadn’t written like that until I wrote ‘Drive’, which inspired all these other songs. I learnt to be able to write from that place and to discover the concept of joy lyrically in songs.”
Music has been a massive part of Ray’s life since she was a child. She got her first keyboard at seven, before upgrading to a piano, then other instruments such as guitar. A lover of literature, writing came naturally to her, and she became increasingly fixated with penning lyrics and recording songs.
“I set up my laptop on a high stool in the lounge room, and I would get big headphones and record into garage band like it was a demo track because it felt like I was in the studio,” Ray laughs with embarrassment. “I’d watched videos of Taylor Swift recording with big headphones and was like ‘I’m going to make my own version of that.’”
Going from writing songs as a hobby to music being her full-blown career is something Ray still marvels at. She recalls a meeting late last year where she had one of her biggest ‘pinch me’ moments, sitting in a room with publishers who deal with artists she loves, all commending her for how hard she’s worked, and how fruitful it’s been.
“Because things move so quickly in this industry and it’s like onto the next thing, it’s very rare you have a moment where you sit down, and you go ‘Wow I’m doing this thing and I’m really proud of myself and I’m so stoked and grateful that this is happening,’ and that was one of those moments for me.
“You can see those moments in the face of a performer when you go to a gig, and they’re getting these incredible responses, and to me watching that happen to other people is the coolest thing. I feel very lucky to have had moments like that, those ‘pinch me’ moments. It’s really special.”
