CONAN GRAY has come a long way since his days as a YouTube vlogger. The 23-year-old who formerly detailed his life events on YouTube is now a rising pop indie darling.
In fact, Gray has found tremendous musical success since his debut album Kid Krow last year.
In the United States, the record marked the biggest debut by a new artiste in 2020. Its two singles, Heather, and Maniac were also among the most popular songs on online streaming platforms such as Spotify and TikTok.
“The most pivotal moment has definitely been releasing my album Kid Krow. It was my first real large body of work and I had no idea what people were gonna think or how they were going to react,” expressed the singer in a recent Southeast Asian virtual conference.
The success of Kid Krow has inspired the singer to work on his sophomore album. His latest release Telepath is another piece of the puzzle. And this time around, Gray embraces the sounds of the 80s, marking a new shift sonically.
What is Telepath all about?
“I would say the message of Telepath for one is to be light-hearted about heartbreak. And I think it was also just me poking fun of the fact that people always act like they are always going to leave, but they always come back over and over.
“It is like people love to treat people badly, but the second they realised they treated someone too badly, they want them back. It is the classic; you always want what you cannot have. That is mainly the message. I was in the mood during the writing of the song.
“A bunch of people I talked to in the past decided to pop back into my life. And I was like ‘I do not really feel like talking to you people, I am going to write a mean song about you instead’.”
What was the creative process like for Telepath seeing that it sounds like something out of the 80s?
“I remember just simply writing the chorus first and with that note ‘I got that feeling’, it just needed to have that 80s vibe. Or else, it would just not feel right. I think oftentimes, with my music, a lot of it does not sound like it belongs together. The only thing that can tie them together is the lyrics.
“This is because when it comes to production and sound, I just like to make each individual song what I think it should sound like. I really do not care too much about the bigger picture because I am not the type of person who only listens to one specific genre.
“So, that process was very much like this chorus is ridiculously 80s, and this song is not meant to be a serious song. So, we wanted to purposely let the song be a bit ridiculous. Like the bridge is ridiculous, it has all these silly things.
“Because that is what the song is supposed to be. It is supposed to be fun because the song is me making fun of someone the entire time. That is what we were kind of going for.”
Do you normally have a vision in mind when writing a song?
“I would say generally I would have fun with it. I usually would know how exactly a song would sound, but the vision is not always a normal vision.
“But ultimately, I think when it comes to making the songs, it boils down to working with people who understand me. People whom I can get along with. Otherwise, I do not really feel like telling all my deepest and darkest secrets to these people.
“And so, I think it is important to have a bit of fun with it and be as genuine as possible. Or else, people can feel that you are not being honest. And I think that is the most important part of song writing is honesty.”
When you wrote Telepath, where do you envision people listening to it to be?
“I usually imagined it as either in my car because I love listening to music in the car. It is genuinely one of my favourite activities. Or in the bedroom, I spent most of my time there.
“But for Telepath, I want to see people listening in the car, jumping around and dancing.”
Seeing that you are the creator of ‘sad boi anthems’, will this remain constant or will more themes be explored in the upcoming project?
“There is a lot of new themes that I talk about on the album. I think everyone’s lives are constantly changing and there have been new problems that have arrived in my life that I did not think I would have to talk about. But they just show up.
“So, there is going to be a lot of different themes. I think it is always fun for me to put the sadder topics and wrap them in bubble gum. It is more fun to have a song like that. But I think it also depends on what I am saying.
“But yea, there are bunch of new things that I talk about on this next album that I am excited for people to hear. I think they are just relatable things and these days; I am looking for someone to listen to my troubles and say ‘oh yea, I felt that too’.
“There have been new things that have happened to me since my last album. So, I never got any consolation.”
Will we see more of a 80s or 90s influence?
“I am not sure but I would not say it is an 80s inspired album in the slightest. I think sometimes it is just fun to put a little 80s in a pop song. I would say it is just an album that is very me.
“This album has a lot of different themes and genres. And you would not really know until it is playing in your ear. So yeah, that is how it is going to sound like!”
