FEATURE:
Spotlight
PHOTO CREDIT: Kiralee Halgh
Gretta Ray
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EVEN though she is only twenty-three…
the fantastic Gretta Ray has been making music for a fair few years now. I became aware of her music a couple of years back. I felt that now was the best time to put her in my Spotlight feature as she has recently released two singles, Readymade and Bigger Than Me - and there is a lot of buzz around the Australian artist. Hailing from Melbourne, the last few years have seen Gretta Ray rise and release music that gets better and better! I am going to bring in a few interviews that provide some useful information about a wonderful songwriter. The first interview I want to bring in is from 2017. Gretta Ray spoke with lip. We learn more about her rise and the progress of her sound:
“When you find yourself singing along to a poetic and emotionally rich ballad on the radio, you might not expect the words to be penned by an eighteen year old girl from Melbourne, fresh out of high school, just embarking on her professional music career. Such is this case with Gretta Ray’s latest single Towers.
‘So now I’m not afraid of heights,’ the songwriter declares at the end of the chorus; and Gretta certainly isn’t, following up her two celebrated singles Drive and Unwind with a track that continues her rise to the top of the Australian music industry.
After winning Triple J’s Unearthed High last year, Gretta Ray has become a familiar name for music fans, her folky-pop voice almost impossible to miss with its high rotation on the airwaves. I recently chatted with Gretta to see how things are going for her now that she has finished high school and can focus on her music full time.
‘I’ve spent a lot of time playing to larger crowds since the Triple J Unearthed win, which has been really amazing, probably my favourite part of the whole thing…’ she tells me, ‘And I’ve been making a lot of important decisions for the future… Just wanting to make sure we make all the rights choices, like who I’m working with, what kinds of things I’m doing, what shows I’m playing… So yes, it’s been a busy but exciting couple of months.’
I ask her where she gets the inspiration for her melodies and lyrics, given that the depth we see goes beyond most teenage experiences.
She says that when writing these songs as compared to her previous EP, she was listening to a lot more pop music, ‘when I opened that door again and started to listen to these melodies and hooks that had been created in modern pop music I found that incredibly helpful to my writing, and having that influence along with all of the poems and books I was studying for English Literature in year 12, meant that I had this ambition to produce songs that were sophisticated lyrically and utilised a lot of the concepts and metaphors that you study in poetry and literature… I was using all of that in the lyrical crafting while trying to incorporate melodic hooks, things that were catchy and things that would stay in people’s heads. So yeah, the influences for the songs I am writing at the moment, I owe to literature and to pop music.’
Gretta is grateful for the opportunities that winning the Triple J competition has afforded her, but if it seems like she carries herself with the poise of someone who has been doing this for years, it’s because she has. She started her music career at the age of five, singing and touring with the Young Voices of Melbourne choir for twelve years.
I ask her if she has a musical family, and what she remembers best from the soundtrack of her childhood:
‘ Yes,’ she replies, ‘My Dad’s side of the family in particular… Christmas with them consisted of a lot of singing, a lot of harmonies, a lot of playing instruments… I listened to a lot of James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Sheryl Crow, Paul Simon, Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins. Lots of different kinds of music… They are all amazing artists, all producing amazing records, so its incredible how unconscious those influences were as a kid, because I was so drawn to song writing and I think now I can look back and really see that in my work as a song writer, I owe a lot to those records and their influence”.
I think that the next year or two will be massive for Ray. She has already released so much magnificent music. Hopefully she will be able to tour this year – keep an eye on her social media channels (links are at the bottom of this feature) – and get this music out to the people.
I just want to introduce a feature from CLASH from 2019. Rather than learn more about her music and latest project, Gretta Ray was asked about her favourite books, films etc. It makes for interesting reading:
“Books...
I gained a lot from Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic, which explores her perception of creativity, and talks of it as an outer force.
After reading of her personal experience with things such as writer's block and the pros/cons of success, I feel like I started thinking about creativity in a whole new way.
Film...
I’m not great at making time to watch films, and when I do they tend to be pretty cheesy ones (nothing wrong with that, though!). I feel like one of the only times I do watch films is on planes when there’s not much else to do - on my way home from London last week I watched Almost Famous for the first time, which I loved. I loved Kate Hudson in it, I loved how it captured the chaotic, exhilarating sense of a band being on the road together, all members with the same drive and passion for the music they’re creating.
(I am aware that this film also outlines the huge cons of that touring lifestyle but, focusing solely on the positives I loved it!)
TV Shows...
I just binge watched Dirty John on Netflix, which was great. I’m honestly terrible though, when it comes to movies and TV. I rarely consciously look for anything new. I find myself watching new things solely because friends of mine or the internet tells me to.
If that wasn’t the case I think I’d just watch re-runs of Friends forever. I feel at home and comfy and warm when I watch Friends. And I laugh the whole way through even though I already know exactly what’s going to happen in the next scene. It’s tragic really”.
As I say with all of these Spotlight features, the proof is ion the pudding. People need to check out the music and do some additional research. I will round things off soon. Before then, a recent interesting interview from The Line of Best Fit provided more detail and depth regarding Ray and her latest music:
“Australia’s Gretta Ray falls into this category. Growing up in the suburbs of Melbourne, Ray began writing her own songs when she was seven years old, honing her voice through years of community choir practice. At 16, she was introduced to Josh Barber, a Melbourne producer, who got her into the studio and produced her breakthrough “Drive” - a dreamy, syrupy indie pop ballad about picking up your crush, rolling the windows down and speeding off into the sunset.
Ray is painfully aware of the pitfalls of experiencing so much success so young. “I was so aware that I was young, and still finding my feet, and that I had to take my career a step at a time.” She speaks enthusiastically of the careers of Maggie Rogers and Lorde, artists who have managed to retain an iron grip over their image and their trajectory, despite the disempowering effects of finding success at a young age. Observing Maggie Rogers has been particularly influential, for Ray - after going viral with that Pharrell video, rather than riding the wave, Rogers retreated, and took three years out between releases to work on her debut album. Ray has tried to emulate this decision: “Maggie’s entrance into the music scene was so sudden and intense, it basically happened overnight. And she just left New York, went back to her parent’s house and came back to us when she was completely ready. I love the way she’s able to tell us that story to us through her music - and it doesn’t feel self-involved, it feels careful and contemplative.”
Likewise, after touring with artists like Lianne La Havas and Mumford & Sons and releasing two EPs, 2016’s Elsewhere and 2018’s Here and Now, Ray retreated for two years, to work out who she really was. Her comeback single, released in 2020, was “Passion.” While her previous work lent towards the folky and super-sincere, ‘Passion’ is a rich, wry, country-inflected pop song. Penned with Kyran Daniel, they wrote the song in 7/4 - an unusual time signature, more commonly found in jerky, off-kilter rock bangers like Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android”, or “Them Bones” by Alice in Chains. When applied to a velvety, lovelorn pop song, the effect is striking - it feels like your heart is catching in your chest. Ray relished the challenge of writing “something you could groove to” over a complex time signature: “I became obsessed with it - so many people are making music right now, and if there’s anything you can do to make your music that little bit more challenging, that little bit more complicated, it’s worth doing.”
Referencing ballads that became renegade hits “Somebody That You Used To Know” by Gotye, and “Drivers License” by Olivia Rodrigo, Ray notes that “things are changing so quickly in the music industry”, and that “you never know what’s going to move people.” With a smile, Ray concludes: “I really hope that with anything I ever release, I find a way to do it that amplifies the music in a way that feels authentic. And that it feels good and true to me, as a person and as an artist”.
I am really interested in Australian artist, as I feel it is a part of the world that does not get enough focus. There is so much interesting and brilliant music coming from Australia that warrants more attention and love. More and more people are discovering the work of Gretta Ray. I just know that she has…
A very long career ahead of her.
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