FEATURE: Spotlight: Rose Gray — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Rose Gray

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THIS is…

a rare occasion where I am including the same artist twice in a Spotlight feature. Because she has done so much since I last featured her (in April 2022), I wanted to revisit this sensational artist. One that is tipped as among the very best and brightest of 2025. Rose Gray is someone who is going to be a massive name very soon. I am going to get to a review for her stunning album, Louder, Please. Already staking its claim as one of the best albums of the year. I am going to come to some recent interviews soon. Before that, this Fred Perry is one of the older ones online. It gives a good insight into the musical highs, loves and memories of Rose Gray:

“Name, where are you from?

Rose Gray - Walthamstow (North East London).

Describe your style in three words?

Colourful, honest, soulful.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?

It would have to be seeing Prince in Birmingham. My best friend managed to get us tickets on the day of the show. So we raced up with three hours to go before it started. We somehow got taken to the front for the intro music to Purple Rain. Prince blew my mind that night, I compared his stage presence to Beyonce. Something otherworldly.

If you could be on the line up with any two bands in history?

The Beatles and Blondie. I love these two bands so much. I grew up on the Beatles. I always just thought that’s how a song should sound. And Blondie, because Debbie Harry is the definition of an icon.

Which Subcultures have influenced you?

Girl group Motown.

Stacked vocals, catchy melodies. Soul music. Powerful female vocalists and tight harmonies. I'd definitely love to play with these elements in my music.

Neo-psychedelia/'90s indie dance-pop music.

I have been devouring '90s dance records recently, songs which I didn’t have the pleasure of partying to. I feel quite influenced by the '90s. To be specific - Neo-psychedelia. It brings those familiar 1960s band sounds fusing synths and sharp keys but mixing it with soulful melodies similar to Dusty Springfield. I’ve been experimenting with bringing some of these elements into my music.

If you could spend an hour with anyone from history?

John Lennon. I would love to share poetry or ask John to play something on his white grand piano. I think we could write something beautiful... try and put the world to right.

Of all the venues you’ve been to, which is your favourite?

Brixton Academy in London. I love this venue. The sound and atmosphere, the way the floor is raised so even if you're near the back you have a perfect view.

Your greatest unsung hero or heroine in music?

Of course Amy Winehouse. I grew up loving Amy, her lyricism and honesty had me in awe from a young age. I related to her, I felt like I'd never listened to a female being so honest about love and loss. But also - Melanie. She went pretty under the radar in the '60s/'70s and should have been huge.

The first track you played on repeat?

'F*ck You' - Lily Allen

Apart from playing the Spice Girls and Christina Aguilera on repeat as a young one, I have a real memory of buying 'It's Not Me, It's You'. I remember breaking up with my boyfriend who was the definition of the guy described in 'F*ck You' so it just became my vent song.

A song that defines the teenage you?

'With Every Heartbeat' - Robyn.

If I listen to this I am 14 again dancing around my room.

One record you would keep forever?

'A Brand New Me' - Aretha Franklin (song - 'Angel' The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra version)
I grew up on Aretha Franklin. She had a true voice of an angel. I think I will love this album for the rest of my life. The Royal Philharmonic version of this record is so beautiful”

I am going to move to an interview from Vogue. Speaking with Rose Gray back in September, it was built around the announcement of the then-forthcoming, Louder, Please. An album that was hotly anticipated. Now that it has arrived, you know that Gray is going to be booked at many of the biggest festivals around the world:

“Yet while Gray today is more about self-preservation than the wild nights of years past, Louder, Please is also, at points, a bracingly candid record, offering a diaristic account of the past few years of her life. “Lots of parties, lots of tears, a bit of heartbreak, a bit of heart-fixing,” she says. “I feel like there’s a few tracks on the record that sound a bit like falling back in love.” (Gray is in a long-term relationship with actor Harris Dickinson, making them something of a British bright-young-thing power couple.) On the standout track “Hackney Wick”—think Burial meets Lily Allen—she offers a blow-by-blow account of a night out in east London through a kind of hushed spoken word. “Breaking into Victoria Park, having a snog under the stars, going to another party where my mate was DJing,” she says. “I can't play that to anyone who knows me because I hate hearing myself speak, though.” Elsewhere, the record is peppered with the sort of snippets and whispers you’d hear in club bathrooms. “I think as a songwriter, I’m a bit of a sponge,” she adds. “Which is quite exhausting, really.”

The moment Gray realized the puzzle pieces of her first album were coming together was when she began working with Justin Tranter, the songwriter behind some of Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber’s biggest hits. After the two jumped on a Zoom in the early months of lockdown and found themselves waxing lyrical about Madonna, Tranter led Gray through something of a masterclass in songwriting, encouraging her to home in on her tangle of ideas and feelings. “I’ve never experienced writing like what I’ve experienced with Justin,” she says. “It’s quite magic.” Elsewhere, her collaborators on the record include the white-hot electronic producer Sega Bodega, electroclash queen Uffie, and house DJ Alex Metric—but even with all these cooks in the kitchen, the outcome feels distinctly Gray. “I feel like I’m pretty headstrong in sessions,” she notes. “I know what I do and don’t like.”

Just as unequivocal is the visual world Gray has constructed around the album: a wonderland of seedy glamour and fun in the sun that harks back to the glory days of ’90s Ibiza, and the work of photographers like Martin Parr and Elaine Constantine, who captured the electric energy of those underground nightlife scenes with striking, saturated color. “When I spoke to the photographer, I wanted it to be like a ’90s Prada campaign, but starring Dido,” Gray says, with a cheeky grin. (She also describes the look as Kylie Minogue’s iconic “Slow” music video mixed with Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast—you can see the vision.) On the album cover, Gray stands on a beach in Barcelona while lovers canoodle in the sand and seagulls squawk above her head; with a Walkman attached to her bikini bottoms and headphones in her ears, she lets out a scream. “It’s a little bit tacky, but also quite glamorous,” Gray adds. “I think British dance music has always had that element, which I love, and

Like Charli and Shygirl (the latter of whom Gray has collaborated with and supported onstage), Gray has also been hitting the club to spread the gospel of her upcoming music. Last month, she kicked off a series of DJ nights titled Gray Selects which she hopes can both invite new listeners into her world and spotlight the work of up-and-coming musicians she admires. “I just want to start getting us all together and playing out each other’s music,” she says. It’s a warm, communal spirit that courses through the record, too, which sounds like the sort of thing you’d listen to on your friend’s portable speaker while getting ready for a night out, sipping a lukewarm vodka Red Bull while the smell of straightener-fried hair and Impulse body spray hangs in the air.

“I hope I’ve made the kind of record that me and my best mates would absolutely play until we’re all sick of it,” she says. “Getting ready, going out, getting dolled up for a festival. But I also hope it’s something that people can listen to when they’re traveling to work. I don’t think it’s just a party or a club record. Everyone I’ve played the record to has a different favorite song, which I think is a good thing.” It’s true: while the album does feel like a statement of intent, it’s in the more ambiguous moments—where the sweary meets the seductive, or where heartbreak meets the euphoric highs of the dancefloor—that Gray truly shines. With Louder, Please, she’s ready for the big leagues”.

I will finish with two reviews I think. Four-star recommendations of Louder, Please. Proof that Rose Gray is capturing the kudos and imagination of critics. In an interview published yesterday (20th January), DORK chatted with an amazing young artist who lost hundreds of songs to label politics but is now back with even bigger purpose and drive. This is someone that you need to follow:

“Rose thrives when left to her own devices. Writing five to ten songs weekly, either in sessions or collaborating with peers, her journey to a debut was inevitable. Pleading her case to her label, with her sackful of songs in tow, “I was just like, ‘Guys, I have to put out an album. I’m literally bursting’,” she laughs.

‘Louder, Please’ brims with life. Having collaborated with Justin Tranter (Lady Gaga, Chappell Roan), Sega Bodega, and Zhone (Troye Sivan), it captures a dance-laden weekend with friends getting into mischief and love, emerging from a period of self-discovery. “A lot of people’s first albums are coming-of-age albums,” says Rose. “But this to me – because I have been making music for so long, and it’s taken a while to get my first album out – is the stage after that. Being in my mid-20s, dating, falling in and out of love, and moving houses feels like the stage above the coming-of-age record.” That’s not to say she’s moved past ‘Louder, Please”s chapter. “I’m definitely still in this era of my life,” she laughs. “But I do look back at it and feel a little tingle of nostalgia because it definitely has captured this little snippet of my life.”

The visuals and aesthetics for her debut stem from a trip to Barcelona with her friends. She wanted to inhabit the world of Louder, Please authentically. The album’s artwork shows Rose on the beach, taken by a friend, embodying the all-or-nothing spirit within. “With this, I was like, I just want it to just be real,” she professes. “I actually want us to be on the beach with my mates; let’s have music on. Let’s be drinking!”

While crafting ‘Louder, Please’, Rose immersed herself in research. With friends in the club scene, she’d venture out most weekends to experience clubbing firsthand. Shazaming tracks and witnessing people dance to Charli xcx’s brash pop bolstered her confidence in her own project: “It was really interesting because that album [‘BRAT’] came out, and my album was completely done, and I do see some similarities with pop writing over heavier beats. It was great to see how much people loved that because it made me think, well, they’re gonna love my record then!” She’s continued her clubland ventures since announcing ‘Louder, Please’ and its first singles ‘Free’ and ‘Angel Of Satisfaction’. “I’ve been playing lots of clubs, like a full-time job, actually,” she smiles. “Just once or twice a week, little slots at club nights, nothing huge. Sometimes, I don’t announce them. It’s very rewarding seeing people dance to music, especially stuff that’s not even released yet.”

For Rose, her debut album exceeds her expectations. After everything she’s weathered, this is her moment to savour. “I feel confident in the music and the world I’ve created. I love it,” she gushes. “And I almost feel a bit like whatever happens with it, however it’s reviewed, I know it’s the kind of music that I want to party to, that I want to listen to, that my friends want to listen to.” And that’s what matters. The world’s too dark to overthink everything. So head to the darkened dance floors, where Rose Gray likely lurks either physically or in spirit, having the time of her life – the outside world be damned. “I’m sure it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but they do say whenever you make something you should make sure that you’re in love with it, which I am”.

Before wrapping up, I am going to get to some critical reviews for Louder, Please. The Guardian noted how Louder, Please is an album that is escapist and joyful. One that is alive and fizzing with inventiveness. An album I think will stand alongside the most important albums of this year. It is proof that Rose Gray is one of our finest artists. Nearly three years after spotlighting Rose Gray, it is amazing to see her take massive strides and put out an incredible statement with Louder, Please:

“The last few years have proved tricky for female-fronted dance-pop, with interesting artists wasting away as guest vocalists on songs credited to male DJs with perfect teeth, or siloed into dead ends soundtracked by an efficient amalgam of drum’n’bass and sticky-floor EDM.

Thank goodness, then, for London’s Rose Gray, whose sweat-soaked debut album fizzes with inventiveness. She’s clearly a fan of dance music’s more experimental potential – opener Damn is an aggressively filtered jungle onslaught, while collaborators include producer Sega Bodega (Caroline Polachek, Shygirl) and electropop cult figure Uffie. But Gray also understands pop, with the campy Angel of Satisfaction stomping around a keening, early Gaga-esque chorus. The house-inflected Party People, meanwhile, would have nestled nicely on an 00s Ibiza Classics compilation mixed by Kaskade.

Hedonism is a key lyrical theme – Wet & Wild, all smile-inducing house pianos and breathy, Kylie-esque vocals, should come with its own bottle of room odouriser – but on tracks like Switch, about a tricky long-distance relationship, Gray looks inwards, searching for new ways to sustain a connection. Equally atmospheric is the spoken-word Hackney Wick, which charts a night out but focuses on relatable communion rather than focus-grouped exhortations to put your hands up.

There’s a comedown of sorts on the mid-tempo Everything Changes (But I Won’t), which saturates Gray’s voice in so many effects that its emotional impact is somewhat diluted. She’s better on tracks like Free, with its mantra-like chorus “The good shit in life is always free”, creating escapist dance-pop anthems that pierce the heart”.

I am going to end with a review from NME. They provided their views on this wonderful album. An artist who I think we will be talking about for years to come. If you have not heard of Rose Gray then make sure you check her out. This is an artist you will not want to miss out on:

“Born on New Year’s Eve, there’s a touch of destiny about the way Rose Gray has embraced club culture. The vocalist, producer and DJ, who hails from Walthamstow, London, spent her teen years chasing a flawed pop star dream, before realising that the image she was being moulded into – and the accompanying music – didn’t represent her true self. But when London’s rich electronic scene came calling at the turn of her twenties, there was no looking back.

She has since grown to live and breathe that lifestyle, which has effortlessly shaped the palatable house and sultry rave-pop on her latest EPs ‘Synchronicity’ (2022) and ‘Higher Than The Sun’ (2023). These sound palettes pierce even deeper into the underground on Gray’s debut album ‘Louder, Please’, which lands as her stock continues to rise, following collaborations with TSHA, Ben Helmsley and a personal invite from Mel C to perform at Sporty Spice’s 50th birthday party.

Mysterious, discomforting opener ‘Damn’ is worlds apart from the summery sounds we’ve become used to, as Gray’s voice distorts like a whining toddler: “Won’t you turn it up a little louder, please?” Meanwhile, that familiar sunny euphoria returns in the form of the escapist ‘Free’ and the Ibiza-friendly ‘Wet & Wild’, which balances its mouthful of a verse with a swirling chorus.

The loved-up throbbing bounce of ‘Just Two’ might be Gray’s most addictive track to date, although the following one-two of ‘Tectonic’ and ‘Party People’ – an ode to those strangers who become the main characters of your night out – risks the album falling into rinse and repeat territory for a moment. ‘Angel Of Satisfaction’ dispels that notion, carrying a pulse that would give every bassline on Dua Lipa’s ‘Future Nostalgia’ a run for its money.

‘Hackney Wick’ – perhaps east London’s answer to Confidence Man cult classic ‘C.O.O.L. Party’ – is refreshingly immediate and lucid (“I hear the bass, the music, and I succumb”), while ‘First’ represents Gray’s confident first foray into the liquid drum ‘n’ bass sound that has blown up the likes of Charlotte Plank and Venbee.

On ‘Louder, Please’, Gray’s music has finally caught up with her lifestyle. The crackly sounds of the underground finally have their unfiltered moments, while her long-standing pop sensibilities still retain their place through respectable chorus hooks and addictive melodies (her classical vocal training is also clear for all to see). Gray has too many strings to her bow to lay down one overarching, definitive statement. As such, ‘Louder, Please’ is more of a dare than an instruction: follow her down this rabbit hole, and brace yourself for where she ends up”.

I will wrap things up there. Rose Gray is an artist I have admired for years now. Her future is going to be hugely successful and exciting. I am thrilled to see where she heads next and how her career unfolds. A mighty talent with an original voice, this is a Pop artist who can stand shoulder to shoulder…