Word: gray
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...once, Gray, an affable 32-year-old Manchester native who is married to a lawyer and openly admits "I'm not rock 'n' roll," has become an international pop star. His wide-eyed visage is plastered throughout London subway stations. He has appeared on flagship American television programs such as Saturday Night Live and the Late Show with David Letterman. He schmoozed with Prince Charles and Gwyneth Paltrow. ("I swore a lot when I met her," Gray says. "I'm a terrible swearer.") For a guy who not long ago had to insult audience members to get them to listen...
...Almost no one in the music industry did, which is why, when Gray began recording White Ladder in 1998, he had left one record label and been dropped by another in less than five years. His first album, A Century Ends, consisted mainly of Gray strumming and wailing acoustic folk anthems and Celtic ballads; it earned him a small following in Ireland and little else. His two subsequent efforts leaned toward more conventional electric-guitar rock but failed to gain attention. (Lost Songs 95-98, a collection of tracks recorded during his more fallow days, was released this week.) Distraught...
...Gray started experimenting with synthesizers and drum machines, working out catchy grooves and beats and then layering melodies over them. He and his bandmates made White Ladder over the course of four months in Gray's London apartment; it "cost nothing and was recorded on a couple of mikes and some dodgy equipment." The result bore some resemblance to Gray's brooding, languid early songs, but it also featured pulsating tracks, like Please Forgive Me, which melded folk, pop and dance styles. What catapulted Gray into the mainstream was the album's exuberant first single, Babylon, with its celebration...
...song was a runaway hit in Britain last spring, and from there Gray rode a wave of trans-Continental buzz. He is part of a generation of gifted young singer-songwriters-it also includes such acts as Elliott Smith, Badly Drawn Boy and Beth Orton-who have thrived by providing an alternative to the numbing, bubble-gum conformity of pop, and the hard, forbidding edge of rap and metal. "The people who have bought the record are people who haven't participated in a long time," Gray says, explaining White Ladder's appeal. "It's got melody and a strong...
...Thanks to his unexpected reception in the U.S.-where White Ladder was the first release by a label founded by musician Dave Matthews-Gray has stayed on the road for more than a year, writing new songs in his head. He plans to go back to the studio early this year. "It will be difficult to recapture the spirit of spontaneity knowing there will be 5 million people waiting to listen to it," he says. "But I think I've got better records in me." Success has made him a happy man-you need only watch him bound onto stage...