Gretta Gives You A Warm Hug With ‘Positive Spin’
Photographs by Sara Regan
Australian sweetheart, Gretta Ray has been very busy gearing up for the release of her sophomore album ‘Positive Spin’, dropping TODAY. Since winning Triple J’s Unearthed High in 2016 with her track ‘Drive’, Ray has blossomed creatively and lyrically. Pairing nuanced and oftentimes heavy lyrics with pop tracks, to create a body of work feels like a warm hug for your mid-20s.
In July, Ray nabbed the #84 spot on Triple J’s Like A Version Hottest 100 Countdown with her cover of Gang of Youths’ ‘The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows’, “I hadn’t thought about it, I didn’t think I was gonna make it”. Ray opened for the band on the Australian leg of their tour in 2022. “All the memories that I now have of singing that song live, on my own or with the boys (Gang of Youths) - it's really special, I definitely wasn’t expecting it”.
Ray’s debut album ‘Begin to Look Around’ was described by her as a ‘coming of age’ album, however her sophomore release ‘Positive Spin’, she says is optimistic with a touch of vulnerability and self-reflection. Furthermore, Ray teases that we should expect a pop-infused album with “an overall sense of brightness in kind of the universe of the record which I've been trying to portray through the aesthetic of everything.” but don’t be fooled, Ray’s incredible songwriting isn’t hidden as she still has “very highly prioritised lyrics, like as usual, and the stories are still deep. I think we're gonna have a lot of fun with this record”.
This latest album is absolutely a pop album, lyrically however, Ray remains steadfast on delivering personal and oftentimes heavy subject matter, ‘Don’t Date the Teenager’ is the perfect example of this. “I am a little bit nervous about ‘Don't Date the Teenager’, just because it's very much a bold thing that I'm doing. But I’m proud of it. I think that the message behind it, and the conversation that maybe it will inspire people to talk about or think about, it’s important to me. I think it's going to be important for some of my young fans. And so I take the responsibility of delivering that song and discussing it, I take it very seriously.”
Writing somewhere between 80-90 songs for the new album, Ray said the process of narrowing those down to just 12 tracks, she and her team mostly aligned, “I think there were a few songs that I had to say to my label, like, trust, this is, it's gonna get there. It's just it's not quite there yet. For the ones I did kind of have to hustle for to assure we’re on the final tracklist, I'm thrilled that we spent time kind of proving their purpose”. With a great team behind her, Ray feels lucky that they had the patience in understanding her desire to “create a whole universe with the record and how attached I am to the whole concept of telling stories”.
Ray worked with L.A.-based singer-songwriter Carol Ades on the track ‘America Forever’. Beginning the writing process in Ades’ living room and finishing it in a car ride, Ray noticed a turn in the direction of where her album was heading. “I think Carol (Ades) is such a phenomenal writer. I love her approach to writing and she just spills out these profound ideas. And that wasn't something that maybe I would have prioritised in my writing beforehand.”. Having a fresh set of ears and a clear mind from Ades helped Ray broaden the possibilities in which Positive Spin could be. “In my head I’d think, oh it's going to be impressive if I have sophisticated words all the time, it's going to be important that I have perfect rhymes all the time. And for Carol, it was so much more about feeling. It was about strong melodies and it was a commitment to honesty. And so I think after working with her, it shifted something in me, because I thought, I just want to make people feel like through my music.” Ray recalls how her passion for music stemmed from the feeling that music brought her when she was younger, so her time with Ades “felt like a session that healed my inner child.” adding that “I used to sit in my bathroom with my guitar and just sing and sing and sing for hours, that is how ideas were formed. And nowadays, because it's my job. It's usually: I've got a couple of ideas that are floating around in my head, I'm going to refine them once I'm in the environment in the studio, and have that kind of controlled timeline, which - although is great - and still can be very spontaneous and exciting.” Overall, Ray credits how her writing and passion for music switched perspectives from her time with Carol “I felt like I kind of had this happy medium between the two wells of that. It shaped how I approached the remaining sessions after that. And just allowing myself to kind of, say how I felt without having to dress it up as much, I suppose, like I used to.”.
Track 4 of the album, ‘Heartbreak Baby’ is not your typical independence anthem. In an era where so much pop music out there is about not needing anyone but yourself, which has its place of course, this track leans into the desire of wanting love and being unapologetic about it. “The day I wrote it, I was feeling defeated, because it was right off the back of kind of getting my heart broken, again. There were three heartbreaking events that all happened around the same time, three years in a row with three different people. And between the first and the second, there was a lot of embarrassment and a lot of shame, and I felt like I'd just put all of my trust in this person. Now they're gone and I'm humiliated. You know, the reality was, although I was sad, I knew that the reason that I had chosen to invest in someone, and therefore, you know - risk getting my heart broken - was because I loved to love. And that was kind of something I'd come to understand about myself over the whole process of writing this record.” Despite claiming that she is a very well-equipped Heartbreak-baby, Gretta still maintains that she operates better with a long-term relationship. Her embarrassment hurt and the amount of love she has to give helped her realise that. Heartbreak Baby explores the “light and looks for the positives” in heartbreak, asking herself “Why am I getting heartbroken so frequently?”.
“The lyric “I shine bright when you break me” came from this idea that I knew even in the pits of devastation of this breakup, I knew how much I had learned about myself going through other heartbreaks and how they had made me stronger. And I knew that, eventually, in time, it would happen again, and that I was going to learn something from this. I was going to gain something from this. You realise how important things like your friends are, and just how much you appreciate having them to cling to and to learn from. You remember what it is that you love to do, and not just because it’s something your partner likes to do. It reminds you of your own identity. I think we have this whole concept of the ‘glow up’ after the breakup, and it’s because people just take time to nourish themselves. I knew I was good at doing that. After I'd moved through the grief.”
The music video for ‘Heartbreak Baby’ is heavily inspired by the 1978 film ‘Grease’, showcasing the ideal post-breakup glow-up. The use of Grease came from the bold association with pop culture that Ray goes back to when defining this album. “I knew what ‘Positive Spin’ was, as a whole body of work and what I want to do with my career. I thought, I need to think bigger, I need to do something bold. I thought, what's an iconic moment in pop culture of this same feeling I'm talking about and immediately, it was obvious it was ‘Grease’. Sandy transforms from this innocent thing and comes out in this catsuit.” Just a few short months after the breakup that inspired the track, Ray performed at the ARIAS in 2021, adorned in a turquoise leopard print catsuit, “It was weirdly serendipitous, that had been an empowering fun day. It was my pop dream come true performance. I was so lucky to get to do that. I pulled from that experience into the video concept”. Ray’s most loyal followers would know the video is scattered with references to every single one of the tracks for the upcoming album, “ I said to Triana, the director, I need this to be like a scavenger hunt for my most loyal fans. I want to have a clue for every single song on the album in that video”.
Ray says she completely immerses herself into every aspect of music, even creating and sharing playlists with fans of music she has been listening to or is inspired by, “I can't stress enough how much time it's worth spending with records that inspire you, going to other gigs, reading and journaling as well. Journaling is a massive one for me. Being so consumed by music, when I was younger, and first starting was what made it feel like it could start authentically for me because I loved that so so much.”. Most artists have a key album/musician or body of work that inspires them at the time of working on a new project. For Ray this was the artist RAYE and her record “My 21st Century Blues”. Ray recalls how she took in the way RAYE created that record especially “showing off her areas of strength in the most impressive, classy way possible”. It is evident when listening to Positive Spin that Ray has done exactly that, coming out of her shell and showing off her incredible vocals, raw songwriting and versatility in genres. “There's nothing I need to shy away from! This is what I'm here to do. This is my job. I don't know if I would have had such a wake-up call or reminder if it weren’t for stumbling upon that brand new artist and record”.
In September, Ray is embarking on her national headline tour, and she hinted that the tour is going to be one to remember, with more songs to perform (old and new), with a touch of cute outfits and wholesome fan interactions. “It’s going to be fun, I can’t wait.”
Gretta Ray’s ‘Positive Spin’ is out today!