Utterly spellbinding…

Melbourne singer-songwriter Gretta Ray has been on a one-track ride to superstardom since bursting onto the scene in 2016. From winning triple j Unearthed High to smash sets at the nation’s biggest festivals and shows across the world, she’s done just about everything an artist of 23 could ask for and more. Now, however, she’s finally ticking off perhaps the biggest milestone for any artist, the release of her debut album Begin To Look Around, which is out today.

Boasting 15 lushly-produced tracks filled with tender vocals and vivid lyricism, the record is a snapshot of the musical artistry that is Gretta Ray and gives a sneak peek into what’s on and beyond the horizon for the young talent.

We thought we’d catch up with Gretta to get deep on the album and the journey so far, but before that, join us as we dive into the album below.

Beginning the record with a bit of instrumental soul-stirring, the Melbourne muso wastes no time in entrancing you into the world of Begin To Look Around. Injected with synths, vocals and textural magic from the various cuts and tracks throughout the record (all of them, in fact), the 30-second amalgamation acts as a bit of a prologue to the record, to its abundance and overall ethereality.

Naturally, second track on the record ‘Bigger Than Me’ doesn’t let you catch your breath in the slightest, Gretta immediately launching into those wish-filled vocals and songwriter lyrics that throw it back to greats like Joni Mitchell and Carole King. But of course, it’s tinged with pop sensibilities, the inevitably catchy verses and vocals prompting you to bop and whirl all while peppering you with message and meaning.

It’s a duality (more on dualities and duologies soon) that the various cuts on the album are bursting with, with following bops like ‘Passion,’ ‘Happenstance’ and ‘Human’ all floating through your body and mind with equal resonance. But the powers of the record extend beyond and surpass it, so much so that it has the power to totally transport you across the world.

It’s a recipe really well embodied in our personal favourite ‘Paris,’ gentle vocals and lush-instrumentalization whizzing up, down and around the soundscape. But Gretta’s lyrical prowess shine more than ever here, the hook ‘This whole thing feels like Paris/The chaos ingrained in this grandness /The greyest days can still seem magic in the midst of my sadness/As it holds a mirror up to me’ placing you right there next to Gretta as she engages in existential freefall in the city of love, light and self-realisation.

Then of course comes ‘Cherish,’ the heartbreak ballad that’ll pull on all of your heartstrings as Gretta taps into the fundamental need to be loved, and the inevitable rain that results when that part of us is let down. It’s beautifully summed up on the hook as Gretta ventures into her head voice, singing ‘What do I have to do/Just to make you believe so you can cherish me like/I cherish you?’ Songwriting just doesn’t get more honest than that.

Not only is ‘Cherish’ one of the emotional heartbeats of the record, but it also forms one half of ‘Duology Three’ with ‘The Brink,’ the most closely-linked double single on the album, as described by Gretta herself. The ‘Duology’ format is one that has definitely defined the Begin To Look Around journey, with other Duologies such as ‘Human / Passion’ and ‘Bigger Than Me/ Readymade,’ both offering alternate and adjacent snapshots into love, independence, heartbreak and faith.

We’re definitely bouncing back and forth between tracks here, but Begin To Look Around deserves a totally unfiltered exploration, and so we can’t move forward without gushing over ‘The Cure,’ Gretta’s raw vocals atop the resolute ivories grounding you in London-tinged sadness as she gets her most vulnerable. Every line she sings completely tears your soul apart, but the space between and beneath it all is flush with duality and hope, an understated but intoxicating belief that despite all of the tears and emotional weight, she’s that much stronger for it.

It’s the tail end of the record that has the power to make or break it. Make it an enduring sonic artwork that will age like a fine wine, or break it all into a thousand pieces as it collapses on itself, never again to be heard with consideration or feeling. The tail end of Begin To Look Around is without a doubt the former, cuts like ‘It’s Almost ‘Christmas In Philly,’ ‘Worldly Wise’ and ‘Learning You’ displaying some of the finest variability and versatility of Gretta the artist, Gretta the storyteller.

The record is everything a longtime Gretta Ray fan could ask for, and by the time you reach album closer ‘Care Less,’ you’re essentially held and caressed as you take stock of the emotional journey you’ve just been on. It’s one that you’ll be able to experience in different ways with each relisten; each immersion into the world of Gretta Ray, and her debut album Begin To Look Around.

Now, check out our interview with Gretta below to further explore the record in all of its lush complexity.

Anyone who’s currently in or has been in their early twenties knows that it’s a time of going back and forth between thinking you’ve got everything figured out to just totally being lost and looking for answers. ‘Begin to Look Around ‘ covers it all, but as we sit here now, which one of those is a better description for you? 

Things feel very strange right now. It’s definitely been a surreal experience to talk about a time where I possibly didn’t realize how everything was coming up roses and going really well. I think because I was going through some pretty personal stuff when I was writing the record, there was a bit of a dark cloud over me. But, in hindsight, and especially with the last couple of years, talking about it now I’m like “Oh, my gosh, thank goodness that I had the opportunity during that time, no matter how I was feeling, to throw myself into all these different places in the world and be a sponge for life.”

There were a lot of very exciting shows and tours that were happening at that time as well. But now there is a lot of excitement with the record coming out. But it’s of course an awfully strange time to be releasing one.

I’m trying to lessen the eagerness of wanting to do everything and just go easy on myself, because we’re all very limited in terms of what we can actually do at the moment. I’d rather just let people enjoy it, and make peace with the fact that there are obstacles. Then, when things can eventually open up again, we can go full speed ahead when it’s safe to.

Now, congrats on the new album! Obviously, any first album is huge for any artist, but being an artist that has already achieved so much so early on, does it feel like just another accomplishment ticked off the list? Or is it in a totally different lane to everything else you’ve done?

I’m actually not trying to not think about it like that. I really owe this record the time to just be present with it. Everyone’s different with this stuff, but I was able to detach from the record in a sense throughout last year because it was mostly finished. So I was just waiting until the borders opened up so I could get back to Sydney and finish it. But while I was waiting, I was able to move onto the next thing and create new stuff in that time.

But now that we’ve finished it, gone and shot a music video and are now back in lockdown. I just can’t neglect it at this point, even though I could be writing other things. But I do feel this sense of “This little fucking record has had a tricky time.” [laughs] I just want to hold it and do whatever I can to serve it, because I’ve worked so hard on it. There’s already this nostalgia interwoven into its newness, so I’m enjoying that just being my focus right now.

I don’t really know what the next thing looks like yet, but that really excites me. But then again, I didn’t know I was going to write this kind of record. I knew I wanted to make a pop album with Begin to Look Around. But aside from that, the whole narrative happened as I was writing it. So you can’t plan for these kinds of things. But I feel like I’m in a good spot with not rushing into whatever is next. No one has the stamina to rush art at the moment. [laughs]

The whole timeline for you over the past couple of years seems so hectic. Can you just give me a brief breakdown of when you saw the initial songs you wrote for this actually turning into an album?  

I wrote quite a few songs for this record, knowing that it would be for an album. But it was probably after writing a song called ‘Paris’ when I felt it was turning into a cohesive piece. I just remember how satisfying that session was, in terms of how challenged I felt as a songwriter. I loved making the demo for that with Kyran Daniel.

And when I was recording the backing vocals I thought to myself, “I’m in the thick of this. We’re doing session after session. We’re getting good songs, and I’m getting better.” So that was probably the turning point, which was about halfway through writing it.

You start the record with the ‘Becoming’ instrumental, which listens like it belongs in a ‘Titanic’ dream sequence. Was there a certain tone you were trying to set with it? How did that opener come together?

I really wanted to start the record with an intro, because I love how ‘Bigger Than Me’ comes in right on my vocal. But I wanted to set this cinematic scene for the record. And when Robbie and I were producing it, that was a real intention to place the listener somewhere. I actually got the idea from Ainslie Wills, her last record has a really beautiful intro. And when I heard it for the first time, I was like, “I want to do that!”

So ‘Becoming’ is actually made up of different parts from each track on the record, but they’ve all been pitched to the same key. It has sounds from ‘Paris’ and this echoed synth sound from ‘Bigger Than Me.’ It also has the string arrangement from ‘The Brink’ and backing vocals from ‘Human.’ We just tossed it all in there and arranged it in a way that felt like it was coming to life.

I want it to just suck people in and let them know that ‘You’re in the world of Begin to Look Around now and you’re going to stay with me until the end.’

Given there are 15 tracks on this album, there’s plenty of variability musically and sonically, which means there’s something for everyone. Was there an underpinning sonic quality you were trying to embed throughout it all? A motif of sorts? 

Sonically, the intention was to find the appropriate balance between new and exciting pop elements, along with organic instruments that would bring about a sense of lushness to the songs. I’m rooted in folk and country and singer-songwriter records filled with guitar layers, grand pianos, string arrangements, all those kinds of things. But then I love pop so much as well, I think pop music is so intriguing. I really wanted to find a way to make those two worlds collide in a way that felt true and authentically me.

And just narratively and conceptually, after I had realized what this record had become, I wanted to celebrate the feeling of being naive and wide-eyed out in the world. I just hope that the songs sound like that feeling but not in a way where it’s a bad thing. The fact that it’s daunting is a good and exciting thing that should be embraced.

I love how you can go from a steady slow burn like ‘Human’ to a driving hit like ‘Love Me Right,’ and they still feel part of the same story. How do you reconcile those extremes to meet in the middle?  

‘Human’ was a really dreamy state of mind that we were writing about. And so, you produce it to serve that feeling. You look for other references that are in line with that, like the Kacey Musgraves or Katy Perry record. My friend Charley also has a really great pop song that inspired ‘Human’ as well.

And then with ‘Love Me Right,’ that chorus is the most repetitive thing that I’ve done. Even though all of the songs on the record are mine, ‘Love Me Right’ never instantly felt like mine, because I’ve never written a chorus like that before. It felt so pop and I was like, “What am I going to do with this?” And when it came to the production, I just said to myself “Look, if it’s a club banger, it’s a club banger. I have to do everything in my power to serve it. I’m not going to try and force it to be something that it isn’t.”

I’ve done that a bit in the past with pop songs. But it’s a tale as old as time. So many artists go through the same thing. Each session had a different feeling to it, which affected each song in terms of its production. I just wanted to follow the prominent emotion that came up in those sessions.

That’s so funny that that’s something you can fight with yourself about.

I still get so excited about it! There are some things that I wouldn’t say are necessarily too on the nose or anything, but they’re such obvious production elements that we put in there to make it that. Like before the second chorus of ‘Love Me Right,’ there’s this cool little synth drop, and I remember when that came on I just giggled. I thought it was so funny because I just thought to myself “I could never have seen myself putting this in a song, ever.” And then it was in there it was perfect.

Lyrically you really shine on this album as well. Every song has some cool double entendre or crazy imagery. I really love the hook on ‘Paris’ though that reads ‘This whole thing feels like Paris/The chaos ingrained in this grandness /The greyest days can still seem magic in the midst of my sadness/As it holds a mirror up to me.’ There’s so much to unpack there. But overall, what feeling does that hook tap into?

Interestingly enough, with the chorus of ‘Paris,’ I was really trying to nail that concept. The chorus is always where you try and say the whole message of the song. And originally the melody was just a bunch of ‘woos’ which is usually what I do. But I was co-writing and Kyran went “Actually, we need to put some more space in here. We need to repeat this melody.” And so we got all of those rhymes and everything, which was really awesome.

That session was excitingly challenging in the sense that I was like, “I cannot drop the ball for a second with these lyrics, because I am trying to convey a really particular idea of Paris being a metaphor for heartbreak. So I have to constantly prove my point.”

And so I think the chorus was just the perfect opportunity, especially with the way that the production opens up. And I feel you can see Paris at that moment. And then just validating the fact that it’s chaotic, but it’s also grand and it’s grey and sad, but also the magical part of that.

Just talking about ‘Paris,’ this album feels very worldly, with references to Paris, Philadelphia and the fact that you found a second home in London while writing it. Thematically or sonically, did all of those places and Australia contribute different parts to the construction of the album?

Great question. I feel like Sydney was where the excitement for the record was born. Just because I love working in Sydney and the co-writing community down there has really welcomed me with open arms.

I’d written everything that I’d done up until ‘Heal You in Time’ by myself for the most part at that point. And so there was a real sense of “I’ve met my peers” when I came to Sydney. I got into the industry quite young and a lot of people I’d worked with were eight to 10 years my senior, which was fine of course. But it was really nice and super validating to go to writing camps, APRA songhubs and co-writing sessions, because I’d just signed publishing with Sony/ATV and just be like “Oh, there are people my age that love this as much as I do.”

I’d had Gab and I had a few friends that were artists, but I didn’t know people who were there solely for the songwriting. And it was just really interesting to have that perspective of the people “behind the scenes,” the ones “behind the bops.” It meant that I got to reflect on all the excitement that came with creative collaboration and travel for work, and just learn new things.

And so it really made sense that ‘Bigger than Me’ landed right in the middle of that period in my life. I wrote it in Sydney, which was funny because Sydney was where the exciting part of the album was born. And then London was just so sad but so formative. A lot of the different places that the record is set in reflect different emotions. But either way, I gained something from each of those places, which was cool. Man, remember travel? How good was that?

Through it all though, ‘Love Me Right’ feels like a really cool affirmational cut on the record. You’ve said that it’s a reminder for you to ‘not invest in relationships unless someone truly ‘loves you right.’ Did that lesson come immediately after that relationship? Or was that a slower realisation?

The interesting thing about that lesson is that I’m sure I’ll learn it again, just in a different way [laughs]. It’s so interesting. With relationships, you can get out of one and be like, “Phew. I know so much more now,” and then you’ll be like, “Oh, shit. It happened again.” But in terms of that specific scenario and how much I had normalized a sense of codependency for someone when I was so young, that song was a real turning point for me. Just in the sense that there’s this strong sense of self and independence within the lyrics that didn’t arrive until so many months later.

So I had that chorus, and it was originally a really positive song about rebuilding a particular relationship. But I never felt that things were totally right with it. The chorus was the only thing that stayed the same in every rewrite because it was the strong point. And so it took me getting a bit more life experience and detaching from that certain scenario to come back for the fifth and final rewrite and be like, “Actually, I need to make this about independence and I can’t have it sing about this relationship anymore. It needs to just be about me.”

And then it’s also me asking “What if the relationship was good?” But the independence in the chorus had to bleed out into the rest of the song. I didn’t rewrite that until almost six months after the other songs when we were in a lockdown. Little fun fact there. [laughs]

With each rewrite did you feel like you were getting closer every time or was it more back and forth? As in “Ah, that second version was probably better than this fourth one” and so on?

It’s really interesting that you say that, because I took the second version to my booking agent and he said: “Chorus is a 10 and the verses are an 8.” So I was like, “Okay, well, I have to make the verses of the 10.” Then I just rewrote everything.

But I played them to my two best girlfriends, without telling them which one was which, and they were like “I think there are more hooks and there’s more accessibility in the second!” I was like. “Fuck it! Damn it. Okay.” But then I rewrote it again and was still trying to bring new melodies in. It was a real patchwork of a song.

But yeah, there was a bit of one step forward, two steps back thing going on with that process. But you really have to open yourself up to other people’s opinions in a collaboration. And the cool thing is that me and my two girlfriends all have similar music tastes. They’re going to know what’s going to stick. So when you do have a chorus and they’re like, “Oh, this part’s really hooky,” I listen. But I think the fifth version is, for the most part, based on the second version that we did.

You also went an interesting route in the lead up to the album with your ‘Duology’ releases. What was the thought process behind that and how did you decide which songs to pair with what?

I wanted to be able to hone in on the things on the record in a way that allowed me to speak about them in more detail. I think if I had done it the traditional way and dropped a single every couple of months, it would have been too much info for my audience to handle while adapting to a slight genre shift and emotional rollercoaster.

I just wanted this campaign to feel welcoming and understandable. And so the great thing about the Duologies is that it’s allowed me to speak more about songs from the same feeling, but from different angles. But it also means that I get a really interesting insight into what songs and feelings my audience are moved by. I think at the moment people love to listen to music alone in their headphones and just be sad with the upfront vocal during the initial listen. It’s this comforting one-on-one experience between the record and a listener.

And so with songs like ‘Cherish,’ people were like, “Oh, my gosh, but this is about my life.” And they’d fill my DMs with these beautiful, heartbreaking and personal stories. but that is something that people really gravitate to. I think that it’s just meant that to people because it’s been so theme-specific and there’s been a little bit of something for everyone.

I love that your music videos are really movement-centric, from ‘Bigger Than Me’ to ‘Love Me Right.’ Is this an album you want your fans to dance to, be in their feelings too or just totally be whatever they feel to? 

I just want to make people feel whatever way they need. I want it to be a little bit of an escapism record. Initially, I wanted people to listen to this record and look around and be like, “Wow, it’s really cool where I am. What can I learn from this situation or place that I’m in?” But I feel for my audience, being mainly Australian, we’re all in a pretty shit time. It’s a weird time for this record, or any record, to come out.

But for those people, especially those who had a whole year of travelling planned right after high school taken away from them, I really want this record to be a comforting bear hug for that loss. Just for it to be like “Okay, take yourself there in your headphones for the time being” and just reassure them that it’s going to be really exciting when it does happen. That’s probably my number one priority and I hope that it makes people feel good.

You’ve said that the album as a whole is a “documentation and celebration of the lessons I’ve learned about love, life and your passion for music.” Is this album still teaching you lessons? If so, were there any that were particularly hard or impactful? 

A big lesson that I’ve learned is that the first album is a lot [laughs]. I expected it to be that way, but it’s still been a lot. It’s definitely made me see just how much time and thought is put into releasing something like this. The other thing that it’s taught me, and this is a bit specific to the current times, is that it’s so helpful to have live shows. I love the ways that I’ve found to connect with my audience online, but I would say I’m a pretty traditional artist at my roots. Those were the kind of artists that raised me and that I still turn to now.

I just really can’t wait to play shows again, because the energy that you get from an audience really shapes your relationship with music, especially post-release. My relationship with the record now is still mostly mine, which means that it’s going to feel different when it’s out in the world with people. And for a while, I’m not going to be able to share it with them in that physical space. But that will happen eventually.

And finally, are there any lessons you want your fans to get out of ‘Begin To Look Around?’

I think less so learn and more take away, is that it’s totally okay to chaotically change your mind about things or people. There’s such an immense amount of pressure on people our age to immediately know everything post-high school. And I feel really fortunate that I knew I wanted to do this one thing since I was seven years old. But there’ve been so many things that I’ve been wrong about and I just can’t wait to keep being wrong about things, because you learn so much more about yourself.

I really want this record to validate that unknown and just embrace it. There’s a lyric in ‘The Cure’ that goes, “There’s growth in falling apart.” I think that’s very true and I would like people to relate to it. So that’s my answer.

Gretta Ray’s debut album ‘Begin To Look Around’ is out now. You can buy/stream it here. Be sure to keep up with her on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date on all of her latest projects.