Greta Ray released her debut EP, “Elsewhere”, in February, such was the level of interest it had the potential to make things a whole lot more complicated. An executive decision was taken: “My manager and my mum took over all those e-mails and delayed all of our responses until my final exam [was] done,” says the 18-year-old. The plan was working until Ray received a call in October asking her to fly to Sydney as she’d won the Vanda & Young Songwriting Competition, beating a field of nearly 2,500 applicants to take the $50,000 first prize for her song “Drive”. (Former winners include the Preatures’ Isabella Manfredi, Megan Washington and Kimbra.) It was an incredible climax to a terrific year for this young Australian singer songwriter. –
It’s a shimmering, svelte, immersive four minutes of music with an expansive colour palette: vibrant choruses, rich, relatable lyrics, moreish melodic twists and turns. To borrow a phrase from a very clever new songwriter we are extremely excited about, you are certainly going to “feel it all.” .
Says Greta of the song:
I wrote the lyrics with the intention of portraying the thought process when going through a break up. More specifically, the moment when you come to understand the extent of what you’ve lost, when you start to feel the weight of what the relationship became. I think the lyric that best conveys that is: “I am sure that there is more to this than I care to admit”. Hopefully this rings true with you when you listen. The recording process at triple J was such an incredible opportunity; I got to work with some very special musicians and am so grateful for all of their time. We completed the production for this new song in the space of a day and half, which was a huge achievement for the whole team, considering that my usual producers and I spent a good few weeks on ‘Drive’. Despite it being a speedy process, it was incredibly fun and very satisfying.
Ray’s love of music hit early, and by five she’d joined the Young Voices of Melbourne choir, with whom she performed for 12 years. By seven she’d taken up piano and written her first song, and by nine had fallen in love with Taylor Swift and the Dixie Chicks, supplementing the musical diet of James Taylor and Joni Mitchell on which she’d been raised. The songs for Elsewhere were written between the ages of 15 and 16 – which, given her lyrical dexterity and command of storytelling, not to mention the maturity of her folk-inspired pop creations.
The Fat Angel Sings 