Music interview: David Gray at Westonbirt Arboretum

Wednesday 1st July 2009

Steve Harnell catches up with fellow Pembrokeshire old boy David Gray before his outdoor show at the leafy surroundings of Westonbirt Arboretum

That old adage about the cream always rising to the top doesn’t seem to relate to the music industry very often.

In a world where image, hype and hitting the right demographic always seems the most important, you can almost count the number of acts who’ve made it through good old fashioned hard graft and songwriting ability alone on the fingers of one hand. Famously, David Gray was fast running out of time before his 1999 album White Ladder became a word of mouth success.

“I was at the end of my tether certainly,” he explains. “There are only so many times you can put yourself out there if there’s nothing coming back. You’re going to hurt yourself in some sort of spiritual way.

“Luckily, it all turned the other direction. I mean who could have written it? It was a fairytale. It was like something Hollywood would have come up with. Once the album started to creep up the charts in the UK and the States we just knew it would go all the way. There was an inevitability about it and we started to wear that confidence.

“And audiences love that kind of confidence as things started to turn in our favour. You’re like “wow, is this how it works? Is this why I’ve been such a miserable bastard all my life!?” It was an amazing thing to go through. The album charmed its way into people’s hearts.”

There’s clear parallels, too, with Elbow who’ve finally achieved mainstream success with their fourth album The Seldom Seen Kid – which was dedicated to their friend Bryan Glancy who died suddenly in 2006 aged just 39. David’s a huge fan of the band and has been delighted with their success. Strangely enough, Glancy was one of Gray’s best mates, too. It all fits into place.

“The Elbow record is a comparable thing certainly. They staked a lot on that album. They’re passionate, they made it themselves, there was no budget to speak of for all the strings and extra things on that album. They begged, borrowed and stole and poured their heart into it. When they won the Mercury Prize they were like the happiest men you’d ever seen in your life! Everybody felt for them.

“I’ve just come back from the record company and they’ve got a new press shot. They look all successful! The hair’s been done, and a stylist has just come in with some new clobber.

“There are so many triumphs nowadays of style over content; it’s good to see a band like that who are the real deal. We had a best friend in common, Brian Glancy, who they dedicated their record to. He was the best man at my wedding.”

The last time we saw David in Bristol was for a sold-out show at the Colston Hall on his greatest hits tour. Whereas many acts seemingly play their hits through gritted teeth, Gray found to his surprise it gave him a whole new lease of life.

“That was a great gig at the Colston Hall. We really had a fantastic time on that tour. I’m even happier now, it’s ridiculous.

“That was good fun as the greatest hits tour is often viewed with scepticism by some artists and journalists. In some ways it’s fine – I know Marvin Gaye through buying his greatest hits, likewise for Al Green. I didn’t see it as a bad thing. I thought I’d be uncomfortable with it but as it turned out it acted as a natural bookend for a period of time. It felt very positive as it was a new band – there’s some magic in the air in the Gray camp at the moment.

“We had a whale of a time. The new band have really come into their own and I’ve moved on from there in that I’m making a new album with them now.

“I had a complete revamp of everything. I needed a change and a new challenge and to say a few goodbyes.

“The greatest hits tour came right in the middle of recording the new album, but it actually ended up feeding into the album and strengthened the band.

“There’s nothing like playing together to accelerate the relationships within a band and glue everything together

“I’ve been working like crazy in the time that I haven’t released any new material. People say ‘where have you been?’ but I actually think it’s a positive thing to have been away for a while. These days when it’s being forced down everyone’s throats, it’s nice to step away. It’s just a case of whether your songs have resonated with people which dictates whether there’ll be anything left for you when you come back. There still seems to be an audience out there for me. But I still think this new album will reinvigorate everyone – I’ve got a very good feeling about it.”

And the new album in question is Draw the Line, Gray’s eighth studio effort which is dues for release in September.

“The new album is very big in places. There are a couple of very grand arrangements on it.

“The final track is a duet with Annie Lennox called Full Steam which has got this giant Righteous Brothers arrangement behind it, no holds barred. It’s the most extravagant thing I’ve ever done. It makes Alibi off the last album sound like Nebraska by Bruce Springsteen!

“With Annie, I wanted someone with real presence. The way she can spit out a line and still remain feminine and quite poppy was what I was after. The lyric is dark and brooding – she lifted it up out of the weight of its sentiment.”

As a former Pembrokeshire lad myself, I can well appreciate how difficult it was to live on the cultural fringes. After moving from Manchester as a youngster, Gray spent his formative years in the sleepy fishing village of Solva in the picturesque South West Wales county.

So did his isolated upbringing have much influence on his songwriting?

“You make it all up in your head don’t you? There was a drip feed – you knew the odd person who’d been to London and had a hot tip for you – ‘listen to The Cure’. The Cramps? Brilliant! That would keep me going for another year. Anything else...?

“If there were a few things you could latch onto it was enough. I look at my kids now who are going to grow up in London with all this paraphernalia around them – all my record collection and books. They’re going to know more about art and music when they’re 16 than I did when I was 26.

“I don’t know whether that’s an advantage or a disadvantage.

“It’s a magical place down there although the winters are a bit boring when you’re 16 or 17 – there’s not a great deal going on. Nature is my drug so my favourite place in the world is down in Pembrokeshire. All those places are inside of me and I carry them around with me wherever I go. I just wish I could get back there more.

“I used to get the train after school down to Cardiff University to see gigs, and in theory, would get the late one back.

“I remember seeing the Waterboys at Cardiff Uni. But they didn’t stop at curfew time and had three or four encores. There was no way I was going to leave. I ended up being stuck in Cardiff and couldn’t get home.

“Another time I went all the way up to Edinburgh to see The Smiths for the opening of the Meat Is Murder tour without telling my mum. So we were stuck there, too. And that was quite frightening for a 16-year-old from Pembrokeshire. It was much more of an adventure back then.

“If I don’t have to get a train to a gig nowadays and end up sleeping in a photo booth I’m not interested!”

David Gray plays Westonbirt Arboretum on Friday, July 17. He’s supported by singer-songwriter John Smith. Tickets are priced £31.50 and available by ringing the Forestry Commission box office on 01842 814612.