David Gray has just releaseed his 13th album, Dear Life.
Here, the multi-platinum star reflects on AI, making peace with Babylon’s enduring popularity and the “long arc” of being a successful singer-songwriter...
Your single Plus & Minus is a duet with up-and-coming artist Talia Rae, how did that come about?
“There were plenty of names suggested, but if things feel complicated I’m less inclined towards them. Then my manager happened to see Talia perform it in New York at a charity event, she brings a bluesiness to the track. Initially, I didn’t quite trust the song because it’s probably the most commercial thing I’ve done in a long time. But I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth – it’s such a single!”
You’ve also pointed out that the lyrical themes revolve around three elements, like your old classic Babylon. Does this mean you’re still fond of ‘the hit’?
“It took me a good period of time to make peace with the whole thing. I thought it was going to kill me, going around America playing it at numerous radio stations in every possible way. It got to the point where I didn’t feel anything about the song. So I took a step back and found my way back to the feeling. Once I did, I accepted it back into the family, but I prefer the adventure of the unknown.”
We hear you’ve also been experimenting with AI...
“Me and my producer Ben De Vries wanted Plus & Minus to be a duet and he said, ‘Why don’t we create a duet using AI just to give a sense of what it’s going to be like?’ So, I sang the other parts in a falsetto to give AI a bit of a head start and we used it to create this fake female voice. It sounded pretty dodgy, to be honest, but it did give a sense of what it would be like when another voice came into the song. Essentially, I think AI probably has enormous potential as the biggest sampler you’ve ever used in your life, and that’s basically all it is.
"My concern is the way it’s being used – not just in the music business, but across the board. It’s seen as a money-making tool to exploit resources, whether that’s the resource of your attention, or gas and oil. It could be an amazing creative tool, there’s no doubt, but I think that the way it will probably be used will be in a very unimaginative way to make money. AI is not real intelligence. Humans are more body than mind, although we like to think we’re all mind. We’re suffering, ageing, decrepit and, after a while, failing, and those are the things that make music interesting. AI isn’t going to suffer. It can pretend to, but that’s very different. You could pretend to be Shakespeare, but you’re not going to be him. I don’t feel it’s going to supplant creativity.”
Finally, why do you think you’ve been able to maintain a connection with your audience in the decades after your White Ladder breakthrough?
“One of the things about being a singer-songwriter is it’s generally a much longer arc. People are more accepting of the fact that there can be differences in what you do. I’m coming into an autumnal blaze now. I’ve crossed the 50 meridian and the observations have a new feeling of time being finite because my contemporaries and people slightly older than me are starting to get sick and disappear. It’s impossible not to get caught up in the fact that it’s going to be you at some point. If I couldn’t reflect on those things, if I was just going back to my 20-year-old self, I’d be bored shitless. But songwriters are given more space over time.”
