Rose Gray on Dancefloor Stereotypes, Discovering Her Identity and Louder, Please
Words: Audra Heinrichs | Photographer: Phoebe Salmon | Creative Direction: Grace Ellington | Set Designer: Ellen Wilson | Styling: Katy Cutbirth | Makeup: Grace Ellington | Hair: Christos Bairabas | Photo Assistant: Abena Appiah | Photo Assistant: Dylan Massara | Set designer assist: Martastok
Anyone who’s seen two of themselves in a grimy mirror or teetered down the gum-laden stairs of a basement rave knows there’s a catalogue of club-going characters one can encounter on a night out. There’s those who hold the wall, and those who bounce from it. Some puke and rally, some are in bed by midnight. One might fancy the dancefloor as the preferred venue for a heart-to-heart, while others see it as one for a tongue-to-tongue. But Rose Gray, the East London bred singer songwriter (and as British Vogue proposed, “the next big British pop star”) is a self-described observer. And if 2024 was the year of dance-pop music for navel-gazing, nose-wiping party girls thanks–in large part–to Charli XCX, it’s Gray who will offer 2025 a different kind of dissertation on club culture because of that identity.
Since its January release, Gray’s debut album, Louder, Please has been lauded by critics for its “escapist dance-pop anthems that pierce the heart” and “vitality, personality and a colourful dance-pop energy.” Indeed, anyone who I’ve personally made a Rose Gray stan since the album’s January release, has likened her angelic vocals to Lady Gaga, her empathic perspective to Robyn, and her certain joie de vivre to Kylie Minogue. Perhaps the most accurate way to describe her is a fusion of all of your favorite pop girls. But that’s not to say Gray isn’t her own artist.
When we talk, Gray is fresh off a whirlwind trip to Paris for Fashion Week, where she confessedly had too much fun following the Stella McCartney show. “I’m a bit hungover,” she bashfully admits, briefly cradling her head in her hand. The show – titled “From Laptop to Lapdance” – paid homage to women’s multidimensionality. Given Louder, Please boasts a similar ethos, it makes perfect sense that Gray was there.
Across 12-tracks, Gray indulges nostalgia on “Hackney Wick,” naughtily kisses off convention on “Switch,” and praises a lover’s patience on “Everything Changes (But I Won’t).” As Gray herself wrote upon the arrival of Louder, Please: “This album is an amalgamation of everything I love. It’s pop, it’s club, it’s underground, it’s maximalist, it’s delicate…” Only observers know those compliments and contradictions intimately.
Gray is who I’d call a PhD holder in she-donism - a party girl polyglot, if you will. She doesn’t just notice people on a night out, she makes the kind of inferences that serve as the subjects of her best songs. Even a fleeting glance across the dancefloor can be fuel.
“I was at a party last night, and honestly, I don't know if I can say their name, but one of my favorite artists was there and they were just so free on the dance floor,”
Gray recalls during our Zoom conversation. “And I was watching them, like, ‘I've been like that before.’ Substances may have taken me there, but…”
Gray honed her education via years as a club kid and a brief stint working the door at Fabric, London’s legendary night club (before the temporary closure in 2016). It’s a place I tell her I once frequented. “Did we meet,” Gray wonders. From one raver to another, probably. Then again, it’s unlikely I’d remember. Myself aside, it’s those nights that have culminated in clever bangers like “Party People.”
“Party people always bring the best of us, met you on a dance floor, what a metaphor,” she purrs on the track. Gray’s observations offer new validation to a genre that’s often been mischaracterized as generic or unserious. It’s listeners, too. When I ask who she prefers by her side on a night out, for instance, she lauds a wingman who makes the most of each moment.
“The sort of personality that if the club is not giving, let's get an Uber and move on,”
Gray said. “And someone who will just push me to just stay a bit longer.
“But I do have a bit of a rule recently where I try to leave before the sun comes up,” she tacks on.
Louder, Please also honours the people in her personal life - from her group chat, to Mr. Rose Gray, her longtime partner, Harris Dickinson. No offense to the latter, but Gray’s relationship is hardly the most interesting thing about her. In fact, whenever the actor makes an appearance on any one of her social media accounts, from Instagram to TikTok, there’s always at least one commenter who seems shocked to find him there at all. Her adorable cat, Misty Blue, might actually garner more attention.
Despite knowing she wanted to be a pop star from adolescence, it’s taken Gray a minute to reach this moment. Raised on The X-Factor and Madonna, Gray had an early flair for the acrobatic ballads of the divas that came before her. As a teenager at a performing arts high school, she found an outlet in school choirs, then through classical vocal training, and was discovered early. She signed what she describes as a “red flag” of a record deal with a label that, in essence, required her to make pop music devoid of any real identity. Ultimately, it ended with a lawsuit and was Gray’s first lesson in advocating for herself as a creative in an industry that, well, doesn’t always value them.
“I was not ready to be an artist for many reasons,” Gray acknowledges. “I was also writing songs. It wasn't like I was being given songs and I didn't have my voice yet, lyrically. I could sing. But I got quite stuck. I was lucky that I was able to get out of it. But what happened is, I lost all the music I made from the age 16 to 19 or 20.”
It’s a testament to Gray’s persistence that she appears healed from the inevitable trauma that accompanies being forced to break ties with a label at such a young age. Surely, the experience could’ve discouraged her from the industry altogether. What propelled her forward?
“I think a little bit of a delusion,” Gray answers succinctly. “I just never sort of thought that it wouldn't work out. Family and friends were like, ‘Are you sure this is what you should be doing? Do you want to study? Do you want to go to university?’ I was just like, ‘No, I’m just gonna keep making music.’”
She continues, “I feel like I've had a lot of life before bringing this album up. I’ve done so many amazing things. I've traveled loads. I've had loads of jobs, spent lots of time out outside of my home in New York and Paris, and got to know these cities quite well which has been really helpful as a songwriter. And I've written a lot for other people as well. So, at the through line of everything, I’ve always had music.”
It’s not going anywhere. And nor is Gray. Recently, she’s zig-zagged around Europe, playing shows at famed venues like Berlin’s Berghain, and she’s soon to join the Sugarbabes as an opener on their U.K. and European tour. Brixton Academy is among her dream marquees.
“I'm kind of ready for anything,” Gray says. “Many things have come through in the last couple of weeks that I didn't expect would happen straight away. And I'm just ready to finish my second album, to bring out a deluxe album, and tour. I just want to play shows and hopefully, set myself up for an even bigger year with a new project.”
She remains quiet as to what’s on her vision board for the next era. If it tells you anything, at the last one’s centre was a butterfly, but what’s more certain, is that Gray is not someone who’s reached the end of a cycle. She’s just spreading her wings.
