Bittersweet Endings & New Beginnings: The Journey To Gretta Ray's Debut Album

20 August 2021 | 12:40 pm | Tiana Speter

"It's very much a 'coming of age' record."

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From taking out the prestigious triple j Unearthed High crown back in 2016 with her bewitching tune Drive - a song that would also soon go on to become a festival staple - Melbourne singer-songwriter Gretta Ray is an artist with maturity well beyond her years and a knack for conjuring magical yet meaningful whimsy in the songwriting realms

While the past five years have featured a flurry of EPs, international tours and festival appearances since Ray graduated high school and set her sights on the world, one key jewel in the musical crown was still missing on this rapid ascent: a debut full-length album. But, as of next Friday 27 August, the huge milestone will solidify, with Ray releasing her long-awaited first studio album Begin To Look Around


Running the gamut of early adulthood freedom and curiosity amid lush pop, sweeping arrangements and the ever-lustrous vocals of Ray, Begin To Look Around is a snapshot of fervent honesty and dauntless execution from one of Australia's most exciting stars entirely now beyond the 'emerging' status.

While Ray's entire musical journey, from high school ingenue to now, has been entirely building to this moment, few, including Ray, could've predicted that her long-awaited debut album would be released in the midst of a global pandemic. But, as she told host Tiana Speter on today's episode of The Green Room podcast, it has been entirely worth the wait and extra hurdles. 

"It feels...I've gotta say more than anything else, it just feels really weird," Ray told host Speter on The Green Room.

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"I think it would probably feel weird regardless of what was going on, just because it's strange to have worked on something for so long, and thought about it for most of my life...

"Now, I have the vinyl, I can hold it as, like, as a physical thing which is crazy! And we're kind of at this ending point in a sense; but then also this beginning point. And I think with the added feature of the global pandemic happening... for a lot process of trying to finish this album - it does feel certainly very strange...

"It's interesting, but I think that I've definitely reached a point now where whatever I need to do in order to get this album heard, while kind of leaping over little obstacles that are presented by coronavirus and lockdowns etcetera, etcetera; I will do it for the sake of the music that I've worked so hard on, and for my audience who is very patient and kind to me."

While Ray has been surrounded by music for the majority of her life, with live performing seemingly in her blood - most recently evidenced by her Splendour XR virtual set - the journey to the end product for Begin To Look Around was initially somewhat of a mystery; and the unfurling COVID pandemic and unexpected heartbreak also played inadvertently large parts in what this striking album would eventually become. 

"With Begin To Look Around, the coolest thing, for me, about making this album was that: when I started writing it - I didn't really know what it as gonna become," Ray said. 

"I feel like that's often the case with making records, but especially because of the interruptions that we had, because of what was going on; it meant that I was doing a lot of processing.

"I wanted to re-record vocals for demos that we had of the songs that we chose to be on the album. And by the time we got to do that, I would be in a different headspace, you know, thinking about what I wrote the songs about initially...and then when we were finishing production months later, after I'd been stuck in Melbourne but not being able to go to Sydney, because that's where I made the record...I would've changed my mind again.

"I do love its finished product and what it's come to, but I definitely didn't set out being like: 'I'm gonna make an album that's gonna be about heartbreak'. The heartbreak happened while the album was being written. I know, right? Classic! But also: thank god, because it meant that I could write about it! 

"They're not things that I could've predicted, but I'm really happy that they happened. Because I think to a tee it's very much a 'coming of age' record."

You can watch the full episode of The Green Room with Gretta Ray and Tiana Speter below or here as they explore inspiration, live performance nerves and Ray unwittingly infiltrating host Speter's Spotify algorithms back in the day.

Alternatively, you can also listen to full The Green Room podcast episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts - or wherever you usually get your podcasts from!


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Need more music, film, TV and comedy in your life? Check out all previous episodes of The Green Room here - and did you know you can also watch episodes of The Green Room too? Head here to check out some of the recent videos, and if you're still hunting for content to feed your ears, be sure to check out some of the other exciting Handshake Agency podcasts below!