{"id":420552,"date":"2026-04-27T20:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T20:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/420552\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T20:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T20:54:09","slug":"in-ireland-a-man-and-a-guitar-and-some-lyrics-wasnt-threatening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/420552\/","title":{"rendered":"‘In Ireland, a man and a guitar and some lyrics wasn’t threatening’"},"content":{"rendered":"

With over 30 years in the music business under his belt, David Gray feels comfortable in his skin and in his music. On his current tour Past & Present, the Cheshire-born 57-year-old is enthusiastically embracing his past and showcasing new music he says stands \u201cshoulder to shoulder\u201d with anything he\u2019s created previously.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lightness and buoyant energy to Gray when we meet in Cork on a blustery day. One question in and I\u2019m entranced; he\u2019s thoughtful, savvy, expressive, hilarious, and could talk all day about the music industry.<\/p>\n

Over the decades, he\u2019s seen some changes of course. For a musician who started off on a slow burn before bursting into flame with the release of his fourth album White Ladder, he\u2019s arguably seen all sides of the industry. The biggest change he\u2019s seeing now though is how people connect with and find music.<\/p>\n

\u201cStreaming alters the way people engage with music. You have gazillions of songs available to you, 24\/7,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The album is ‘sacred’<\/p>\n

This is a far cry from Gray\u2019s early days of music discovery. Growing up in a small village in Wales, he found music by listening to his parents\u2019 records, or through word of mouth in school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never read the music press, and we didn’t really have radio reception in the village where I lived so it was very much word of mouth and maybe Top of the Pops.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Then I’d save up my money and I’d buy a single, and if I liked the single, I’d buy the album and then I\u2019d have to live with that album for a while, because I\u2019d spent all my money on it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The album is \u201csacred\u201d to Gray. It\u2019s legacy-building stuff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m still holding to the old idea that making an album is like hanging pictures in a gallery and you want people to go through them in sequence and for a reason. To end up in the last room, looking at the last painting, thinking about the ones they’ve already seen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Undoubtedly and proudly \u201cold school\u201d he gets lost in the process of making an album. \u201cI love the whole process, the unknown of it all.\u201d From the original seed of an idea to the fine-tuning and production, for Gray it feels like alchemy.<\/p>\n

\"DavidDavid Gray at the Imperial Hotel in Cork recently. ‘Streaming alters the way people engage with music.’ Picture: Larry Cummins\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have no idea if this embryonic thing is going to turn into something or not, and then suddenly it starts to coalesce around the seed of the idea and it\u2019s unlike anything you’ve done before, and you’re uncertain of its merits or even what it is, but you know that something’s happening, and you go with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In these instances, Gray says he\u2019ll have found new ways of saying something along his familiar themes of love, longing, mortality and the human experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Indeed, in his latest album Dear Life, he\u2019s found new, melodic, confident ways to reflect on \u201clife, observations or just the passage of time\u201d.<\/p>\n

White Ladder<\/p>\n

Of course, no chat with David Gray would be complete without addressing the White Ladder in the room. It\u2019s clear that Gray\u2019s relationship with his life-changing album has changed over the years, from the overwhelming aftermath of its success to a more philosophical, settled view of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I’m never going to have a moment like White Ladder again,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I\u2019ve long since made peace with the whole thing. And I don’t feel that the music I’ve made over the years is lacking anything.\u00a0<\/p>\n

” Dear Life is as good a record as I could make. It has a strong melodic and deep emotional sense to it. Playing the songs on this tour I see they have a presence, and they hold the audience. I knew they’d be able to go shoulder to shoulder with the big songs in the set on the Past & Present tour. And that’s been exactly right.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"DavidDavid Gray at his last concert in Cork in 2022. ‘I’m still holding to the old idea that making an album is like hanging pictures in a gallery and you want people to go through them in sequence and for a reason.’ Picture: Eddie O’Hare<\/p>\n

In his Past & Present tour Gray intersperses these newer tracks with songs from Lost Songs 95-98, A New Day at Midnight, Life in Slow Motion, and of course White Ladder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gray says he used to tweak many of these songs when he performed them live \u201cjust to try and keep things fresh and interesting, for me and the band\u201d, but since the White Ladder anniversary tour, he\u2019s gone back to performing the songs in their \u201ctraditional form\u201d.<\/p>\n

Twenty-eight years after the release of White Ladder, and nine albums later, Gray\u2019s ability to experiment while remaining quintessentially and enduringly \u2018David Gray\u2019 means he regularly sells out venues, including his Live at the Marquee gigs in Cork in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve somehow managed to survive the postscript of ubiquity and keep myself going,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

Artistic freedom<\/p>\n

That acceptance he talks about has delivered him a new freedom. \u201cI’m in a very free, creative era of my life. I can follow my intuition or my creative yearnings, wherever I really want to.\u201d<\/p>\n

That means he can make more records like the serene and atmospheric Skellig, which he released in 2021. Calling it the \u201cmost fun I\u2019ve ever had making a record\u201d Gray says he\u2019d love to follow that up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat record had a certain something that was like falling under a spell. And the way we made it as well, all live, around the mics with me at the centre, it was phenomenal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"DavidDavid Gray is a big fan on Manchester United, and was in the Emirates Stadium recently to witness their victory over Arsenal.\u00a0 Photo: Alex Pantling\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ireland has long been Gray\u2019s spiritual home. His connection to Ireland, and Cork in particular, thanks to early gigs in Nancy Spains on Barrack Street and being championed by RT\u00c9 music show No Disco, is undeniable, and Gray holds it tightly.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when I was making my early music, it really didn’t fit into the picture that the cynical industry of the UK was thinking about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“But here in Ireland, a man and a guitar and some lyrics wasn’t threatening. It was seen as a reasonable position to take. I sort of found a home here and it’s all built from that first moment.”<\/p>\n

David Gray will play the Live at the Marquee in Cork on Saturday and Sunday, June 13-14\u00a0<\/p>\n

Question of Taste with David Gray\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n What\u2019s been a favourite day lately?\n <\/p>\n

I took my wife to a Manchester United game recently \u2014 the game against Arsenal. It was quite a fantastic day. Oh, my God. It was probably the highest point of my year so far. I was so excited. Fans like me are desperate for the vibes, and [Michael] Carrick gave us them for a few games and I cashed in.<\/p>\n

\n What music are you listening to right now?\n <\/p>\n

A mix of things, but I\u2019m really enjoying Khruangbin. I\u2019m also a huge fan of Bill Callahan, so I listen to him a lot. And I discovered this song a couple of months ago called The Blood of an American by Bobby Wright, that\u2019s an absolutely stunning song.<\/p>\n

\n How do you \u2018discover\u2019 music these days?\n <\/p>\n

I try not to be seduced by algorithmic suggestions but have to confess that a few things have popped up when I\u2019ve left things running that are really good. I also find new music by overhearing what my kids are listening to.<\/p>\n

What do you love most about Ireland?\n <\/p>\n

The treasures of the heart are valued at the highest level here. Poets are seen as heroes, and this treasure of the national heritage and the mystery of place are so strong in the culture. And there’s just a bit more time here, for conversation, for lucidity. It\u2019s a culture that values the word and the story and the eye-to-eye contact.<\/p>\n

\n Where was the last place you visited in Ireland, not for work?\n <\/p>\n

When I was in Killarney last year, we did a bit of adventuring around the National Park. And a few years before that I was in Connemara, doing much the same thing. I would like to explore it more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With over 30 years in the music business under his belt, David Gray feels comfortable in his skin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,278,43],"class_list":["post-420552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}