Macy Gray

TEXT GENIE DAVIS

VISUAL ADAM HUTSELL

“For an hour and a half, I’m queen of the universe,” singer-songwriter and music producer MACY GRAY says of performing. “Everyone’s interested in what I have to say, in what I’m wearing, in everything I do. 80% of the day, I may have no idea what I’m doing, but right there on stage, it’s real clear.” 

With a new album, Ruby, set for a September release, this member of musical royalty takes a generous look back at her beginnings. 

Gray says what drew her to music during her college years was the fun of it, although her passion for her craft was a gradual process that included learning classical piano as a child. “It just was a lot of fun, it was a challenge to me. I learned how to play the guitar. I liked putting stickers up on stop signs about shows, I loved getting people into the shows. We’d get eight people, twelve people, I thought it was awesome.” She notes “The people, the environment, the freedom, just being able to make up stuff… of course, I would choose it again.” 

As time has passed, she says, “You change the level of where you’re making music, how you’re making music, but it’s still just so much fun. I wish there was a word for how much fun you have on tour, in the studio, everywhere. You make a lot of mistakes, you learn, and I love it.” 

Along the way, Gray won a 2001 Grammy for her soul ballad “I Try,” released a tribute to Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book, and put out a record that included covers of music from a varied range of artists such as Metallica and My Chemical Romance. Then there was her jazz album, 2016’s Stripped. In short, she’s always learning, always loving music in a wide range of genres. 

She stresses that her voice is her main instrument, and always has been. “I play a little of everything, drums, guitar, piano – I like a guitar because it is portable. The piano, I just didn’t stick with it long enough to be really good. When you sit there at the piano, it’s confining.” She also learned to play flute and clarinet. “But I never excelled at those instruments. Thank goodness I had a voice, or I would be a non-working musician,” she laughs. 

Gray takes care of her instrument: she sees a vocal coach every month, and before she goes on tour, she sees her doctor to “check out my cords.” While she doesn’t practice daily at home, she spends 90 minutes a day warming-up whenever she’s on tour, which is often. 

While the artist has passionate fans today, the first time she was ever paid to perform was an ongoing gig with a jazz band, playing brunches at a Hollywood Ramada Inn. “I got $100, and I thought it was a fortune,” she recalls. 

Asked if she feels a woman’s experience in the music industry is different from that of a man, she says, “There are many differences, but you’ve been a woman your whole life, so when things come up, you know how to handle them.” 

Have things improved in recent years for women in the music business? Gray believes they have, and says that now, on the business-side of the industry, she sees more women running things. As an example: “A woman is heading Universal Music Group. And, I think things have been revealed about what goes on behind closed doors, which makes things a little easier.” Business aside, as to the fans’ perception of music, that hasn’t changed, she attests. “They just want good music.” 

Gray offers this advice for girls thinking of following in her footsteps. “They should know that they have all the possibilities and opportunities in the world. Don’t let being a woman stop you. I hate it when people say they can’t make it, or it’s hard to make it because you’re a woman. There are things you just have to adjust to and work around. It’s like being tall. If you have to get through a door, and it’s difficult because you’re tall, you work around it.” 

Her personal philosophy is to have a “conversation with God and let Him take over. I get up there on stage, and I let go of myself and the whole universe takes over. I try to stay as unconscious as possible on stage. If I think about it, if I get self-conscious, and the show doesn’t work. If I can lose what’s in my head, it’s a great show.” 

In short, it’s all about the music, which she describes as “like nothing anyone has heard before. I don’t copy anybody.” Her new release, Ruby, she calls a “level up” in terms of writing, production, and voice. “I’ve come a long way since I started. I think I’ve finally just got my head together where music is concerned. Now, I know so clearly what I’m doing. I’m still in the moment, but I know what to do to get into the moment I want to get to,” she laughs. “You get older and wiser. Some don’t, but I do.” 

Ruby will be Gray’s 10th album. The Grammy Award-winner describes some of her favorite moments on the new record. “There’s a song called “White Man,” and the vamp is clapping and horns, no vocals, just instruments – it’s really uplifting. And on “When It Ends,” the bass solo. It gives you a moment to absorb the song. With “Witness,” the super-cool melody goes through the whole song, it rises over everything perfectly. There’s a lot of curves but it carries, that’s almost unheard of…” she muses. The sense of fun she’s always felt whenever she comes into contact with music, it’s still there. She may be wiser now, but she’s still filled with the joy of creating and singing. She’s determined never to lose that. 

The name of her album comes from her favorite color, red. “It’s high emotion, it’s intense. Your eyes go right to it. It’s danger, like a red flag. It’s all the things that excite people and make them react.” She was originally planning to call the album Red instead of Ruby, but realized there were other albums released that had already claimed that title. 

“So, we went down a whole list of reds – crimson, scarlet, all that, and someone said ruby. It’s a little off-red actually. It’s a beautiful gem, and it’s my favorite shade of red now…” 

The title seems fitting: Gray, with a voice that evokes wonder and power, is a true gem herself.