Lauren Ray is on the other end of the telephone, we are not facing each other and yet because of the great gift she has for expression, a sense of pureness, and straight talking. I almost imagine that she is sat just opposite me, her features, thanks to the dynamic video for her single Be A Man, inscribed on my eyes, glowing with pride at the way she has taken her talent with serious passion and how she has patiently adhered to her own sense of self, of exploring what it means to be an artist without rushing into it with all the dangers and issues that can arise because of it.
With a new set of songs ready for the world to listen to and ahead of touring as support to Paul Carrack in the new year, it could be argued that time is at a premium for Ms. Ray; like all of us there is expectations and demands on our days, our minutes, on the way we present ourselves to the world and how we make life through our art, through what makes us human. It is time though that Lauren Ray is willing to spend. For so many of us we count that time as if it were expenses, totting up the hours and hoping that at the end of the week we are somehow ahead of our neighbour, our friends in what we have achieved, when in fact what matters is how you have enjoyed the game, how well you have treated those around you and listened to their songs as they have listened to yours.
It is an admirable trait, one that commends Lauren Ray’s take on life to all and as she reflects in our conversation about her single Be A Man, the tour in the new year with one of Britain’s finest song-writers, Paul Carrack, and her E.P., and despite being distant in terms of it being conducted by phone, it is one of those rare moments in which you cannot help but feel close to the performer, where you can talk freely and know they are doing so as well.
First of all, congratulations on the Be A Man single, it is tremendous and the video is very effecting.
LR: “Thank you so much, I came up with the concept at the last minute and I wasn’t sure how it was going to be received but it’s turned out fine.”
Did it take a long time? It must have been time-consuming with the make-up? For anyone who obviously hasn’t seen it on the screen as a very devilish, rakish man but then he transforms throughout. Was it quite a difficult process?
LR: “Do you know, it wasn’t but then I’m bound to say that aren’t I? It was all arranged in about four days and we actually shot the entire video in under four hours from walking into the studio, getting set up and filming, that was done in about three and a half hours and essentially all the power is in a really good wig that she managed to find – I think it’s actually real hair which I find really creepy and then she just managed to make me look masculine with the way she did the make-up quickly and then I just borrowed my boyfriend’s suit jacket much to his dismay and that was it really. The process of making Be A Man took a bit longer than the rest of it then it was as simple as wiping it off and putting female make-up on me. Yes, it was interesting really, it didn’t take as long as I thought it was going to but I’m glad it looks more complicated than it was.”
It’s very cool, it just reminds me of an awful lot of episodes in the old black and white classic films with the transformations that you come across in those, in a very beautiful way like the way Lon Chaney Jr and the way he changed, I know he was a master of horror but it’s all to do with the simplicity. It’s basically ahead of what is effectively a very busy time for you – the E.P. and you’re going out on the road with Paul Carrack.
LR: “The E.P. came out with the single from it and I’ve got a mini acoustic tour lined up as a way of practising the new material ahead of hitting the road with Paul Carrack in January 2019 and I’ve just recorded a second album, so I’ve been kept pretty busy. The Paul Carrack tour officially starts mid-January and that will be going on until the end of March so I’m gearing up towards that really.
He’s always been so very gracious when it comes to his support acts over the years because he’s had numerous ones and to be part of that must be really thrilling.
LR: “I’ve only met him once before and he was very kind and he and his agent invited me to his album launch and that way I was able to meet his team before I come out on the road with him in January. Even with that brief meeting I had with him, he was so lovely and nice, I’ve heard wonderful things about him from other people who know artists who’ve toured with him and they say he is just lovely to tour with. I just think I’m fortunate in that all the artists I’ve toured with in the supporting slot including Paul Carrack have all been very nice and I know I’m not very surprised by that but I think if I’m going to be travelling around the country mainly on my own and around Europe with people who essentially I’ve never met and I’ll never know, it just makes it so much easier and so much more pleasurable when they are so welcoming and so gracious. People couldn’t do enough to make you feel at ease, so I’m just really excited to be part of the Paul Carrack tour and it should be a wonderful experience.”
Judging by other people’s reactions over time, I’m pretty sure you’ll go down an absolute storm especially at the Philharmonic Hall, your voice will fill that hall greatly.
LR: “I was lucky enough to perform there recently as support to Rebecca Ferguson and obviously that being her home town, I was able to perform there, and it was one of my favourite venues on the whole tour. The fact that we get to start the Paul Carrack tour there with two nights is great. The venue is stunning, and the acoustics suit me greatly, so I’m thrilled.”
Is it easy going from one venue to another, seeing a whole different group of people who might not have known you, are there little moments where you might think that I’ve been here before so people might know who I am but I’ve got two nights here to try and get my message across, is that difficult to attempt and ensure?
LR: “I don’t know what it would be like playing the same venue twice in a row, I think it’s a great way to start a tour, to ease your way into it but for me I just treat it like every evening I’m supporting another artist. Most people in that room will never have heard of me, a few people will come and buy tickets based on other tours I’ve done. I think 98% of people in that room will not have heard of me and that’s the whole point of me being there. I can’t really over-think it too much as I just have to do the best I can every night and I’ve got these songs and I need to communicate them the best I can, have a good time myself and if people react and respond to it then that’s all I can ask.
I do tend to try and not over-think as the whole year has been such a whirlwind, I’ve been travelling so much, and I’ve been fortunate to play in huge venues to so many new people and my mum keeps saying are you nervous of all this new stuff – I am but I’m just choosing not to think about it. I’m choosing to take a deep breath and do my music and that’s all I’m thinking about and I suppose I can’t answer too many questions about that because I’ll just be giving very boring answers. All I can do is my best every night and if people in the room respond then great and at the end of the day, most people aren’t there to see me and that’s all I can do.”
Well, I’m looking forward to seeing you, I must admit. I was greatly impressed by the video that I reviewed, as I said it was very cool and very of the moment – with the whole idea of gender and fluidity, I really liked it. Inside The Silence Now – the E.P., how did that come about?
LR: “After I had written and released my first album I was writing with some friends on and off for about a year or so and I wasn’t in a position or place where I wanted to record a new album just yet. I didn’t have enough songs that I thought worked well together and I was kind of looking at the songs I did have and I went to Germany and I met a songwriter/producer there on a retreat – he was a very successful German producer and I was out there with a friend and we wrote the song Black Wing and as soon as we wrote it, I thought I want to record this. I had this moment where I didn’t want to wait for a full album to record this song and so I asked the producer could I come back and record a few songs and do the E.P. with him and he was thrilled.
This was about a year and a half ago now, I know it’s silly, but I don’t know how all this time has passed, maybe a year and a few months ago and I kind of just recorded them then because I could, and I had the money then and the producer I wanted to work with and recorded the song. I’ve sat on it and I didn’t know when I wanted to release it and then I suddenly got busy with the Lucy Spraggan tour and I thought I’ve got a whole new bunch of fans in front of me and as my albums had been out for some time, I thought this was the perfect time so I’m really glad I waited because I had these songs in my back pocket and I could take it to the next level with building up this new fan base and the momentum by touring them. That’s why I’ve only released it digitally because I just want to give the people who have been newly supporting me and existing fans something new, so I would say I had it in my back pocket for over a year!”
Timing is everything and you seem to have done that, much in same way that Stephen King, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte released their books, or in Kate Bush’s insistence of releasing her records in her own time, in a way that made the most impact. It’s very beautiful and reassuring. The momentum is with you it seems to go very well. Was there a reason behind the title?
LR: “It’s difficult as all the songs were so different in context and even the production is quite different. There are musical threads running through them with the same bass groove and piano stuff. I looked at all four songs though and I realised that they are about the unspoken and the unsaid. Be A Man is about the unspoken feelings between two people and how you can try and transmit your feelings, Dull Ache being that feeling of grief that never goes away, you don’t talk about it every day but it’s always there, Upstream is about the inner struggle, the inner dialogue and monologue about getting through a difficult time and then Black Wing is a little bit about my relationship with music.
The music industry is an amazing place to work in and I’m so fortunate to do what I want to do, even to the degree to what I can do. All other artists can relate to this- there’s a lot of rejection and disappointment and then you a tiny amount of what it feels like when someone relates to a song or small yes from someone in the crowd or you speak to fans or someone on the radio, it just gives you something. I was talking to a friend about this and it’s almost like positive negativity. You just keep coming back for more we know it’s a knock-on effect. We know it’s insane, but we keep coming back for more. I guess it’s not something that artists talk about much as we probably should, but no one wants to be negative all of the time.”
I completely understand what you mean, and it is an addiction effectively is what you’re describing, if you allow it to eat you alive then it will do and that’s how I see it from your angle with the music if you’re not vigilant, but you do sound that you’ve been incredibly careful to not allow that to happen to you.
LR: “I think not having large success at the moment has helped, I think that as I’m older that’s helped. I think if I was younger and if I had these sorts of opportunities at 18 or 19 then or even in my early 20s, I think how differently I would have taken to them or how differently I would have been able to process them. I certainly don’t think I would have driven around Europe on my own at 21, I think being a bit older, I think a lot differently and I don’t take things so much to heart as I did when I was younger, I think that massively helps, not having a huge emotional burden every time there was a massive high or a massive low, I don’t ingest them as much in that way.”
It is a lesson to which we all could learn from, thank you so very much for your time Lucy, and I wish you all the very best for Christmas and the up-coming tour with Paul.
Tickets for Paul Carrack and Lauren Ray with support at the Philharmonic Hall are on sale now from the venue’s Box office.
Ian D. Hall