NEWS
EVENTS
Skylar Gray Interview
Indie | Wednesday 7th December 2011 | Annalisa
Skylar Gray tells The Guestlist Network how she’s moving from behind the music to the top of the hip-hop scene with her upcoming album...
You work with Alex Da Kid a lot
I do work with Alex Da Kid…
And he’s from North London, how did that happen?! Because I mean you’re from America obviously…
Well he lives in New York, so I met him after he moved to New York. He had just got signed to Universal Publishing and I’ve been with Universal for seven years. So, urmm, I actually reached out to my publisher and said I really think one of my biggest problems with my career so far has been that I haven’t had the proper producer, the right producer, like for me. It’s like I haven’t found that match it’s like a marriage in a way when you find that somebody who you really have a good chemistry with. urmm so I asked her to help me find the right producer. I explained for her the whole concept of how I wanted it to sound and everything. And she suggested Alex.
So he was the first one…
…So he was the first one she suggested and we met over e-mail. I was living in a cabin in the woods, in Oregon and he was living in New York city and so he sent me a track so I sent him back ‘Love the Way You Lie’.
Everyone in England, like we may not have seen you but everyone knows you from ‘I’m Coming Home’ and ‘Love the Way You Lie’, Parts one, two and three.
Yea I wrote all of those.
And ‘I Need A doctor’… So, how did you kind of end up doing those then? How did you kind of end up working with those kind of people?
Well I mean, this is how it works in the music industry. Once you have something that’s really hot going on then everybody like surrounds you and says “I want that!”.
Yeah...
So everybody came and said I want my I ‘Love The Way You Lie’. Like Diddy, who was like you know I want a song… whatever that was like I want something that’s uplifting. You know Eminem then invited me come to Detroit to work on Detox with Dr.Dre. So I presented this hook with Alex’s beat and, err, Eminem just went back into his room for a couple of hours, wrote his verses, came out, and it was done. It was fast.
That’s amazing.
Yeah, it was incredible. It was amazing for me to see his creative process.
What is it like though? Because I mean, you’re an artist in your own right. But you do write songs aswell, so…
Yeah I mean I’ve always been a singer/song-writer type artist and urmm I’ve never actually planned on writing songs for other people. It happened by accident. I when I wrote ‘Love the Way You Lie’ I wasn’t thinking ‘oh im gonna write a hook I think Rihanna should sing’. I didn’t know she was gonna be involved yet. I just wrote what I felt over the track. Urmm nnd that’s how I write my stuff. I really just do what I feel would be good for me to sing. And then usually it carries over to somebody else being able to sing it. I wrote a song called Castle Walls, for T.I. and Christina Aguilera sings that hook.
It’s good!
Yeah. No, it’s a good song. I like it. But Christina sounds really amazing on it. It’s a cool thing to be able to hear these amazing singers singing lyrics and melodies that I came up with. It’s really surreal.
Yeah. Do you ever wish that you could kinda like get on them instead? I know you’ve done a lot of them. But like the T.I. one do you wish you could of done it?
No, I mean it doesn’t really matter to me. In some ways yeah, when you write a song you’re attached to it, so it’s like giving it away…it’s like giving away one of your children or something! But, again, being able to hear someone like Christina or Rhianna sing something that I wrote…it’s an amazing feeling.
Yea!
But then being able to listen to Rhianna or Christina sing your stuff is amazing.
Now you’ve kind of like… I dunno, I wouldn’t say let the whole song writing go for other people, but you’re focusing on yourself?
Yea well I feel like maybe I’m getting old…
Ahahaa
Well I mean, as far as like the music industry goes, like they sign 17 year olds now, and I’m 25. So I was like if I’m ever gonna be an artist, now’s the time to push that button. Because if I keep writing a bunch of songs for other people, and then by the time I’m 30 and I’m like, ‘Oh I wanna be an artist’…they’re not gonna care now. So I was like I’m gonna focus on this because this is what I know best. Being an artist. Being involved in every aspect of that. Not just the song writing, not just the recording, but you know, the music videos, the packaging, the art work, the fashion. Everything. I love being involved in everything. Now’s my chance to take advantage of the opportunity. I can always go back to song writing and a cabin in the woods!
At least you can say you’ve tried though. You’re probably gonna do amazing!
Exactly. I would be very pissed if I a few years down the road that I looked back and realised I just didn’t try hard enough or something. So im giving it 100% right now.
Your album’s coming out soon!
At the moment it’s November 14th…
Haha at the moment! We’ll find out.
Yeah. Who knows. Because things are constantly changing in this world of music. So, right now it’s scheduled to do come out mid November.
Is it done? Finished? Ready?
It’s almost done. There’s a few… a few things we’re finishing up.
Ok, maybe a few surprises?
Yeah, maybe.
I know Marilyn Manson’s on it. Anyone else you can tell us…?
No. I mean I can’t tell you ‘cause I don’t know. I don’t feel like anything’s ever confirmed or done until it’s like set in stone, out there in the store.
You know, I didn’t listen to hip hop growing up, that’s a very new thing in my life. But I’ve always loved the beats, you know, beat driven kinda music. And I just like the rockier, edgier emo-ish kind of thing. Like the 90s was my favourite time in music. So I pull a lot of that from the ‘90s. Being a singer/song-writer like I had a very folk background when I was young, young. And now it’s like hip-hop. So it’s a mixture.
Your album’s called Invisible…Invincible even?
The first single’s called ‘Invisible’. The album’s called Invincible.
Actually I was sitting with Marilyn Manson and telling him my story and Playing him music. And I was saing like maybe I should call the album ‘Invisible’ because that’s a cool word. It was the best, you know title of a song that could possibly be the title. And my only worry was that now I feel like a superhero, I don’t feel invisible anymore. And he was like if we just put the ‘n’ in it it’s invisible spelt wrong, and it encompasses your whole journey in one word. And I was like yea… I wish I wrote that. That’s genius.
How would you describe your sound?
Diverse.
You kind of encompass a lot of everything.
Maybe even experimental pop…I just came up with that…it kinda makes sense to me.
If you were on a desert island and you could have three people dead or alive, who would it be?
Thom Yorke, Johnny Depp –
Johnny Depp fan maybe??
Yep little bit. And…Harry Potter.
Well, we certainly hope she doesn’t go “back to song writing in a cabin in the woods”.
You work with Alex Da Kid a lot
I do work with Alex Da Kid…
And he’s from North London, how did that happen?! Because I mean you’re from America obviously…
Well he lives in New York, so I met him after he moved to New York. He had just got signed to Universal Publishing and I’ve been with Universal for seven years. So, urmm, I actually reached out to my publisher and said I really think one of my biggest problems with my career so far has been that I haven’t had the proper producer, the right producer, like for me. It’s like I haven’t found that match it’s like a marriage in a way when you find that somebody who you really have a good chemistry with. urmm so I asked her to help me find the right producer. I explained for her the whole concept of how I wanted it to sound and everything. And she suggested Alex.
So he was the first one…
…So he was the first one she suggested and we met over e-mail. I was living in a cabin in the woods, in Oregon and he was living in New York city and so he sent me a track so I sent him back ‘Love the Way You Lie’.
Everyone in England, like we may not have seen you but everyone knows you from ‘I’m Coming Home’ and ‘Love the Way You Lie’, Parts one, two and three.
Yea I wrote all of those.
And ‘I Need A doctor’… So, how did you kind of end up doing those then? How did you kind of end up working with those kind of people?
Well I mean, this is how it works in the music industry. Once you have something that’s really hot going on then everybody like surrounds you and says “I want that!”.
Yeah...
So everybody came and said I want my I ‘Love The Way You Lie’. Like Diddy, who was like you know I want a song… whatever that was like I want something that’s uplifting. You know Eminem then invited me come to Detroit to work on Detox with Dr.Dre. So I presented this hook with Alex’s beat and, err, Eminem just went back into his room for a couple of hours, wrote his verses, came out, and it was done. It was fast.
That’s amazing.
Yeah, it was incredible. It was amazing for me to see his creative process.
What is it like though? Because I mean, you’re an artist in your own right. But you do write songs aswell, so…
Yeah I mean I’ve always been a singer/song-writer type artist and urmm I’ve never actually planned on writing songs for other people. It happened by accident. I when I wrote ‘Love the Way You Lie’ I wasn’t thinking ‘oh im gonna write a hook I think Rihanna should sing’. I didn’t know she was gonna be involved yet. I just wrote what I felt over the track. Urmm nnd that’s how I write my stuff. I really just do what I feel would be good for me to sing. And then usually it carries over to somebody else being able to sing it. I wrote a song called Castle Walls, for T.I. and Christina Aguilera sings that hook.
It’s good!
Yeah. No, it’s a good song. I like it. But Christina sounds really amazing on it. It’s a cool thing to be able to hear these amazing singers singing lyrics and melodies that I came up with. It’s really surreal.
Yeah. Do you ever wish that you could kinda like get on them instead? I know you’ve done a lot of them. But like the T.I. one do you wish you could of done it?
No, I mean it doesn’t really matter to me. In some ways yeah, when you write a song you’re attached to it, so it’s like giving it away…it’s like giving away one of your children or something! But, again, being able to hear someone like Christina or Rhianna sing something that I wrote…it’s an amazing feeling.
Yea!
But then being able to listen to Rhianna or Christina sing your stuff is amazing.
Now you’ve kind of like… I dunno, I wouldn’t say let the whole song writing go for other people, but you’re focusing on yourself?
Yea well I feel like maybe I’m getting old…
Ahahaa
Well I mean, as far as like the music industry goes, like they sign 17 year olds now, and I’m 25. So I was like if I’m ever gonna be an artist, now’s the time to push that button. Because if I keep writing a bunch of songs for other people, and then by the time I’m 30 and I’m like, ‘Oh I wanna be an artist’…they’re not gonna care now. So I was like I’m gonna focus on this because this is what I know best. Being an artist. Being involved in every aspect of that. Not just the song writing, not just the recording, but you know, the music videos, the packaging, the art work, the fashion. Everything. I love being involved in everything. Now’s my chance to take advantage of the opportunity. I can always go back to song writing and a cabin in the woods!
At least you can say you’ve tried though. You’re probably gonna do amazing!
Exactly. I would be very pissed if I a few years down the road that I looked back and realised I just didn’t try hard enough or something. So im giving it 100% right now.
Your album’s coming out soon!
At the moment it’s November 14th…
Haha at the moment! We’ll find out.
Yeah. Who knows. Because things are constantly changing in this world of music. So, right now it’s scheduled to do come out mid November.
Is it done? Finished? Ready?
It’s almost done. There’s a few… a few things we’re finishing up.
Ok, maybe a few surprises?
Yeah, maybe.
I know Marilyn Manson’s on it. Anyone else you can tell us…?
No. I mean I can’t tell you ‘cause I don’t know. I don’t feel like anything’s ever confirmed or done until it’s like set in stone, out there in the store.
You know, I didn’t listen to hip hop growing up, that’s a very new thing in my life. But I’ve always loved the beats, you know, beat driven kinda music. And I just like the rockier, edgier emo-ish kind of thing. Like the 90s was my favourite time in music. So I pull a lot of that from the ‘90s. Being a singer/song-writer like I had a very folk background when I was young, young. And now it’s like hip-hop. So it’s a mixture.
Your album’s called Invisible…Invincible even?
The first single’s called ‘Invisible’. The album’s called Invincible.
Actually I was sitting with Marilyn Manson and telling him my story and Playing him music. And I was saing like maybe I should call the album ‘Invisible’ because that’s a cool word. It was the best, you know title of a song that could possibly be the title. And my only worry was that now I feel like a superhero, I don’t feel invisible anymore. And he was like if we just put the ‘n’ in it it’s invisible spelt wrong, and it encompasses your whole journey in one word. And I was like yea… I wish I wrote that. That’s genius.
How would you describe your sound?
Diverse.
You kind of encompass a lot of everything.
Maybe even experimental pop…I just came up with that…it kinda makes sense to me.
If you were on a desert island and you could have three people dead or alive, who would it be?
Thom Yorke, Johnny Depp –
Johnny Depp fan maybe??
Yep little bit. And…Harry Potter.
Well, we certainly hope she doesn’t go “back to song writing in a cabin in the woods”.
