Conan Gray is embracing vibrant new horizons as he meets his prime pop potential with ‘Found Heaven’.
Words: Neive McCarthy.
Even when you think you've seen and felt it all, something new is always around the corner. Life is full of surprises, good and bad, and there comes a point where you have to embrace that - which is what Conan Gray is learning to do. Delivering his unexpectedly poptastic third album ‘Found Heaven’, Conan returns victorious and growing with each track. A world away from its predecessors, ‘Found Heaven’ is a surprise, for sure.
"I think it's hilarious," Conan smiles. "I made the album with the intention of wanting to surprise people and giving people something they weren't expecting. Now that it's here, I'm like, 'What if it's not what they're expecting?' I very much did what I was hoping."
For those expecting more of the melancholic worlds of 'Kid Krow' and 'Superache', 'Found Heaven' might be a bit of a shock to the system. It's a vibrant, technicolour jaunt through synth-heavy havens and dancefloor tears. Still, some things never change – for Conan, the nerves around the album's release remain even four years on from his first. As he has always done, Conan has crafted an album cut from his very core – the inner workings of his mind and feelings are lit by the disco ball at the album's centre. It joins a parade of albums documenting his life and career, each new experience cast under that glow.
"It's really weird because I have time capsules of when I was 17, and also now at 25 – it's a whole life recorded in music," muses Conan. "Music is such a powerful descriptor that when I hear songs that I recorded when I was 17, it brings tears to my eyes because I can hear him; I can hear that version of me. This album is a little bit funny because it was the best time of my life and also the worst time of my life. Subconsciously, you can hear the songs I wrote at the worst time and the songs I wrote when I was really fucking happy."
Born from a time that arguably saw the most change in Conan's life so far, 'Found Heaven' is built on a narrative of new emotions – falling in love, having your heart crushed, navigating life in your twenties. Each scenario brought something fresh, something unrecognisable, and the result of those experiences were transformative for Conan. When it came to actually making the album, the experience in itself felt new in different ways, too. Such an unfamiliar time in his life bled into the sound, transforming Conan's artistry into something new and fresh, too.
"I never really thought I would make three albums. I never thought I would make one album, to be completely frank," reflects Conan. "When I was faced with making it, there's just no blueprint. With your debut album, you kind of know what you're supposed to do – you're establishing yourself, saying hello. Your second album continues with that. With your third album, there's no blueprint of what to do. I knew that, and since I had the opportunity to make something, I thought I'd just make something different.
"The album ended up being this capsule and very much being a concept album. It's very unanimous. I don't know what my next music will sound like; I know it won't sound like my old music. It's this beautiful bubble of this time in my life. I really wanted to surprise myself and make myself laugh – laugh at everything that happened and smile at it and not feel like the music has to sound miserable just because it was. Now, when I look back at it, it's all hilarious to me."
With the tools to reconcile this new version of himself and find some beauty amongst the pain, 'Found Heaven' proved to be a deeply invigorating experience. It became a source of light in the dark – a way to spin these things to alleviate the heaviness of those feelings and became an act of excavation.