Debut album 'Kid Krow' made Conan Gray a star. Now, with its follow up approaching, he's determined to keep it real. Words: Ali Shutler. Photos: Dillon Matthew.

"My life is extremely bizarre,” says Conan Gray. “I can’t imagine a lot of the things that I do day to day are very relatable.” He’s right. A few minutes ago, he was packing for a last-minute trip to Italy (business, not pleasure). When he later posts highlights of it on Instagram, over a million people like the clips of him at high-end luxury fashion show Saint Laurent. Then there’s the obvious oddity of being interviewed for the cover of a magazine. “There are a lot of things that I do that would be strange for most people,” he continues.

Despite the shift to multi-million streaming cover artist who can count the likes of Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish as fans, Conan Gray is still the sort of musician who can jab at your heart with a ballpoint pen. Debut album ‘Kid Krow’ came early last year, establishing him as a relatable Gen Z superstar, while the three very different tracks that we’ve heard since see him just as honest, just as vulnerable, and still talking to us like a best friend.

Conan Gray has always found himself out of his comfort zone, though. With his parents divorcing when he was three and his dad in the military, Conan moved homes twelve times throughout his childhood. “Do I look like I ever fit in?” he asks us today before admitting that, “I’ve tried so hard my whole life to chameleon. I got as good at it as I could have for my racial circumstances. I was one of very few Asians at my school in the middle of Texas, so automatically, no matter what I did and no matter how much Hollister I wore, I was not going to fit in.” To answer his own question, “I’ve never fit in. I’ve always been the new kid, and it’s funny to me now (though probably wasn’t at the time) because in school, people used to think I was mean because I was so standoffish. I still hear people say that today, but I’m not mean; I’m just terrified of you. It’s just social anxiety.”