Girl Ray: A pop awakening

Girl Ray's 2017 album 'Earl Grey' was a debut that established the trio as supreme indie-pop songwriters with a knack for a melody and just the right slice of strangeness. On second album 'Girl' they've thrown the indie-pop songbook out the window in favour of their biggest capital P POP bangers that seems them following their purest instincts and throwing caution to the wind. We caught up with singer and guitarist Poppy Hankin to get the lowdown on Girl Ray's pop awakening. Hey Poppy, how would you characterise 'Girl'? It's a little bit different than your debut, isn't it? Yeah, it's a little bit more polished and more pop. We're more focused on pop. We're very excited to put this out. With the first one it happened more organically, this time we put a lot of thought into it so hopefully, that should come across.

How would you describe your process making the album? It was quite difficult to write this album because it was such a dramatic shift in genre and style. It was a case of re-learning how to write a little bit. With the first album, I was writing more on guitar and piano while here it was more a case of setting up a little mini-studio in my room and writing on Logic with synths and midi keyboards. It was hard not to overthink it when you're trying to find a different style without making it sound forced.