Rose Gray is absolutely loving her first proper festival season, which is proving to be an education as much as it is a celebration of last year's incredible debut 'Louder, Please'. "There's already such a difference with my stagecraft," she says backstage at Boomtown Festival ahead of show 8 of 16. "I can't imagine where I'll be by the end of it."
Rather than a simple run through of all those deliciously catchy electro-pop bangers, Rose uses her hour-long festival set to tell the story of getting ready, going to a club before heading home once more. To go alongside this tale of romance, want, escapism, uncertainty and euphoria, there are deliberate instrumental interludes and polished visuals to help sell the immersion. "As much as I love to bring the party, I also want to put on a show," says Rose, who's only just getting started. "I feel like I'm just at the beginning of what I could do."
It's easy to see why she's so excited for the future. As well as being nominated for a BRIT Award, she saw 'Louder, Please' connect with both pop heads and dance fans after years of trying. "As a body of work, it was just so fully formed. It knew what it was," says Rose. "It definitely feels like it's still being discovered, too. It's really cool to put something out a year and a half ago and it still have this life to it."
"Last year, everything felt very new, and a lot of it took me by surprise. Now, I'm in the flow of it even though the levels have just gotten bigger," she continues. "I want so much more for my second record, though."
"My life has really changed in two years"
Album two is, according to Rose Gray, cooking. "I'm very close to finishing it." It's been written over the course of the past twelve months in whatever gaps she can find between tour dates. "Honestly, that hasn't felt like that much time, but I'm being kind to myself. I'm not going to rush it. I'm not going to fall into the pressure of putting it out too soon," though she already has a release date in mind.
"The vision is not too far away from what I did on my first record," says Rose, who's making it with largely the same team. "But my life has really changed in two years, so the concepts and the storytelling are different. I have a lot more to say now."
Rose is currently inspired by a lot of the pop girls who are commanding the space at the moment. "It feels like there are no rules. The classic big pop song isn't necessarily the one that will connect, "she says. "I'm really inspired by PinkPantheress and how much confidence she gained from that first record to her second. I feel a bit like that. Not that I was shy on my debut, but I feel so different in my voice, my body, my writing. Even in interviews, I just feel better."
