Pop Quiz: David Gray

Pop Quiz: David Gray

Aidin Vaziri | David Gray famously became a pop star with 1999's home-recorded "White Ladder," even scoring a belated Grammy nomination for best new artist, after releasing three failed albums. Now with "Life in Slow Motion," the British singer-songwriter has once again backed away from obvious radio fodder like "Babylon" (a hit he's attempting to retire) and gone for twilight-tinted ballads that take on the soul and the world.

David Gray
Q: It's funny because despite the circumstances, "White Ladder" sounded like such a hopeful album, and this one feels so dark.
A: Granted.
Q: Too much money in the bank?
A: Well, "White Ladder" is very heartfelt, but it is the sound of me overcoming all the negativity that had accumulated in my life up to that point. There's similarly a joy on this album, an equally rooted sense of fun from the signals the music gives off. But in terms of the lyrical pictures that are painted, the ideas that I turn over in it and some of the musical atmosphere, I suppose you could say it's quite bleak.
Q: What's wrong?
A: It's just that at the moment I've become increasingly cynical about illusions of a better world, this sort of quaint myth that's propagated in order to inspire us towards peace and harmony. It's just bull -- . The world is always the way it is: Ruthless people take power; X,Y and Z take place; you end up back at the beginning, square one, start again; and then some ruthless f -- comes in and takes power.
Q: Well, at least you're not pessimistic.