David Gray will today release his new single ‘A Tight Ship’, the latest new track to emerge from his forthcoming album Gold In A Brass Age, due for release on March 8, 2019 via IHT Records / AWAL Recordings. Produced by Ben de Vries, son of producer and soundtrack composer Marius de Vries, Gold In A Brass Age– Gray’s first album of new material in four years – will arrive just ahead of a run of seventeen headline shows across the UK and Ireland. Dates in Cardiff, Cambridge, Dublin, London and York are already sold-out.
You’ll still recognize Gray’s gravelly rasp on new single ‘A Tight Ship’, but the singing is softer, sweeter, more intimate and occasionally falsetto. It’s part of a song-writing shake-up that defines a more intuitive approach from Gray across ‘Gold In A Brass Age’. Using a cut and paste approach to the arrangement of songs, lyrics have been transformed, with couplets closer to poetry, and whilst his guitar and piano playing remain, it’s the ushering in of electronica and the exploring of alternative sound textures alongside new production tecniques that take to the fore.
Speaking about ‘A Tight Ship’, Gray says: “This was by far the toughest track to get right. It has a quirky chord structure that keeps changing key and I’m singing in an almost Marvin Gaye falsetto, which is in no way comfortable for me. For ages I had the opening couplet ‘The better then, to know myself/Fear be damned, let love be wealth’. Beyond that, I was stuck. The song has a lovely lightness that means the lyrics couldn’t be heavy-footed. The line that unlocked it was ‘To dance like no one sees’. That’s the pay-off.”
‘A Tight Ship’ is lifted off David Gray’s eleventh album in a career that spans over 25 years, several Brit and Grammy nominations, and three No.1 UK albums, including for the breakout multi-platinum White Ladder. It is also a vital new collection of songs from an artist still revelling in his passion for song-craft, pushing himself into unfamiliar terrain, surprising himself as much as his fans along the way.
The new release will be David Gray’s eleventh album in a career that spans over 25 years, several Brit and Grammy nominations, and three No.1 UK albums, including for the breakout multi-platinum White Ladder. It is also a vital new collection of songs from an artist still revelling in his passion for song-craft, pushing himself into unfamiliar terrain, surprising himself as much as his fans along the way.
Gray returns to Australia this year to play three headline shows, kicking off on April 14 in Perth, before heading to Sydney’s Enmore Theatre on April 16 and winding up in Melbourne at the Palais Theatre on April 20 before a highly anticipated set at Byron Bay Bluesfest.
2019 Australian Tour Dates as follows:
Sun, 14 April Perth, Riverside Theatre
Tues,16 April Sydney, Enmore Theatre
Sat, 20 April Melbourne, Palais Theatre
Mon, 22 April Byron Bay, Bluesfest
For ticketing information: www.davidgray.com