What is your name? 
Lottie Gray 

What is your genre of music? 
Pop/ Folk-Pop

Give us a little bio about you. 
‘19-year-old singer-songwriter Lottie Gray spent most of her childhood nurturing her imagination, conjuring stories from her bedroom on the south Norfolk coastline, where she grew up. Creating an intimate, open conversation between audience and artist, Gray writes exactly how she feels.  Influenced by the prolific Joni Mitchell, Taylor Swift and Kacey Musgraves, Lottie’s ability to jump across genres has taken her songwriting to extraordinary heights. Blending elements of country and pop, her creations boast raw and poetic lyric writing, expressed through Lottie’s powerful vocals.  With a newly formed band in Manchester, and an EP set to be released in April, Lottie is poised to share her work with a wider audience. Her music now takes a new dimension, emphasising sweeping melodies and a beat that pulses with the human heart. ‘

What made you go into music? 
I remember listening to ‘Hey There Delilah’ by the Plain White T’s when I was little. It was the first CD I ever owned and I was entranced by the storytelling. I think that’s what first inspired me to write songs! I didn’t learn to play guitar and piano until quite a while later, but I always loved writing lyrics and stories. So for me, it wasn’t so much the music, but more telling stories through song- that’s what I love most! 

Who are your influences? 
My biggest influence has probably been Taylor Swift! I’ve always been totally entranced by her songwriting, particularly her ability to tell stories. I remember my sister and I had laminated copies of Taylor’s lyrics to ‘Love Story’ when we were little, and we were just totally obsessed. I’ve also been really influenced by Lorde and Kacey Musgraves as well as Joni Mitchell and Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen is strange one for me; my dad always loved his music and would play it all the time. When I was younger, I hated it! I didn’t understand what he was trying to say, and it really didn’t resonate with me. As I’ve got older, I’ve realized how brilliant his music is but also how it has shaped my music and that I’ve absorbed so much from listening to him. Classic tracks like ‘Dancing in the Dark’ and ‘Born to Run’ are just timeless and will always be really special to me.

Are you a signed? 
No, not yet. I’m doing everything independently!

You released your new single ‘Daffodil Baby’, tell us more about the single and the meaning behind the song. 
I wrote ‘Daffodil Baby’ in my bedroom during one of the lockdowns. At the time I was thinking a lot about what I was writing and how it would be perceived once I could finally play them to people! But with ‘Daffodil Baby’ I just sat down and didn’t think at all. The whole song took about 15 minutes for me to write and I took it down to play for my family in the kitchen at dinner time. Once I finally got to play it to my friends, I found it was one of their favourites. There’s enough space in the song for it to resonate with people, I think! To me, it’s about playing a role for someone, falling in love, but being perceived as something you’re not. My favourite line is ‘Oh, how I would dance for them, on the Minami Line’. The Minami Line is a really dangerous train track. I think it sums up the things we’ll do to make people love us. 

Describe the track in two words. 
Melancholy. Honest.

What was the writing and recording process like? 
Once I’d finished the song, I recorded it at The Baker’s Oven. Rob, who I worked with, played bass and drums on the track, with some added percussion from Joe Burns, and Maya Wasserman, my roommate at the time, recorded some violin, too. We actually recorded the song twice! After the first recorded version, I played it with my band at college and had tons of new ideas for the arrangement and general vibe. It was almost just me and my guitar, no other my instrumentation, before! 

Who did you work with on the single? 
I worked with Robert Baker to record the single. I always had it in my head that ‘Daffodil Baby’ would be the first single to be released out of what we recorded, though it was one of the last that we finished. The track was then mastered by Jason Baldock at The Crunch.

Will we see a music video for ‘ Daffodil Baby’, and if so, what can we expect from the creative process? 
I’ve got no plans for a video yet, though maybe if I get tons of streams and have a bigger budget… 

Will we see an EP or Album and if so, what tell us more about it. 
Yes! I’ve not announced everything that’s coming out yet, but I’ve got a few things ready to come out very, very soon!

What else can we expect in early 2023? 
Expect to see me gigging, releasing more songs and roaming the streets of Manchester to find new things to write about! 

Where do you see yourself now in 5 Years? 
This is a tricky one… there’s so many things I want to do! I’d love to be playing some big festivals like Latitude or maybe even Glastonbury one day, and even doing a BBC Live Lounge! I’m sure that, in 5 years, I’ll still be writing songs and playing them with my band and, who knows, maybe I’ll have a whole album out! That would be really cool!

What quote or saying do you always stick by? 
Just go for it… if anything you might get a good song out of it! 

When you are at a gig, what are 5 things you cannot forget? 
There’s lots of things to remember at a gig but here’s five things I think are really important: 
1. Talk to everyone who’s come down to watch (I always hugely appreciate anyone who has made it to a gig, it means a lot!). 
2. Engage the audience. Sometimes you have to think on your feet a little, perhaps adding a little anecdote here and there, but it’s really important to make sure the people watching feel connected to your music. 
3. Enjoy it! Playing my songs live is my favourite thing, so I have to remind myself to not let nerves distract from this! 
4. Keep calm… I’ve rehearsed enough, so as long as I stay calm, everything should be fine!
5. Don’t overanalyse! Sometimes things go wrong on stage, that’s just live music. It’s easy to spend hours analysing a performance and all its mistakes afterwards, but it’s not the end of the world – every gig is a new bit of experience!

Do you have social media accounts so your fans can follow you? 
My Instagram and Twitter