Is Rose Grey the Subsequent Large British Pop Star?

The second Grey realized the puzzle items of her first album had been coming collectively was when she started working with Justin Tranter, the songwriter behind a few of Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber’s greatest hits. After the 2 jumped on a Zoom within the early months of lockdown and located themselves waxing lyrical about Madonna, Tranter led Grey via one thing of a masterclass in songwriting, encouraging her to residence in on her tangle of concepts and emotions. “I’ve by no means skilled writing like what I’ve skilled with Justin,” she says. “It’s fairly magic.” Elsewhere, her collaborators on the report embrace the white-hot digital producer Sega Bodega, electroclash queen Uffie, and home DJ Alex Metric—however even with all these cooks within the kitchen, the end result feels distinctly Grey. “I really feel like I’m fairly headstrong in periods,” she notes. “I do know what I do and don’t like.”

Simply as unequivocal is the visible world Grey has constructed across the album: a wonderland of seedy glamour and enjoyable within the solar that harks again to the glory days of ’90s Ibiza, and the work of photographers like Martin Parr and Elaine Constantine, who captured the electrical power of these underground nightlife scenes with hanging, saturated shade. “Once I spoke to the photographer, I needed it to be like a ’90s Prada marketing campaign, however starring Dido,” Grey says, with a cheeky grin. (She additionally describes the look as Kylie Minogue’s iconic “Sluggish” music video blended with Jonathan Glazer’s Horny Beast—you possibly can see the imaginative and prescient.) On the album cowl, Grey stands on a seaside in Barcelona whereas lovers canoodle within the sand and seagulls squawk above her head; with a Walkman hooked up to her bikini bottoms and headphones in her ears, she lets out a scream. “It’s somewhat bit cheesy, but additionally fairly glamorous,” Grey provides. “I feel British dance music has all the time had that ingredient, which I really like, and now individuals like Charli XCX and Shygirl are making it cool once more.”

The album paintings for Louder, Please.

Picture: Yana Van Nuffel

Like Charli and Shygirl (the latter of whom Grey has collaborated with and supported onstage), Grey has additionally been hitting the membership to unfold the gospel of her upcoming music. Final month, she kicked off a sequence of DJ nights titled Grey Selects which she hopes can each invite new listeners into her world and highlight the work of up-and-coming musicians she admires. “I simply wish to begin getting us all collectively and enjoying out one another’s music,” she says. It’s a heat, communal spirit that programs via the report, too, which sounds just like the kind of factor you’d take heed to in your buddy’s moveable speaker whereas preparing for an evening out, sipping a lukewarm vodka Purple Bull whereas the odor of straightener-fried hair and Impulse physique spray hangs within the air.