Just like the artists she draws inspiration from—including Frank Sinatra, Gwen Stefani, and Lana Del Rey—Graye’s music resonates with authenticity and inner depth. Her 2022 debut EP, geniusly titled Graye Area, was met with acclaim and set the pace for her ability to craft emotionally rich soundscapes.

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Fast-forwarding to February 2025, Graye unveiled her latest EP, All For Love, a six-track collection that delves into the complexities of romance, self-discovery, and personal growth. The EP showcases her evolution as an artist, blending sleek, confident melodies with potent narratives. Tracks like “Mother’s Genes” pay homage to her mother’s influence, while others explore themes of love and sadness with raw honesty. Critics have lauded All For Love for its mature sound and lyrical sophistication, solidifying her as a rising talent in the UK music scene.

As she continues to make her mark on the industry, Principle sat down with Graye for an interview following an exclusive shoot. In our chat, the 24-year-old singer-songwriter talks her latest project, the importance of music channels growing up, her dream collaborations, more new music, and her unique hobby.

Your latest EP, All For Love, dropped last month. How have you felt about the reception so far?

I’ve honestly been really shocked. I feel like there are a few songs on the EP that have shined a bit more than others, but I feel really good about it. It’s interesting to see how people perceive it as opposed to what I thought was gonna do well. I feel like it’s always the way. 

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After releasing music for several years, are you still eager to see the reception or are you in a place where, as long as you’re happy with it, you’re not so bothered about the outside noise?

I think more the second, to be honest. I feel you can perfect a song as much as you want, but nothing’s ever gonna be truly finished because as soon as it’s out into the world, it’s not really up to you anymore. Apart from the marketing side of stuff, people will perceive the music how they wanna, and they’ll create their own stories to your music. I think once it’s out into the world, it’s theirs. It’s not really yours anymore. 

The artwork is amazing, featuring six different versions of yourself blended into one image. How did you come up with the concept?

That’s so sweet. Thank you for saying that. I worked with an amazing photographer called Freddie, and he’s also one of my good friends. We kind of had this concept for two years before we did it. He was like, ‘When you drop the EP, it would be so cool to do characters and stuff.’ And I think when we got the opportunity to do that with the EP, we just took it and we were like, ‘Okay, we need to make it amazing.’ The shoot day was so stressful. It was stressful in a good way because we had to do six different looks in like six hours or something ridiculous like that. it was really fun, though. It was me and Freddie that came up with it, and it turned out to be exactly how I wanted it to be, so I’m really happy. 

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Your previous EP, Graye Area, dropped two years ago. How long has this project been in the making?

I think it was probably a process of over two years because I was constantly in the studio writing. I kept going back to songs from two years prior, but I was nearly at a point where I scrapped everything. I was then locked in for a year with a producer called Omri [Dahan] and a guy called Romeo [Testa], where we just kept making music and we started getting ideas from different songs that were already out. I kind of scrapped a lot of the music and then went back to the drawing board because it didn’t feel right. That can happen, especially when you are writing music when you’re also growing up as a human being. When you listen back to music that you made a year before that, it doesn’t always feel authentic, I guess. And for the place I was at in my life, it just didn’t feel right to release all the music that I’d worked on. 

What is the oldest song that remained on the tracklist?

“All For Love” was that song because me and Omri had written it two years prior to being released. We went back to it three or four times, and each time we went back to it, it just didn’t feel right. It felt like we were forcing it, and then we’d add a melody and we were like, ‘Okay, yeah.’ It wasn’t until the very last session that we had on it that we were truly like, ‘Okay, it’s ready to come out.’ We did a lot of work on it before it was ready. Every single time we worked on it, it felt fresh and like a new song. 

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What influenced the EP, sonically and lyrically?

I think the main theme is personal shit. There was a lot of anger that went into the project, but then it turned into acceptance and all of that stuff. I don’t wanna say the main theme is love because it sounds basic, but it kind of was. And I think a lot of that came from my family, personal love and trust, and also myself. Musical influences were from what I grew up listening to. Lana Del Rey, Frank Sinatra, Al Green, Andy Williams. People like that.

I read that you used to write songs from fictional stories. What influenced the shift where you’re now an open book?

I think I was just a baby. I knew that I loved writing, but I honestly had no life experience at all. Although, when you’re in school and stuff, you feel you have so much life experience. I used to create stories because I would listen to people like Lana Del Rey and I’d be like, ‘Wow. Her music is so deep and poetic.’ I took my influences a lot more seriously and now it’s bled into a place that’s around the artist that I wanna be. I guess that’s what caused the shift. I still love making up stories, to be honest. I tend to merge them if I can to add a bit of drama.

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You’re a big Lana fan. What’s your favourite album?

Ooh, it’s so tough. I think for me it’s always gonna be Ultraviolence because it was the first album that I was truly like, ‘Oh fucking hell. I love her music.’

That’s a dark one!

She’s a dark girly. It reminds me of when I would go for drives all the time with my mum and just blast the album so loud. Even with the visual side of her projects, I feel it’s always been at the core of her work. She’s invented a character, which I guess is what I’ve wanted to do with this project by inventing six different characters because each song represents a different story or time, and visually, that’s what they look like to me. 

Your first-ever single release was in 2018. How do you reflect on your early material?

I love it. I know some people release music, and they’re like, ‘Oh God, I wish I never put that out.’ But there’s music that I listen to, like “MY2” for example. I feel like it was such a weird release to put out, but it really translated into what I wanted to say. I feel like the element of surprise I’ve always loved and I hope that that’s all translating into my music now. It’s definitely a soft blend of the two. I love the early stuff that I’ve put out. It’s a bit cringy; don’t get me wrong. I do cringe it a bit, but I’m like, ‘Oh my God, bless her. I wanna give her a hug.’

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You touched upon your musical influences earlier, but who did you grow up idolising as a child?

Gwen Stefani, because I would honestly just sit in front of the television and watch her. Do you remember the music channel called Starz TV, where you could text in and send photos for them to upload? That channel was the love of my life, and I would just sit in front of it. It was so special because you only saw the music videos and listened to the music when it came on. Nowadays, we have so many things at our fingertips, and there’s something really special about just listening and watching a music video all the way through. I remember watching the music video for Christina Aguilera’s song “Dirrty.” I was just obsessed with it. Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera, and Rihanna were my main influences. And then Andy Williams was played around the house. 

The music channels era used to be our source for discovering new music, too. It was definitely a moment in time.

I feel like this generation of music doesn’t understand how lucky they are. I always say this with streaming platforms. We don’t understand how lucky we are that we have millions of songs at our fingertips. Back in the day, I would get pocket money and I’d go to Tesco to buy an album and I’d listen to it back to front. An example is Florence and the Machine’s Lungs album. I listened to it back to front, and I was like, ‘Wow, this is amazing.’ There’s some songs on there that I absolutely fucking hated, but then I would just listen to them so much because I was like, ‘I need to get my money’s worth.’ The more you listen, the more you love. So that appreciation for albums, I feel like it’s disappeared, but I need it to come back because it was so special. 

If anything was possible, which producers would you love to work with?

I would probably love to work with Louis Bell because I think all of the stuff he did with Post Malone is just so cool. He’s always been one person I’ve always wanted to work with. And then Rick Rubin is another person I would love to work with or just pick his brain because I think he’s so cool. Max Martin too.

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What about artist-wise?

Oh fucking hell. Is it bad if I say Rosalía? 

No.

I’m obsessed with her. I think she is so amazing. I think everything she does just makes sense, and I think you could even hear production with no vocals and still recognise it’s her song. 

You’ve already said in other interviews that you’re hoping to release more music this year. Is it complete and ready to go?

It’s definitely more there than it’s not. There is still some work being done to it, but yeah, the music that I wanna release this year, I’m really, really excited about. It’s so bad, I have a habit of putting something out and being like, ‘Okay, it’s done now, onto the next.’ Because like I said earlier, I think when you put music out, it’s up to other people to consume it, and then it become’s their song.

Top and shorts Ann Andelman / Cuff Retro Chic / Shoes Realm Shoes

Are you working on your debut album yet?

I’m still working towards that, but I think it won’t be next. It will definitely be released in the near future, for sure. I’m excited about it. I already have some songs that I think are right for it that I won’t be releasing this year because it doesn’t feel right for what I’m putting out. 

What are your plans for the rest of the year? 

More new music. I definitely wanna be playing some live shows. I love backgammon, which sounds so ridiculous, but I run a monthly chess and backgammon club in Soho, and I kind of wanna find a way to merge music into that as well. I hope to play live shows in that capacity.

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