David Gray says bringing back the electronic elements to his old hits has made performing them much more interesting for him to perform.
The 50-year-old English singer/songwriter is currently touring his eleventh studio LP ‘Gold in a Brass Age’ – which he recorded with producer Ben de Vries, the son of composer and studio wizard Marius de Vries – and he has made the decision to play the majority of that record at the beginning of his concerts and then he gives his fans the tracks they love from 1998’s ‘White Ladder’ and his other albums later in the setlist.
Gray may have played songs like ‘Babylon’ and ‘Please Forgive Me’ thousands of times but due to the set-up of his current band he’s now been able to once again add the often overlooked electronic parts to those tracks and he admits it’s been great to play them once again how they sound on the records.
Speaking to website MusicFeeds, he said: "We play for like 45 minutes at the start, and it’s all songs from the new album. Then, for the next hour 15, we circle back around to the past and work backwards chronologically. Because of the electronic elements in the new songs, and the way we’ve had to construct the live set, we’ve been able to bring back electronic elements into my previous songs like ‘Babylon’ and ‘Please Forgive Me’. The sonics from the original songs are back, and it’s the first time I’ve rendered them like that in many years. People seem to have been really enjoying the new songs, but to be able to play the old songs in their original form feels like a series of detonations among the audience. It has a profound effect – the audience just ignites."
Gray insists he would always include the songs from ‘White Ladder’ – which celebrated it’s 20th anniversary last year – in his set because they are the tracks which made his a star and they are so beloved by his fans, and playing them now makes him feel quite emotional.
He said: "I’m proud of those records. It’s not so much of an effort to connect with them now – I mean, I know them like the back of my hand, and I’ve performed them thousands upon thousands of times. No matter what you’re performing up there, you’re digging down and enacting that feeling. You’re controlling it and putting it across. The thing about some of the old songs is they’re a crowd activator – they will flood you with emotion, and it brings you to life the second you start singing it."
David Gray has reinvigorated his old hits
