David Gray promo

David Gray is set to release his new album 'Mutineers' later this month (17 June 2014) but, as the title suggests, it wasn't all plain sailing. 'Mutineers' is Gray's first album in four years, following 2010's 'Foundling'. One of the main reasons Gray has taken his time with his tenth release is because he chose to do things differently with this album.

'Sometimes, you're staring up at the creative mountain and I was just bored of myself', he admitted, speaking about the record recently to Contact Music. 'I knew all the things I didn't want, but I didn't know what it was I was looking for, so I had to perform a sort of creative traverse, I had to go across the mountain. I was trying so many different things that 'not knowing' became my process.'

David Gray explained how he went about writing differently to how he's written in the past: 'Normally, I'd write melodies and chords first and then find the lyrics to go with it. I began to write from lyrics back into music. Once I began to realise there was real strength and also a nuance to this new approach, I went with it'.

Elaborating on the struggles of making the album, Gray explained how it was difficult finding the right producer for the album, even trying to produce the album himself. It wasn't until Gray found Lamb member and producer Andy Barlow that his creativity started to flow. 'We gave it a go and something good happened, so we gave it another go and something really good happened and I said, 'Right, that's it, you're in, let's go'', he told us. Barlow's brief was simple: take Gray out of his comfort zone and make sure he didn't make a similar record to those of his past. 'He did those two things in a superb way', Gray insisted. As for the album's title, Gray explained that it came from how he went about making the record: 'I was the captain of the mutinous crew. I had to throw myself overboard to make this record'.

Read the full interview here