SAYA GRAY ANNOUNCES NEW EP “QWERTY II”
OUT ON MARCH 28TH VIA DIRTY HIT
RELEASES VIDEO FOR BRAND NEW TRACK
“AA BOUQUET FOR YOUR 180 FACE”
WATCH THE JENNIFER CHENG DIRECTED VISUAL HERE
Last year, Japanese-Canadian artist Saya Gray released a 7-track EP called QWERTY – not just a body of music, but a statement of intent of what was to come. The project quickly expanded to include visual art (in tandem with her long term creative collaborator Jennifer Cheng) and a handful of live shows that captivated those in attendance with the pin drop intimacy on display. Today, Grayhas announced the next chapter in her journey – entitled QWERTY II, and out on March 28th via Dirty Hit, it continues to demonstrate her unique, collage-like way of making music. Born out of the large periods of 2023 she spent in studious isolation and her healthy fear of the ever encroaching digital world, the 7 tracks perfectly demonstrate her stunningly detailed compositions. Speaking about the new release, and it’s relationship to what came before Gray describes it as “a collection of ideas and collages stuck together as the ying to the yang of the first half”. News of the EP follows the three new tracks she released late last year – a triptych she describes as the bridge between both QWERTY EPs and another reminder of why she is one of the most exciting, up and coming musicians operating today.
Gray also releases the video for brand new single “AA BOUQUET FOR YOUR 180 FACE” an air-tight composition that sees Gray endlessly counting days on a calendar over scattering percussion and tightly clipped bass guitar (Gray’s primary instrument). Speaking about the track Gray writes that “180 face is my bass moment off of qwerty ii EP it’s about a spooky moody boy with a 180 face”
Watch the Jennifer Cheng directed video for “AA BOUQUET FOR YOUR 180 FACE” here.
SAYA GRAY
QWERTY II
.. YOU, A FOOL
2 2 BOOTLEG
AA BOUQUET FOR YOUR 180 FACE
DIPAD33 / W . I . D . F . U
! EDIBLE THONG
! MAVIS BEACON
RRRate MY KAWAII CAKE
About Saya Gray
In 2022 Saya Gray released a collection of songs that introduced the world to her incandescent music – entitled ‘19 MASTERS’, it demonstrated her unique ability to create a collage of sounds that felt both comforting and disorienting, vast yet intimate. Last year, she returned with brand new music, a body of work that signified an exciting new chapter, the tightly packed yet thoroughly exhilarating EP: QWERTY – a multi-faceted project that will continue further into the year, consisting of recorded music, live shows and visuals. The first part consisted of a 7-track EP released in May on Dirty Hit (Wolf Alice, Rina Sawayama, beabadoobee) and perfectly encapsulates her genuinely unique method of creation.
Sensing the ever encroaching threat the modern digital world places on her mental health, and following a period of loss and grief, Saya entered a period of isolation to set about sampling and compiling existing snippets she compulsively records with an almost always-on tape machine. Whether it’s voice notes from three years ago, a sample of her drummer playing Jungle rhythms or a ridiculous thrash riff her brother interrupted the sessions to play her – it all gets fed through an MPC to create a body of work far greater than the sum of its parts – as Saya herself describes it, she puts ‘1000 personalities in one song’. It’s this unfiltered, frenzied approach to her art that she feels is necessary to reclaim her sense of self in an ever changing world.
SAYA GRAY IN THE PRESS
“Even at its brisk length, QWERTY contains enough space for you to get lost inside it. And for Gray, lost is one of the most fun places you can be” ~ Pitchfork
“an exhilarating reintroduction to a new self-sufficient artistic voice that’s bound to push, jolt and reinvent” – Dazed
“a folky, experimental and lightly psychedelic body of work that’s bursting with energy” – The Face
“Gray’s strange restraint and restless curiosity are entirely the point: In its scattered and shaggy structure, there’s something compelling to be found around every melodic corner, whether on your second or tenth listen. In this way, the album feels like a worthy inheritor of Frank Ocean’s lo-fi masterpiece Blonde. Gray layers her scratchy voice upon itself to build breathtaking harmonies, and the tones she wrings out of her guitar and bass are impeccable.” – Time Magazine, Top 10 Albums of 2022 (#2)
“pits [Radiohead’s] The Bends-era cynicism against enigmatic, barked lyrics about enemies and lovers” –
The Guardian
“The Japanese-Canadian artist lets loose about a relationship on shaky ground as she sings ‘This is the last time, this is the last chance for you and I’ over Radiohead-esque chords. There’s a bite to her delivery that marks out the fact she is no fool, even if there’s an element of sentimentality to her offer. Death, romance, and big hooks combine to create something immediately alluring.” – The FADER
“…a new artist with a wide creative palette” – NPR, “All Songs Considered”
“the latest signee to London label Dirty Hit arrives with the amorphous and ambitious song collage” –
NYLON
“imbues everything from traditional Asian instruments, steel guitar and bird calls, to trip-hop drums, carefully rapped verses, vocal samples, and a scrappy acoustic guitar into the song. The resulting track is a fascinating and infectious combination. Through every odd elements, every stop and start, you get the sense that Gray is completely deliberate about where the song is meant to go — and luckily for us, only she knows.” – CONSEQUENCE
“Saya Gray shows off her fascinating and absorbing new perspective” – Notion
“Saya invites us back into her dreamy sonic world; we open with haunting acoustic chords, evoking the folk ballads of Elliott Smith before her vocals break through to take centre stage” – The Line of Best Fit
Follow Saya Gray:
Official Site // Instagram // Youtube /