Description
LABEL: Iodine
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: 2021
VARIANT: Vinyl LP
Gray’s third solo album Rebel Songs brings him closer to his own truth as both a passionate songwriter and the vulnerable and exposed human that he’s become. Once hiding behind the aggressive and in-your-face façade as frontman of hardcore stalwarts BoySetsFire, Gray’s personal reckoning came with his confrontation of his own painful and past – he couldn’t just keep pummeling his repressed emotions into submission… he had to slow down, dissect and examine it. A victim of sexual assault at the hands of the church (which he is rather open about on stage and in song), he once sublimated the bubbling-under pain and anger into hardcore’s demands for speed and fury. These days, however, he battles his repressed demons by relaying his experience to his audience in a more relatable and therapeutic manner – though indie rock. “In my own journey through healing, I started to understand that no one can influence change in the world without turning that inward to heal themselves first. As such, what we do in our own lives influences our political leanings and world view.”