PipemanRadio Interviews Raven Gray at Louder Than Life 2023

0:04 Hey, you love them too? Is such? Sure? I'm for see Wow you wake up of America. It's time for the Adventure. So pipe Man on W four cy dot com West pomp Beach is number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the White Man. This is what listen.

0:47 This is pipe Man here on the Adventure's pipe Man W four c Y Radio and I'm here with Raven Gray. Hello everybody, how are you here at Louder than Life? Oh my god, I'm doing fucking fantastic. Thank you for us. Isn't it freaking amazing here? It's incredible. I've never experienced anything like it. So what made it better than anything else you've experienced? I think the people, for one, including my team, it made this experience possible nice and that's always good. But yeah, absolutely, And the experience on stage and the way that the artists are treated. Danny Wimmer treats every artist is the same. We're all treated with respect and value and taking care of very well. So I really really appreciate that, and yeah, I'm very grateful for that. And I think that's what makes Susceptible unique.

1:38 You know. It's very organized, Yeah, and that's always good to hear. Because I love hearing how artists are treated. And yes, Danny Wimmer is great. I do a lot of festivals. That's not usually what I'm getting as the feedback exactly Spannerival. Yeah, yeah, he's He's incredible. And I'm just so wanted to be here and I can't wait to play that here. Nice. So tell me about what really started your musical journey. What was that moment that like you just knew this is where you were going big? I was young, I was twelve years old. I said it before in another interview. I'll give you a little bit of a different rendition. I was in my bathtub, and I was singing, and I was making voice memos in my bathroom. I mean, I spent most of my time in my bathroom with the acoustics. I love that reverb, you know, And so it gave you that natural valhalla in that bathroom. And and I would just do voice memo after a voice memo after a voice memo, and I would take YouTube beats offline and just put my phone right next to it, like the shitty iPhone three, the big clunky one. And I still can't get into it. God, damn it. I need to find the password or go to Apple care something, maybe look in their Space account exactly. And and you know, I'd love actually never had in my Space account. I seem a lot older than I am. I was born in nineteen ninety nine. Well there you go. So I'm but it started then, you know, I just I knew. I'm like, if I can create a song off a type beat and I'm freestyling, and I feel it in my heart, this fucking pulsating desire, this passion to just be heard.

3:14 I don't want to be fucking famous. I want to be known and heard so that I can give out my theatrical best performance in a way that is impactful to the youth and to others. You know, this isn't about me, This isn't about Raven Gray. This is about the nest and everything that comes with Raven Gray. And it all started in my bathroom and I'm yeah, that's when it started. I'm grateful for that moment. I love everything you said there because there are a lot of artists out here looking to make it big or go viral or not here specifically, just in general, and an artist should be just so authentic. Absolutely, I don't think that's the way. You know, it's not the way. And anybody can be an artist nowadays, right. You know what, there's a separation between what an artist that needs to create art to live. If I were to beat sold tomorrow, you can never create art again. I would feel like that was the end of my life. Yeah, you know, and that difference true artists. I have to do this. I have to do this because it was ingrained in me. It's my purpose. Yeah, it's my desire and my passion, and along that, I just I can't wait to meet the lovely people along the road. And I'm sure I'll meet some not so lovely people, but that's okay too. Everybody has their own journey. You never know what's going on in somebody else's head. And I'm just so honored and so humbled to be here. I love it, and you know, and that's where the music does come in because it is therapy. It's therapy

4:45 for you as the artists, but also the other person. So maybe you'll meet those not so great people and you'll win them over by hitting them somewhere in their heart with your art. Yeah, that's my only intention. Yeah, used to bring joy and and turn the fuck up. And that's the true artist, because there's so many, like you said, nowadays that it's so easy to make saturated. It really really is, and there's people that just do it for the wrong reason exactly. I can't lie. You know. I've been I've been a little bit stunned by the era of young kids that have a lot of money or their parents are money or connections, and they don't have that much musical you know, talent, which you know, I'm not knocking on you. If you grew up as a trust fund child, you deserve that money. But it's like art. You want to be an artist, all right, So you're putting all this money into this auto tune and you're blowing up, but you're not selling tickets, right, And then the real artists have to work extra, extra, extra hard. But then once they get there, the light at the end of the tunnel is you do sell tickets, yes, you know, and and it's it's it's it's good not to frown upon those other people as well, because they everybody has an innate ability to create art and an innate desire to create art.

5:57 So you know, I just with that being said, I just I'm very intrigued when it comes to figuring out what makes an artist timeless and what makes an artist just a blip on the map. You know what I think is what makes them timeless is everything we're saying. When they are truly an artist, true to the art itself, they don't give a shit about what's gonna happen. Kurt Kobe never wanted fame. If it was up to him, he would sit with Courtney and just played the acoustic guitar in the hotel, you know. And that's a true artist. Yeah, And it's it's a detachment to outcome. You know. I'm not sitting here with an attachment to being fucking famous or a millionaire. I am sitting here with the desire and intend to create beautiful music that moves people in ways that are detrimental and fucking undeniable, and that will lead me to that destination without that attachment. There you go. I love that you have a musical note tattoo, like right by your voice box. Yes, it's my favorite. Tell me when that happened and what made you think of that? You know what, I got a lot of random mask tattoos, but this one specifically, I love the placement, right, that's what I had noticed. I forget what chakra this is. This is the heart shocker. Don't don't quote me on this, all right, I don't know, but right here I feel it in my body. Yeah, and this is the center, this is this is where

7:28 why I breathe. This is how I breathe, you know. And and and this is music and that's what it is to me. It's my best friend. Music should be your best friend. That's birthday. If you're an artist, it should be your best friend. Because never let any of us down. Like, look at where we're at here, at Louder than Life. There's no outsiders. Nobody's the same, everybody's who they are, nobody hating, everybody united, everybody feeling a feeling and having that family late togetherness. And that's what it is. It's the feeling, yeah, you know, and it's important. And that long lasting relationship with my fans is what I'm craving and that's what I will get because I just want to love them.

8:13 I want to love them the way that they love me because they deserve it. And there's the reason why I'm here. So there you go. So what are you gonna do now after Louder than Life. Well, I'm very happy you asked that question. I'm very very excited. I've been looking for the right producer for a very long time. I've worked with a lot of really great people and not saying they aren't the right fit for me. But this next project I'm working on, I'm working with a producer under the name Matthew Pauling and he is absolutely incredible. We click on a level that is just important, so cohees if he brings out the best to me. You know, it's like it's like pulling a string and you know, and and I come alive into a totally different realm of an artist, you know.

8:56 And it's just the confidence level in the angst and my voice and like you can just you can tell it's the right fit. So we're working on an EP and then from there we're going to figure out the best way to distribute it and go from there. And as long as it takes to create beautiful music and we just go with the flow. I love it. And that is the story. When any band I've ever heard of that had long lasting, you know, presence in music, they had that connection with their producer where the producer didn't tell them what to do or try to change them, just developed what was already there exactly. So that's so cool you have that. I'm really, really, really excited, you know, and it keeps me focused, and it keeps me out of trouble, and it it shows me that I'm on the right path. And I'm very grateful for Matthew.

9:50 I'm very grateful for all of the producers that have helped me in the past, you know, Mike Peppe, and there's just so many other people. There's too many names, but yeah, I'm very grateful to Beer and and and and very thankful for Bobby Shubinsky and Danny Wimmer and there's many others. Nice. It's nice to have so many people like that in your corner because you are definitely, like I say, a true artist. Now, what's the craziest story in your musical, the craziest story in the music industry? Oh god, you're gonna do it your journey, I would say. During my addiction, I was up all night until is this like a bad crazy story or like a good crazy whatever you wanted to be? And I went and shot a music video. I was up on that on Molly, and I didn't sleep and I needed to shoot a music video the next day, so I still went on Molly and it was a great music video.

10:43 It was lovely, it happened, it was fun. The greatest moment of my career yet, I would say working with matt Working with Matthew, sorry my voice is clearly gone, and being on stage, on the road, on stage, there you go. Yeah, those were the best. But I've got some pretty gnarly bad stories, like I'm pretty sure a lot of artists have before recovery, and those will be in my book later on, when I write a book, But for now, that's all you get. You can't go on the musical journey without gnarly story about pain, without suffering, without a little bit of spiritual growth. Right, That's right, that's right. That's why it's all about ya. Listen. I look at it this way. Most of artists are tortured souls anyway. That's why they're artists trying to survive, you know, there you go, she's got the tattoo right there, trying to survive. And you know, Louder than Life is the biggest festival I've ever played, and it's a great start, and I can't fucking wait to play more festivals. This is only the beginning. It's just going to be a very long journey and I'm ready for it. And I have the best manager, Jack Novak. I have the best team around me, so I'm not worried at all. And I love it. I love hearing all that. How the people connect you on socials, on the web, buy your merch, check you out, all that good stuff.

11:58 How do they do that? Yes, okay, so you can go ahead and go on Instagram and it's at Raven Gray. There's two ends, so R I V E N N G R A Y and when you get there, welcome to the nest. I really look forward to meeting and loving all of you, even if it's through virtual world. I'm sure we'll meet in person one day. There you go, And is there anything we haven't covered yet that you want them to know about Raven Gray. I want you guys to know that you are Raven Gray. There would be no Raven Gray without you, and I want you guys to know that you're loved. I'm not here to be this diva rock star that you bow down to. I'm here to fucking show you love, and when I get on that stage with you, we're one, right, We're a family. And I also want to let you know I want to talk about mental health and anything that you're struggling with, depression, addiction, grief, anything, there's a way out.

12:54 And I promise you you're so worth it, You're worth the fight. But only you can pull yourself out of that hole. Music helps, and I'll do my best to bring light into your life. But fight for yourself because you fucking deserve to be here and you deserve to live. And just I love you from the bottom of my heart. I know I don't know you, and I'm sorry if that's meaningless to you, but I do love you, and welcome to the nest. That was the best part of the whole interview. Like we didn't even have to do the rest of the interview because people need to hear that right now. Shit to be blunt. Shit's fucked up, Shit's fucked up, and there's a lot of people that are hurting. And you know, I've been there. Yeah, I've looked at myself in the mirror and hated who I was, and I've you know, I've I've overdosed in the past and I've I've lost all my friends. But from that, from the glass I built a home that's a lyric in one of my most listened to songs called Embers on Spotify. From the glass I built at home. I will never be ashamed from the glass and the records that you've created in your life in the suffering. No matter how far I'm a skill you've gone, there is always a way out, and I promise you that I'm living proof of that. So just keep trying to survive and love with all your heart and don't become bitter. And that's what I have to say to you. Well, we love you, and we love that you're here at Lward and Leaf and thanks for being on the Adventures of Pintment.

14:18 Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of pinate Man. I'm W four Cui Ray Deal