Rose Gray Wants You to Make It Louder, Please

The name of Rose Gray’s debut album, Louder, Please, seems like it was unknowingly in development since Gray was a child.

“I grew up with quite a big voice,” Gray says. “My voice was like an instrument as a child, and I used it as an instrument.”

Then, she seemingly lost it.

“I don’t really know where I put my voice,” Gray says. She asked herself: “What do I put my voice with musically?”

It was when she discovered electronic music through London’s club scene and rediscovered the music of the pop legends she grew up with — Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Robyn — that it clicked: This is the place to be as an artist.

Her sound took root in the EPs Synchronicity (2022) and Higher Than The Sun (2023).

Gray now blends those inspirations on Louder, Please, her self-described “underground pop album” that was released in January.

On top of the album release, she opened for the Sugababes’ European tour and will accompany Kesha for the upcoming “Tits Out” tour. Those shows will be Gray’s first in the United States, aside from a performance at WeHo Pride.

And it doesn’t end there. Gray brings a headline tour to the United States, United Kingdom and Europe this summer and fall.

If the busy schedule sounds exhausting, it’s fuel for Gray. Her creativity flows when she’s on the move.

“I was meant to be this busy,” Gray says. “Not being at home can keep me quite focused.”

Hardly the sedentary type, Gray travels to make music. She travels to different cities to meet producers and collaborators. Traveling to Barcelona with friends led to the “tacky but glamorous” album cover, photographed by Yana Van Nuffel.

If Gray isn’t traveling, you might find her in London’s Hackney Wick neighborhood — a haven for artists and creatives that inspired a narrative-style track on the album. You can also find her, of course, in a club.

But London’s club scene is changing.

“It’s a scary place right now because we’re losing a lot of clubs and it’s becoming very expensive to go out,” Gray says. “I’m noticing that with friends, so we just have to find all the underground parties still.”

The landscape may be changing, but the sounds of the club scene have found a permanent home in Gray’s music.

“The album is heavily influenced by club culture,” Gray says. “I feel like we’re in an exciting place for the crossovers of underground and pop,” Gray says.

Gray credits Charli XCX and her ability to bring underground sounds to the masses, most recently on the 2024 album Brat.

“There’s still always going to be the safe spaces and the underground clubs and warehouse parties that not everyone will know about. I just think it’s interesting to introduce people to those sounds,” Gray says.

For Gray, those sounds are loud. And fun. And sometimes — in contrast to the name of the album — soft.

“The album has elements of being really brash and aggressive and industrial, but also there’s moments of real innocence, and it’s delicate and honest,” Gray says.

A full album lets the public discover who Gray is as an artist — something she’s been refining for half a decade.

“It wasn’t just one thing, it’s many things, just like me as human. I got to really explore all those parts of my palette,” Gray says.

And there’s still more to share. A deluxe version of Louder, Please is in the works.

As Gray continues to travel and perform her music live — “seeing fans singing your words back is mental” — she picks up new sources of inspiration.

“I’m really looking forward to getting in the studio because I feel like I’ve been experiencing a lot of new places recently,” Gray says. “I’ve already got a lot of material that I’m sort of forming into something, but I also think most artists need to give themselves time to nustle our heads down.”

Gray always understood the greatness of Louder, Please, so when you listen to it, play it the way it was meant to be played: Loud.

“I am obsessed with loud music. I can’t understand how people can listen to quiet music,” Gray says.