David Gray Shares New single "After The Harvest"
DAVID GRAY
SHARES THE NEW SINGLE “AFTER THE HARVEST” - LISTEN HERE
FROM THE NEW ALBUM DEAR LIFE WHICH FOLLOWS ON JANUARY 17TH
VIA LAUGH A MINUTE RECORDS / SECRETLY D
25.10.24 - David Gray today shares “After The Harvest,” the second single to be lifted from his upcoming thirteenth-album, Dear Life, set for release via Laugh A Minute Records/Secretly Distribution on January 17. The track follows the Radio 2 premiered and playlisted single “Plus & Minus,” a duet with rising artist Talia Rae, and the announcement of a third headline London show as part of Gray’s extensive Past & Present Tour. The majority of his twenty-two UK & Ireland dates are now sold-out.
“After The Harvest” is a song that’s rich with Gray’s classic traits: his flair for a memorable, melodically rich chorus and lyrics which bring a poetic slant to a poignant subject matter. Yet it also feels refreshingly new, off-kilter verses contrast with moments of intricate orchestration and serene, stripped-back elements that push his words to the forefront. It’s a track that manages to be both layered and deceptively simple and is sure to be a standout in future live sets. Featuring Clune on drums, the song was recorded at his home in Norfolk.
Says David, “Key to the song’s inception was the fact that during the making of this record I was displaced from my London studio for long periods. I hastily improvised a workspace in the garage of my house up on the Norfolk coast and set about working on the record up there whenever possible. In London, when we are working and we finish up for the day, that’s it - but in Norfolk after we break for dinner, there’s always the opportunity to go back into the studio and work more. It feels like a free hit, and “After The Harvest” was written during the very first of these late night Norfolk jam sessions. I had the beginnings of a chord sequence, under which Ben de Vries put a very simple electronic beat, and then added a lovely, chiming synth part. With these simple elements in place, the song assembled itself very rapidly. Ideas for the rhyming schemes began suggesting themselves, as did the chorus melody and chord sequence and other melodic vocal parts.
The lyrics were a sheer pleasure to write. Right from the word ‘go’ the cadences of soft word endings suggested themselves to me as the song began to take shape, and all the intoxicating rhyming schemes came tumbling out one after the other. When I am up in Norfolk and dialled in to the landscape and all its magic, I am in a much more suggestible, childlike state; a dreamy state of wonder. This state of suggestibility is key to any creative process wherever you are, and I have found during the making of this record that tapping into this disinhibited state has been hugely enriching to the music that I’ve made.”
David Gray’s story is unlike any other. He spent almost a decade striving to make a breakthrough, and when it happened it did so in the biggest way imaginable as White Ladder became one of the best-selling British albums of recent decades and established him as an arena-filling artist. As the years have passed, his songcraft has only been deepened by his natural ability to convey specific emotions, atmospheres or, as heard on his acclaimed 2021 album Skellig, a perception of place – all positioning him in the lineage of classic poetic singer-songwriters. While the likes of Ed Sheeran, Adele and Hozier have acknowledged his influence, David has continued to follow his own artistic path.
Dear Life is the result of “a starburst of songwriting … it just seemed like the gods of songwriting were being kind. The doubting voices didn't turn up.” An album of emotional crisis and resolution, mortality and faith, reality and illusion, love and heartbreak, magic, science, loss and acceptance. While it is full of yearning and hope, there is an undercurrent of darkness, a tension between competing forces of hope and despair: a cavalcade of emotions in what is his most lyrically-focused collection to-date.
David adds, “A lot has happened to me. There’s been change on so many levels, all the ups and downs and dramas and tragedies and joys that the slow movement through life brings. This record has been a reckoning with stuff that’s been building up like static for years. But I say this with joy and a smile on my face. I know what I’ve done is as good as anything I could possibly do.”
Dear Life is available to pre-order HERE. His official store offers signed albums, while select indie stores have an exclusive limited edition seaweed green double-vinyl which will be packaged with a signed print. All physical formats of the album offer two additional exclusive tracks in the shape of “The Messenger” and “More Than Anything.”
The reaction to David’s 2025 Past & Present tour has been phenomenal, with numerous dates during a run of almost fifty shows already sold-out months in advance - including two nights in London – with a third London show, at the Palladium, recently added. All UK and European tour dates feature special guest and “Plus & Minus” collaborator Talia Rae. The tour dates are listed below, remaining tickets are available HERE. In addition, an instore and signing session at Rough Trade Eastsold-out instantly.
JANUARY 2025
24th – Boston, MGM Music Hall at Fenway
25th – Philadelphia, The Met
26th – Washington, Anthem
28th – New York, Beacon Theatre
29th – Red Bank, NJ, Count Basie Center for the Arts
31st – Toronto, Massey Hall
FEBRUARY 2025
1st – Detroit, Masonic Cathedral Theatre
2nd – Chicago, Chicago Theatre
3rd – Minneapolis, State Theatre
6th – Portland, Keller Auditorium
7th – Seattle, Moore Theatre
8th – Vancouver, The Centre
10th – Oakland, Fox Theatre
13th – Highland, Yaamava Theatre
14th – Los Angeles, Orpheum Theatre
15th – Valley Centre, Harrah’s Resort Southern California
17th – Salt Lake City, Delta Hall Eccles Theatre
18th – Denver, Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre
20th – Austin TX, ACL Live Moody Theatre
21st – Dallas TX - Majestic Theatre
23rd – Atlanta GA, Coca-Cola Roxy
24th – Nashville TN, Ryman Auditorium
MARCH 2025
13th - Portsmouth, Guildhall
14th - Brighton, Dome (SOLD OUT)
16th - Swansea, Arena (SOLD OUT)
17th - Bath, Forum (SOLD OUT)
18th - Oxford, New Theatre
20th - Newcastle, O2 City Hall
21st - Stockton, Globe (SOLD OUT)
22nd - Glasgow, SEC Armadillo (SOLD OUT)
24th - Nottingham, Royal Concert Hall
25th - Manchester, O2 Apollo
27th - Sheffield, City Hall
28th - Llandudno, Venue Cymru (SOLD OUT)
29th - Leicester, De Montfort Hall (SOLD OUT)
31st - Liverpool, Philharmonic Hall (SOLD OUT)
APRIL 2025
1st - Birmingham, Symphony Hall
3rd - London, Royal Albert Hall (SOLD OUT)
5th - Dublin, 3Arena (SOLD OUT)
7th - Brussels, Cirque Royal
9th - Amsterdam, Royal Theatre Carré (SOLD OUT)
10th – Amsterdam, Royal Theatre Carré
12th - Copenhagen, KB Hall
MAY 2025
2nd – Dublin, 3Arena
6th – Glasgow, SEC Armadillo
8TH – Wolverhampton, Civic Hall
9TH – London’s Palladium (SOLD OUT)
10TH – London’s Palladium
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