Posted by When it comes to music, JGrrey doesn’t hold anything back.
“The one thing I can say about my music, is that it’s always honest,” she admits. “Because I can only ever write about something I’ve been through, or seen, or heard, or felt, or am feeling, or don’t want to feel. It’s always very personal.”
Super smooth vocals ringed with passion, JGrrey’s music moves from club beats to velvet-strewn neo-soul bumpers via R&B tropes and subtle pop nous. She’s driven by this unrelenting instinct over what’s right for her.
“Most of my bad days in the studio, I write amazing music,” she says. “If I’m really happy then I don’t have anything to complain about, so I don’t really have much to say. Whereas if I’m not, and I’m in a weird place, or just not very comfortable in my mind space, I have more to say.”
New EP ‘UGH’ (it stands for Understanding Greater Highs) is outstanding, with JGrrey capable of cutting right to the bone. Working with a dizzying array of guests – production comes from Cadenza and Kadiata, amongst others – it’s held together by a palpable sense of purpose.
“It all comes from something I said, and something I felt,” she insists. “It’s weird: I’ve never seen something through. Like, I’ve never held down a job, or done well at something. So when I do hear a project that I’ve made, in it’s entirety like a body of work, that sense of completion is great for me.”
JGrrey writes continuously, almost relentlessly – spending time in LA following a tour with Billie Eilish, she returned to London and went straight back to work. “Without sounding ungrateful or lazy or anything,” she adds, “I wasn’t putting much thought into ‘UGH’. It’s like, if it works, it works.”
It’s a constant sense of forward momentum, this perpetual drive that pushes JGrrey into daring new places. “I’m learning a lot about myself,” she comments. “Music is literally therapy for me. I’m talking about a lot of shit I wouldn’t talk about with anyone, but I’m putting it in songs and releasing it to thousands of people.”
What: Club-focused neo-soul with a UK twist
Where: London
Get 3 Songs: ‘Happiness Seems A Hell Of A Guy’, ‘Dreaming Full’, ‘For Keeps’
Fact: JGrrey always tried to spend Christmas in New York: “Nowhere else feels like Christmas… It’s just more magical.”
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Words: Robin Murray
Photography: Joel Smedley
Fashion: Zarina Shukri
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