He’s not a very big name on the music charts, and while some might still be figuring out whom this newbie is, Conan Gray might look like just another model off the record industry’s Gen Z.

Gray’s long journey to this moment of fame is well-documented online like many artists these days. His story is something like the movie ‘Eighth Grade’, except with songwriting skills and a fairytale ending you’d never expect.

Even as the record industry once faced existential dread at the prospect of the internet destroying it, its long been adept at using the internet’s tools to find and promote new talent. Instances are galore from when home videos uploaded to YouTube led to Justin Bieber's discovery, new found EDM DJs, while Vine gave us Shawn Mendes and well the list could go on.

In Gray’s case, it was that he emerged almost fully formed after being nurtured online.

Singer - songwriter Conan Lee Gray was born on 5^th December, 1998, in Lemon Grove, California in the US to an Irish military father and a Japanese mother. He did make it to Japan for a few years only to visit his ailing grandfather, which also gave him a chance to pick a few lines of Japanese. His parents however divorced when was just three years old. As he grew older, he went over to settle in Georgetown, Texas where he spent his teenage years. He was influenced by the art and music scene there and thought of taking the music line seriously after recording a few songs on his official YouTube channel in 2013 when he was barely nine.

In 2014, a 14-year-old Conan Gray sat on his bed in Georgetown, a city of about 70,000 in the heart of Texas, recording music all by himself. Like tens of thousands of teens, he had attracted a small but active following on YouTube by uploading short vlogs, photos, drawings, with titles like “Socially Awkward??” and other such notes. He had begun uploading covers of popular songs as well, like a ukulele-assisted rendition of one of his musical influences, Adele’s Make You Feel My Love. While recovering from an illness, he solicited questions from his fans who liked his music, many inquiring when he would release his next song, to a few asking him when he’d release an album. While he took all this with a pinch of salt, he requested everyone who connected with him to spread his music which resulted in accolades coming soon after.

After posting more covers (songs by Lana Del Rey, Troye Sivan and Frank Ocean), Gray began uploading acoustic performances of his own originals. Eventually, he started using his computer’s default audio and video editing software to produce more polished releases for his own compositions. He learned how to do all the production and all that kind of stuff literally off YouTube videos and off of the internet and also from just experimenting and slowly learning.

A song called Idle Town, a wistful ode to his senior year of high school and his small town, USA youth, lead to his big break. The video for the song cuts between filtered footage of the singer hanging out with his friends, and Gray walking alone down a suburban street while mouthing lyrics into a water bottle, Chalamet-esque black hair bouncing as he moves with practiced ease. He soon got many good vibes including a few snide remarks, but then he was onto something, trying to make a mark for himself, so it really didn't dent his ego.

At that point, Gray had reached 100,00 subscribers to his channel and didn’t think the number was really big, until it hit him later that actually it was a in fact quite a lot. He soon realised the power of the internet and that you can become really famous out of your bedroom. From 1 million, it grew to 5, then 10 and just kept going and going, until he stopped and thought about it. In a matter of months, Idle Town changed Gray’s life.

Concentrating so much on his music, he neglected his home affairs and was kicked out of his rented house and began living with friends. Record labels began making the calls to a young and inexperienced Gray, who at the same time was busy trying to secure a scholarship (which he finally got) into UCLA. He finally moved to L.A. California in 2017 off of the money that I had made from his only single Idle Town which went viral.

Just as he began college, he got signed to a record label, dropped out of college within two months and started touring.

Idle Town gained over 14 million streams on Spotify and 12 million views on YouTube. He also released a single The Other Side on YouTube in 2016 on the eve of the first day of his senior year at high school. In little over a year in October 2018, he released the single Generation Why on Republic Records. By the end of the year, he packaged a five-track EP titled ‘Sunset Season’ which included songs like Idle Town, Generation Why, Crush Culture, Greek God, and Lookalike. The EP gained over 300 million streams online and surprisingly peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Heartseekers Albums chart and at No. 116 on the Billboard 200. Gray embarked on a North American tour in support of a new with opening act Girl in Red.

The artist in him grew from just a teen star, to now a known face all over the US, with invitations pouring in to share his success story on media platforms and on the tube. He made his late-night television debut when he performed on ‘Late Night with Seth Meyers’ in February 2019 before performing several shows as an opening act for the band Panic! At the Disco during their Pray for the Wicked Tour. He also performed at the Great Escape concert and also toured nationally in the US.

The same month, he re-released the single The Other Side and was soon working on releasing a full fledged album which finally saw the light of day in early 2020 a few weeks before the dreaded Corona virus pandemic hit the world. Titled ‘Kid Row’, the album consisted of a few singles released after his first EP. The track list included Checkmate Comfort Crowd and Maniac and an independent single The King. The album that also has the song Heather, reached number 5 on the Billboard 200 making him the biggest US New Artist debut of 2020. His breakthrough single Maniac has accumulated over 100 million streams on Spotify alone and has been certified Platinum in Australia and Gold in the US and Canada. A listen to the album says more about the artist than Gray is that anything that he has said in his entire life. It’s like an open book for all with all of his secrets.

In the US, the album was the biggest new artist debut of 2020 as of March and was the top pop solo debut album in over two years since top stars Camilla Cabello’s 2018’s self titled album. The album received praise by publications such as Paper, Billboard, NPR, Teen Vogue and Paste.

As of October 2019, Gray's catalog had gained over 250 million streams across all platforms collectively. The handsome lad with curly hair was awarded the 2019 Shorty Award for Best YouTube Musician and was nominated for Breakthrough Artist at the 2019 Streamy Awards.

Gray has cited singer Taylor Swift as his biggest inspiration, stating that he "was raised by [her]" and that he is "the largest Swiftie". He is reported to have told the People magazine. “I love her so much. I love her music. I love what she does. I love her lyricism. I love how she's handled her career. I grew up listening to her music since I was nine years old. I feel like she shaped me as much as a person”. Swift in turn has also showered praise on Gray’s debut effort and made a mention of his tracks on her personal Instagram page.

Besides the Dixie Chicks, V from BTS and Billie Elish as his musical influences, the 5 foot 9 inches tall singer has also been influenced by Lorde and states in an interview to a magazine that it was Lorde’s album ‘Pure Heroine’ that inspired him to work on his EP ‘Sunset Season’. Not forgetting Justin Bieber’s Baby as a song he loved during childhood.

Pop rock icon Elton John has showed his admiration for Conan Gray in an interview with BBC Radio 6 he was heard saying, "There's a boy called Conan Gray who has a song called 'Heather' and he's about 22, he's from America and he's the only person in the [streaming charts] to actually write the song without anybody else. Everybody else there's four or five writers on [a track]. You look at most of the records in the charts, they're not real songs. They're bits and pieces and it's nice to hear someone write a proper song”

Gray whose pop and folk style has ultimately affirmed himself as the voice of his generation by speaking directly to that generation in his own way. He will continue to make music and we can hope he does visit Indian shores one day.

By Verus Ferreira