Interview with Camille Michelle Gray On EP “Street Cinema”

Interview with Camille Michelle Gray on the release of her premiere EP: “Street Cinema”

Camille Michelle Gray, the soulful singer/songwriter from the DMV is no stranger to Groundsounds. On Thursday, she released her highly anticipated and publicized EP “Street Cinema” available for free download online

 

It’s called “Street Cinema”. That’s just a fancy way of saying “The movie of everyday life”. So street is kinda like everyday cosmopolitan; the things that happen in everyday life that could be transmitted(?) onto film.

The lyrics do tell stories. There are some cautionary tales. Some songs are very danceable. Some songs are very…the subwoofers of your car are gonna vibrate so that was fun for me. But also expect to have some acoustics on there which is going back to what I always do with just me my guitar and my voice. But I always have to say expect the unexpected. Just expect something that makes you think and dance at the same time.

So there are going to be 7 songs. Lucky number 7. The first song Baby Better Run came out in February and the video’s been released. That one is about this made up character I created for the song once I heard the instrumental. Just about a girl who doesn’t get someone back but that self assured ness of when someone does you wrong you’re just like “Oooh Im gonna get you”

The second single is going to be called “NaNaNa”. That’s one of those songs where when you hear it you’re like this is kind of pop-y kinda fun, but when you listen to the lyrics it’s really about those things that we conceal about ourselves that we ignore about ourselves that cause the most havoc in our lives . One of the verses is about a guy who drinks too much and he ignores it, he “ignores his noise” that’s a lyric in the song. And he just keeps living his life. There’s a girl in the song who relies on the attention of men or just the attention of her body to kinda feel good. It’s just about how I’ve seen that play out in life. How people have these character defects but instead of looking at them they’re just like “nananana” so that’s what that song is about.

There’s a song on there called skin eaters which features an instrumental by Rat-a-Tat so that answers the question of why I can’t sell the EP. But it was a fun experience because my producer Rodger-Nazariff-opened me up to being experimental as far as instrumentals and opened me up to the idea of samples. So that song is just about people-I’m an introvert-but it’s about people kind of just talk to fill up space. And they’re not really saying anything of import. One of the examples is like a pundit on Fox News or CNN just talking talking talking talking and you’re not really saying anything and the anger that comes along with that. Just that “Oh, I bet you think you know everything because you just talk talk talk” and like, the quality of how silence can be golden sometimes.

Another song on there is called La Vegas. Its about a guy who is alluring like Las Vegas: flashing lights, vacation time…Las Vegas. You assume that its fun and you’re gonna have a good time. But when you leave Las Vegas you realize I have no more money. So that song is just personifying someone to be like Las Vegas that feeling of when you’re in this whirlwind love and you come out of it and you’re like “I didn’t get anything out of it. Except I had fun! But I didn’t get anything out of it”

I have another song. The two acoustics songs, one of them is called become. And its, I don’t wanna say raunchy but its more carnal. It’s about how you’re friends with someone pretty much only at night in that way in that sense of the word. But it’s basically about how you’re not really friends with someone but you have a really good physical chemistry so let’s just keep it at that and I don’t want to talk to you after that.

Then I have a song “Please Please” which is another acoustic which is the most personal song to me and every time I sing it I cry. It’s just about wanting to change your ways. Not that I want this album to be religious and I want religious people to flock to It or I want atheist people to flock away from it but that song is about calling upon a higher power saying “Please please please help me change this about myself cause it’s not working out”

So I have a song called noise makers. That one is about race in America. Its about this idea of how especially you could feel it around the Trayvon martin stuff or when anything racial happens. About how the people who are vocal are always told to “stop it, move on, its not a problem anymore, blah blah blah”. Same thing for gay rights, like “stop it, I don’t understand why you have to do this”. But the thing about being the noisemakers is like No, we are the people who are going to be vocal and we’re going to say we’re not going to stand for this anymore. So that song was written after, not after the verdict but just in that steam of the George Zimmerman verdict about just how some people really think they are better than others just because of the color of their skin or the quality of their life that they have been afforded by the atrocities that their ancestors did. And so that song is kind of racial and uplifting in that way that we’re going to make noise and if we’re going to make a difference we’re going to have to be the noisemakers.

Why did you decide to release an album now?

What I really wanted was for this to put me on the map. So had this kind of concept that it would create Internet buzz somehow or one person would see it and pass it along, pass it along. So my goal for this was for it to be Internet friendly and for it to be shared in that type of way. But also just a personal goal, this is my first body of work. I’ve been a singer since I was like 10. I’ve been seriously wanting to go after this career since I was like 8. Now finally at 23, I’m finally being able to put out something like “this is mine”. This is a solid body of work. So there’s that to look forward to.

I have a legion of friends who know me from the Logic video and or who know me just from doing coffee houses in high school or open mics at colleges. I want each of those audiences to kind of find something that they like from it. The more 808s driven people, I want them to be able to dance to it and say “This is something I wanna nod my head to or jog to”. And I want the more cerebral, indie alternative people to be able to find comfort in that the lyrics do tell a deeper story. But I also just want people to see what I can do cause they’ve only known me from very sporadic things I’ve done and I want them to see be as a burgeoning artists. As someone who is trying to find her sound and who is on her way.

I think that I offer something different as far is what is on the top 40 but not something that so different that you’ll feel awkward listening to it. I also think as an African American woman I am hopefully breaking new ground as far as genre voice type, that type of thing. So for people who haven’t heard me yet, I think you should stick around because I think that I’m really good. Or something like that!

“Steet Cinema” is available for freedownload at soundcloud.com/camillemichellegray and at Camillemichellegray.com on Thursday, March 13^th, 2014

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