Singer David Gray, who performed at Skywards Dubai International Jazz Festival, says his music can never be jazz.
He may have played in countries all over the world but singer-songwriter David Gray said he had never seen anything quite like Dubai before.
Dressed in a casual navy polo shirt and trousers, Gray looked in his element as he played a few of his well-known tracks for a sound check before his gig at this year's Skywards Dubai International Jazz Festival on Friday.
"I'm staggered. I've never seen so much construction in my life," he said as he left the stage.
"It's like watching one of those quick-time videos of New York being built in six months but it's actually happening here — in real life.
"The weather is wonderful, though I don't think I could take it much hotter than this.
As you can see I'm pretty translucent and I believe I'd probably melt if I stayed outside too long."
Concluding an impressive line-up of jazz on the penultimate day of the festival, Gray joked as he contemplated why he had been asked to perform his contemporary pop music at a jazz-themed event.
Not jazz
He said: "I'm not sure how I fit in really but I guess you should take that up with the organisers.
"I don't think I give much to the jazz tradition. It's a form of music I'm a big appreciator of, but what I do isn't really relative to it. There's a certain amount of spontaneity and improvisation in my music. As I pass through the main song there's kind of that bit at the end when it could go left, right, up or down. But it will never be jazz."
Talking about his new album, Gray was keen to stress that he had gone back to basics on this one.
He said: "Work is underway on the new album. I have lots of new material and it's coming together. The sound hasn't changed radically. I guess the previous album was on a larger scale. With the orchestra and horn section I was going for a much bigger sound. The music was always the same though. But the new album has really taken me back to basics, performing live in a studio — old school. I want to get back to the real music.
"I knew things had to change because I could sense the creative waving, the chemistry, was wearing out which is not something I criticise because I think it's normal.
"Things changed and I had a new band, which gave me a new lease of life. Now I feel like everybody is 100 per cent focused on doing the best thing for the music — success can be distracting.
‘Special'
"We have something special going on at the moment and I want to capture as much of it as possible."
With major success coming as a result of his popular singles and albums, Gray on a different note talks about money. "I haven't really invested. I've basically bought property — a little place in the country, a recording studio, which as everyone knows is a bottomless pit, and I'm also building a place from scratch which is also a pit.
It's like I've dug a hole in the ground and I'm just filling it with money.
"But I haven't done anything particularly lavish. The money starts to pour in and your accountant tells you how to avoid this and that but I just couldn't be bothered really."
Down-to-earth
The thing that hits you about Gray is he is "real man", he's normal, funny, down-to-earth and you could chat to him for hours and you'd probably even forget that he's famous.
He added: "I need a process. Artists are like tourists — we don't particularly take part in life, we watch. We take things that happen and have to turn them into something.
"My songs are aimed at the heart as I'm a heart-on-sleeve-type artist. I appear as myself and yet it's weird sometimes because it's like music is above me — it's like I'm acting.
"I think it's because you can't feel it every time — so you have to act. The music is genuine every time but maybe not the feeling. That's something I'm always aware of because I think if you lose that concept, then you could lose the music."
