|
Life In Slow Motion is the first of his recent recordings on which David and his group have been abetted by an outside producer, Marius De Vries. His seventh album, Life In Slow Motion is
the follow-up to the UK four times platinum selling album A New Day At Midnight. Recorded between October 2003 and May 2005, David took a different approach to writing and recording Life In Slow Motion. Of the change, David says,
“I don’t think you can remain the underdog forever and work in that way. I really wanted to get away from that lo-fi bedroom programming. All the records that have inspired me this time have been far more of a soundscape. The Sigur Ros
records, Sparklehorse’s It’s A Wonderful Life, Lucinda Williams’ World Without Tears and albums like Deserter’s Songs, where things are more architectural.” Two compositions on Life In
Slow Motion - ‘From Here You Can Almost See The Sea’ and ‘Ain’t No Love’ - come from David’s work on the soundtrack for Amma Assante’s debut film A Way Of Life (released in 2004). The songs
landed David a 2005 BAFTA Anthony Asquith Award nomination for Best New British Composer.
Trained as a painter at the Liverpool College of Art, David eschewed art for a career in music. His first three albums were critically acclaimed but commercially overlooked. After
parting from his record label, David recorded the album White Ladder on a shoestring budget and released it on his own label iht Records. A true music phenomenon, White Ladder has now been certified eight times platinum in
the UK, having clocked up over 2.7 million sales, and spent more than 100 weeks in the Top 40, twice reaching No.1. The album has sold over 6 million worldwide, including 2 million in the US alone. In IrelandWhite Ladder remains the biggest
selling album of all time. A New Day at Midnight went straight to No.1 in the UK album chart on release in 2002. Of the album, the Guardian wrote, ‘Darker and stronger. White Ladder’s wistful sadness is replaced by
something bleaker and more powerful’, whilst Uncut declared, ‘a record that anybody who cares about great song writing owes it to themselves to hear’. Even the Sun chimed in with, ‘the country’s real Pop Star. Arise
David Gray’.
David has won the prestigious Ivor Novello Award twice - in 2001 for his breakthrough single ‘ Babylon’ and again in 2003 for the single ‘The Other Side’. He has also won a
GQ Award for Best Solo Artist (2002), a Q Award for Best Single (2001) and nominated twice for Best Male (2001/2003) at the Brit Awards, alongside a Grammy Nomination for Best New Artist (2002).
|