Arts & Entertainment
Pulling Out All the Stops with Musician Atoosa Grey
The songstress brings a delightful vision to the table
Atoosa Grey's new album "Dear Darkness" is, fittingly, a musically somber album with sprinkles of Americana. To date, Atoosa has released four albums, toured regionally, and performed steadily at NYC’s finest listening rooms. She honed her craft weekly at the Sidewalk Cafe's Anti- Folk scene, played regularly at The Living Room. In every way, the album is centered around a gloriously pensive moodiness. The album was co-produced by Atoosa and her husband, music industry veteran Noel Grey. Joining Atoosa and Noel in the studio is gifted engineer Sascha von Oertzen. The musicians featured on the album include longtime guitarist James Mastro (Ian Hunter Band, Mott The Hoople), bassist Todd Sickafoose (Anais Mitchell, Ani DiFranco), percussionist Mathias Kunzli (Regina Spektor), cellist Dave Eggar (Esperanza Spalding,Frank Ocean), and Oboist/English Horn player Katie Scheele (Frank Ocean, Anthony Braxton). Dear Darkness was mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Emily Lazar. We had the opportunity to speak with Atoosa this Spring for an exclusive and noteworthy interview below.
With your new album in tow, when writing new tracks overall, what is your inspiration behind them? What drives you musically?
Dear Darkness is a conversation about hard truths we generally keep secret. It's an exploration of hidden truths. What drives me musically is a love of writing songs. I begin with a melody and then the words come. Sometimes they don’t make perfect sense at first, but it’s often a channeling of sorts…and trusting. Eventually the meaning and direction become clear. In some ways, the songs are driven by feeling more than a clear concept.
When creating and penning your latest songs, what artists or influences did you channel?
The songs on Dear Darkness were inspired by experience and curiosity in the world around me and within me. There is no specific artist influence on these tracks, but I’m always listening and reading and taking in bits of information. There were ideas I wanted to explore about family life and being an artist, and I wanted most of all to feel it emotionally, so that something real was expressed in the recording.
You seem to be very hands on in the process of your music and songwriting which is GREAT! Can you walk us through the process for the latest record?
Yes! I began with writing again, which seems obvious, but after a break from music it took some time to get back to writing for this album. That process of writing took a few years, and a couple of the songs went through many revisions. From there, I shared the songs through a few local shows, and then started thinking about recording them. I decided this would be a more stripped down album with the piano at the forefront. We recorded each track first on the piano. We then brought in other musicians to add guitar, cello, percussion, bass, english horn, and oboe to the tracks, but the piano remained central to the songs. All of the music was recorded before Covid happened, thankfully, but mixing and mastering the album was completed after the city began opening its doors again last fall.
When you have a concept for a song, how do you execute it? What comes first?
Usually for me, it begins with a compelling melody. When I sit at the piano, the melody is kind of a portal to the words.
How do the songs differ from your prior work? Or does it feed into a new realm for you as an artist?
This album is very different from my prior albums. It’s the most bare record I’ve made. Also, it's a very different time in my life. Lyrically it’s more daring, and focused on a theme, and musically it doesn’t fit into a specific genre.
As 2021 is now kickstarted what surprises do you have up your sleeve in terms of music, videos, and additional releases this year; especially in the current realm of things?
I’ll be releasing a video of one of the tracks from Dear Darkness in the late summer or fall! I’m planning to perform more online shows, and hopefully perform in person as well in the fall. I’ve already begun writing new material, but will save those songs for a new album! <3
Listen to Atoosa Grey on Spotify:
