IN THE SPOTLIGHT...MICHAEL GRAY
By Shereen Low and Wil Marlow After creating a classic with his still heavily played The Weekend in
2004, Michael Gray now has the hard task of following it up.
After creating a classic with his still heavily played The Weekend in
2004, Michael Gray now has the hard task of following it up.
And while new single Borderline, featuring former Alisha's Attic singer
Shelley Poole, is shaping up to follow The Weekend into mega-hit status,
the "30-something" Michael isn't counting on it.
Borderline looks set to be a big hit - how do you think it's going to
do?
 "I do feel very confident, but I'm quite a pessimist so I always tend to
look on the lower side and anything else was a bonus. I had it with
Weekend - you just take it with a pinch of salt.
"It always becomes harder when people tell you what chart position it's
going to be in and if it's one below, you go into this down-turn for a
day. But then you realise you were listening to someone who didn't
actually know."
How did you get together with Shelley Poole?
"I wanted someone who could sing over the backing track I'd done that
wasn't a typical diva, like I've had in the past. I didn't want it to be
predictable, so I went for the opposite scale.
"I knew of Shelley from Alisha's Attic and knew that she had this kind
of indie style which would be the complete opposite to what I'd normally
produce. A few people had a go at writing different toplines and
Shelley's was the most individual and quite girly. I do make records for
girls and it had that element."
What is it about your records that's particularly girly?
"I try and make the production tough so guys like it, but a lot of girls
listen to lyrics. I don't think guys can necessarily tell you what's
being sung. But a girl could come up and sing the whole of one of my
records. They just take it in more, the lyrics mean more to them."
But the very raunchy video is very much aimed at guys.
"I knew you were going to say that! The record company wanted a video
that's a natural follow-on from Weekend in terms of the girls and
everything. That seemed the best way to go forward with it, just for the
second single.
"And that's why it's quite male-friendly. Lucky enough a few girls have
said they do like it. So I'm happy with the end result, even though it's
been banned on three TV stations."
How do you feel about that?
"[Laughs] It's the first time I've ever had that happen. But it's still
on The Box and MTV, so that's cool by me. It wasn't a deliberate attempt
to make a video that had a touch of girl-on-girl. I was there while it
was being filmed and went downstairs to get a coffee, and when I came up
there was another girl with the first one. I just thought, fair enough.
I'd be a hypocrite if I said I didn't like a bit of girl-on-girl action,
wouldn't I?"
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