{"id":815,"date":"2025-02-24T19:35:26","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T20:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.isshicare.com\/?p=815"},"modified":"2025-03-06T18:23:50","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T18:23:50","slug":"saya-gray-makes-room-for-herself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.isshicare.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/24\/saya-gray-makes-room-for-herself\/","title":{"rendered":"Saya Gray Makes Room for Herself"},"content":{"rendered":"

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To get over a breakup, Saya Gray<\/u><\/a> booked a flight to Japan. \u201cEven though I wasn\u2019t raised in Japan, it\u2019s in my blood and my upbringing,\u201d she tells PAPER<\/em><\/em>. <\/p>\n

After that cross-country journey, the Japanese-Canadian singer-songwriter went to California where she drove across the whole state. The mixture of both locations \u2014 the mountains, the desert and the forest \u2014 are what shaped her debut album, SAYA<\/em><\/em><\/u><\/a>, out now.<\/p>\n

Though Gray has been in the business for a minute now, having released multiple LPs and toured with renowned artists like WILLOW and Daniel Caesar, SAYA <\/em><\/em>feels like a proper welcome for fans to get a more direct glimpse into the artist\u2019s visions. \u201cI don\u2019t even know what to call a lot of the music that I make,\u201d she says. \u201cI usually don\u2019t even try to label it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The album is characteristically a hybrid of genre and sound, blending art-pop, R&B, nature field recordings and analog-acoustic interplay. Whereas Gray usually would hop straight to the computer to start sampling once she had a song idea, this time was different. \u201cJust being able to write a full song on guitar and not even touch my computer was such a nice, refreshing experience,\u201d she says. Nature and those two post-breakup adventures inspired it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had so much space that, for the first time, I didn\u2019t try to fill it. I just wrote about it and kept writing through it.\u201d That space allowed Gray to tap into more raw, emotional places. Tracks like \u201cPUDDLE ( OF ME )\u201d came together in one sitting, an unfiltered outpouring of feeling. Others, like \u201cH.B.W.\u201d \u2014 short for \u201cHeartbreak Wake\u201d \u2014 reflect the personal rituals she adopted to process the emotional fallout. \u201cKeep your body moving, keep the creative going,\u201d she says of navigating heartbreak. \u201cMetaphysically and physically move the energy out of your body. Don\u2019t let it stagnate.\u201d<\/p>\n

For an artist who\u2019s built a reputation on eclectic, genre-fluid music, SAYA<\/em> feels like her most cohesive statement yet \u2014 not because it fits neatly into any category, but because it doesn\u2019t try to. It exists in its own world, much like Gray herself.<\/p>\n

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