Music News

Trouble Maker

With a promising new album and a healthier attitude, Macy Gray is hoping her career will bloom again.

More

By Tom Sinclair

Tom Sinclair

Tom Sinclair is a senior writer for EW and has been called "the handsomest man in rock criticism'' (by his wife)

Would you take a pill from Macy Gray?

Sitting across from Gray, age 32, in a conference room at the New York offices of her label, Epic Records, I am wondering just how to respond to the singer's offer of a Benadryl. Though my allergies have been acting up something fierce, I'm torn. After all, hair-raising tales of Gray's adherence to the derangement-of-the-senses method of artistic creativity have been making the rounds for the past couple of years. Hey, there's no telling what this blowsily dressed neo-soul hippie chick with a reputed fondness for hallucinogens is gonna pull out of her pocket stash...

As it turns out, Gray -- whose third album, The Trouble With Being Myself, hit stores last week -- professes to have outgrown her better-living-through-chemistry phase. ''There's something to be said for oblivion,'' she says, ''but I like being clear and being awake. A lot of artists think they get creative when they're high, but the most interesting things happen when you're not. When you're high you're so out of it, you think you're actually doing something hot when you're not. I write my best stuff when I'm clear.''

It may be a good thing that Gray -- who was born Natalie McIntyre in Canton, Ohio -- is on Straight Street. She's going to need her wits about her as she attempts to reinvigorate a career that's been on a downward trajectory ever since she won that Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal for ''I Try'' in 2000. Like Joan Osborne before her, she's finding out that Grammy's imprimatur does not necessarily ensure massive record sales in perpetuity. In fact, her sophomore album, 2001's The Id, sold dismally compared with her quadruple platinum debut, 1999's On How Life Is. (In fairness, it didn't help that The Id, with its loosey-goosey party vibe, came out one week after 9/11.) Her first single, ''When I See You,'' came and went this spring with little fanfare. (A second single, ''She Ain't Right for You,'' released two weeks ago, has yet to chart.) And, of course, those reports of erratic behavior -- which led at least one industry wag to dub her ''Crazy Gray'' -- have also taken a toll on her public image.

Gray claims that she ''didn't know when [The Id] came out that people judge you so much by how many records you sell. That's wild to me. The record business is changing so much; it's just a different animal now. So I have to prepare myself for what's gonna happen if I sell a lot of records -- or what's gonna happen if I don't.''

Back in 1999, when ''I Try'' was all over the airwaves and Gray's surprising, Minnie Mouse-on-soul-steroids voice was first enchanting listeners, it seemed as if an oddball Aretha for a new generation had arrived. Yet four years later, in a pop marketplace characterized by what Chris Rock has called the ''here today, gone today'' school of stardom, the buzz surrounding Gray's initial splash has dissipated. Fairly or not, some cynics are already dismissing her as a flash in the pan.

Andrew Slater, who managed Gray from 1999 to 2001, when he parted ways (amicably) with her to assume the presidency of Capitol Records, has tracked his former charge's fortunes with interest. ''I first met Macy when I was asked to produce On How Life Is, and I was immediately impressed with her talent,'' says Slater. ''She had a voice like a muted trumpet, and she was a great songwriter.''

Slater worked with Gray on several songs that never made it onto The Id (which was produced by Rick Rubin and Gray). He believes that album was too radical a departure from the down-home style of her debut. ''At that time, like a lot of us, Macy had a fascination with hip-hop culture and was intrigued by artists like Lauryn Hill, Jay-Z, and Dr. Dre, and on The Id it seemed like she was trying to incorporate elements of those artists' styles into her music,'' says Slater. ''To my ears, some of those rhythmic and sonic combinations didn't fit. The songs I had worked on with her were more in the tradition of great soul music, classic R&B, and I always envisioned Macy's songs as being a modern version of those kinds of records.''

(Slater gets slippery when asked if he thinks 9/11 affected The Id's sales: ''Great records contain great songs, and if they're supported by the right tools and the right plan, they'll find an audience.'' Uh-huh.)

David Way, who recorded and mixed both On How Life Is and The Trouble With Being Myself, says he believes the latter CD benefited from Gray's new, more temperate lifestyle. ''I was there for the mixing of The Id, which saw her in full-throttle indulgence mode, shall we say,'' says Way. ''That album took months and months to complete -- with all the distractions that come with reaching a certain level of stardom, it's sometimes hard to focus in the studio. But [the recording of Trouble] was more similar to how she approached the first album. She heard stuff in her head, and we just went in and did it. I think this is her most elegant and melodic album.'' (EW's Ken Tucker awarded Trouble an A-, by the by.)

That's an assessment Gray agrees with. ''I think the new album is very sophisticated for me,'' she says. ''You can tell I grew up a little bit. There's a lot of layers, it's kind of elegant, and there's all these pretty sounds on there. I actually went in intending to do a real raw album, just a couple of tracks and my voice, but once we got into the studio everybody just went crazy, and there's a million tracks on it now.''

With the jury still out on whether those ''million'' tracks can rope in millions of record buyers, Gray, who won favorable notices for a small role in the Denzel Washington film Training Day a couple of years ago, plans to continue exploring other artistic mediums. First, there's the cartoon series A Pretty Good Life, based on her adolescence in Canton. (Gray, who is executive-producing the not-yet-scheduled show, pitched the idea to Warner Animation a couple of years ago.) ''Basically, the main character is a 14-year-old Macy Gray, and the series is about her and her five friends,'' says Gray. ''It's real cute, a coming-of-age story.'' Gray watchers should also keep their peepers peeled for her role in the upcoming Scary Movie 3: ''I'm in this scene with Master P, the Wu-Tang Clan, and Redman. We're outside a club and we get into an argument and we all kill each other. It's real stupid and real racial. And I'm also doing a movie called Wicked Prayer with Dennis Hopper and Tara Reid.

''I love movies, but I don't know if I could be a [full-time]actress. But rock stars get so many offers you gotta be crazy not to take them.''

Let us pause to ponder the following antidrug message from Macy Gray:

''Unfortunately, today [drugs] are so accessible. I was watching this documentary on TV and -- I couldn't believe it -- they were telling you how to make crystal meth. I was thinking, 'You just killed a billion more people.' Or say you take Ecstasy. You have no idea what you're taking because people are making it in laboratories. Or you might think you're smoking weed, but somebody might have put some other stuff in it. Getting high gets old -- and it can be dangerous.''

Oh, yeah -- about that Benadryl tablet? Yes, please.

Posted Jul 25, 2003 | Published in issue #720 Jul 25, 2003 | Order Article Reprints