David Gray on Connecting With His Concert Audiences: ‘We’re Not Here to Just Make a Few Dollars’

David Gray made sure no two shows on his recent U.S. tour supporting his 2024 album, Dear Life, were the same. Not only is the choice of songs different one night to the next, there are moments of spontaneity and humanity that give each performance a different character.

“Even within changing the set, I’m adding things in that I haven’t planned for,” the British singer-songwriter tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast. “And why? Because the puppet is turning back into a real boy. That is the process that’s going on. I want to be sort of emotionally present on stage, not just playing the set. I don’t want us to go into battle mode — here we are, information, walk on, do the gig, come off, champagne. I want it to be more than that.”

In Detroit, for example, somebody shouted a request for his first single, “Birds Without Wings,” from his 1993 album, A Century Ends. It wasn’t on the setlist, but Gray obliged. At another concert, a fan shouted a request for “The Song of Wandering Aengus,” a track based on a poem by William Butler Yeats that Gray has performed live but never recorded. “Wow, that is obscure,” he recalled thinking. “I’m impressed.” Although Gray had never performed the song on the piano, he played the beginning and eventually made it through the song. The unexpected diversion was a memorable success. “My favorite moment of the whole night,” he says. “It’ll be one of my favorite moments from the tour.”

Gray is best known for his breakthrough album White Ladder from 1998, one of the most successful albums in the U.K. and Ireland of the 2000s. Songs from White Ladder were spread throughout the concerts, but Gray dipped into his catalog of 13 studio albums and included numerous songs from Dear Life. “These [new] songs are very direct and instant, I feel, and I felt that they could stand next to shoulder to shoulder with the big songs from my catalog without being crushed,” he says.

Incorporating surprises, telling stories about his music and taking chances helps connect Gray to the audience and heighten the concert-going experience. “I want to be emotionally direct,” he continues. “I want to be emotionally present. I don’t want to be pornographic. It’s not like, ‘Dave’s going to show us everything. This is what’s going on inside his head.’ It’s a moment of sharing only in a way that would enrich the experience of listening to the music and explain why we’re there making the music. We’re not here to just make a few dollars. I’m here for a different reason.”

Check out the entire conversation in which Gray walked Behind the Setlist through his entire 23-song set, in order, at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles on Feb. 14. Listen using the embedded Spotify player below, or go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, Podbean or Everand.

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