Music Q&A:
Fiona Grey

What informs your music and songwriting?
I’m really inspired by our religious infatuation with love and our society’s obsession with pop culture. Musically, I love melodies and lyrics that aren’t expected and are sometime a little off kilter or strange.

How have you evolved as a musician over the years?
I think music grows with you. If you aren’t topping the last material or show you played then you aren’t allowing yourself to grow as an artist. Personally, I’ve been able to create more fearless music – taking risks was a big part of this upcoming record. The live show is always getting even stronger.

What are you up to at the moment artistically?
I’m finishing an EP that I’m so excited about. The biggest goal was to bring organic instrumentation to “pop music”. It’s about putting the time into getting it right. We had a full live string quartet, gospel choir and really interesting mix of well written songs. I really love directing and producing music videos. I have three more really wild videos that are gonna come out within the next year.

What’s on your rider?
​​Towels, whiskey, hot water, honey, coconut water, hummus and pitta and the best local food (no dairy).

Tell us your most embarrassing or surreal experience.
There are so many to choose from! I played a show a couple years ago and thought it would be really fun to have a Madonna-influenced hair extension clip-in ponytail. It looked really cool and I felt like a rock star Genie in the Bottle but during one of the last songs I was whipping my “hair” around and the hairpiece started slipping out and next thing I know the whole hairpiece was flying into the audience. I was so mortified!

What song do you wish you’d written?
​Moonage Daydream – David Bowie and No 1 Party Anthem – Arctic Monkeys

What’s your worst lyric?
I wrote a song when I was nine years old called Come Sail Away With Me, which in hindsight is a horrible title because there’s a Styx song with that name. I think the lyric was something dreadful like “come sail away with me, let’s dance up into the sky”. I hate cliché lyrics!