Jon Weigell: We're back here on the show with Conan gray. Hello.
Hello Conan. How are you today? I'm good. How are you? I'm doing
wonderful now that you're here. Glad you have a lovely red
outfit today like
Tell us a little bit about it. Where did you get the top? Where
did you get the pants? It's all very Oh, I didn't even notice
the pattern is actually echoed on the bottom.
Conan Gray: It is vintage that we cut up and upcycled into
this. Oh, wow. My stylist Katie Qian is wonderful. And we wanted
to do something fun and festive for being back in my hometown.
Oh, yeah. How does it feel to be back in your hometown right now?
Feels very odd. I had did have a few flashbacks. On stage. I was
like, Oh, no. What if that person is here? Oh, boy. But
it's all right. I don't think I have much bad blood in my high
school. I didn't speak to anyone. That's that helps. I
think it's fine.
Jon Weigell: That's very good. Now for here. Is this your first
time being at an Austin City Limits? I imagine not. No, it
Conan Gray: is is it? I grew up way too poor. So this is my
first ACL and first time ever good vibes. And the crowd was so
happy. Yes. And it was just it was really a wonderful,
wonderful. Oh,
Jon Weigell: that's super nice. How are you? Have you been to a
lot of festivals in your lifetime?
Conan Gray: No, my first festival ever was Coachella. But
I'm not really a huge festival goer. You know how you meet in
that like, festival? Oh, yeah, I'm like, I like shows. Kind of
kinda like to sit in bed.
Jon Weigell: Yeah, that's good. I'm like going in the middle to
like, if you put me in a festival, I'd be like,
I'll go to a few. And you know, I'm not going to be like the
person at the front of the Barricade for any of them.
Conan Gray: Personality bear? I don't have to know.
Jon Weigell: So how did your show go? Were you really happy
with it? How it came together.
Conan Gray: It was a wonderful time. It was like, I feel like a
daytime set is always like you're there to have fun and
smile and saying and so it really was I was I felt really
welcomed back home to Texas that's
Jon Weigell: here today. And you had an hour set to how did you
structure that together? Put it together? Is it very similar to
the sets that you've been playing recently? Or did you
have to tinker around with something?
Conan Gray: I'm on tour right now? Yeah. Oh, we did tinker a
few of the mulcher depressing songs out. Because no one wants
to cry at 4pm. But it Yeah, I think it really feels like I'm
just on another stop on tour and so many wonderful, happy,
familiar faces were in the crowd tonight even says,
Jon Weigell: and you've been on tour for a little while now too.
And I know you at the end of the year are in a little bit. You're
going to Australia and New Zealand right?
Conan Gray: Yeah, I am right after this. I'm going to
Australia New Zealand.
Jon Weigell: Is that your first time there as well.
Conan Gray: First time going to New Zealand. I've been to
Australia once but New Zealand's been the top of my list since I
was a little kid. Wow. Every special flora and fauna and New
Zealand that doesn't exist anywhere else.
Jon Weigell: What is it? Tell me about it have
Conan Gray: like these types of lizards called tar tar and
they're hard to hard lizard. Yeah. And they and they are
vegetarian.
Jon Weigell: With a lizard that though the lizard has its own
tools,
Conan Gray: vegetables and things. And there's no snakes.
And all of New Zealand. Not a single snake. Not once. No.
Jon Weigell: Wow. So I feel like in Australia, it's the exact
opposite.
Conan Gray: Opposite of the big snake the big spiders. Oh, yeah.
Zealand, no snakes. Wow.
Jon Weigell: So are you excited to play show over there for
Conan Gray: the first time? Yeah, I'm excited for that. It'd
be nice.
Jon Weigell: Yeah, that's gonna be nice. Yeah, for throughout
this entire tour. I imagine you've played a lot of venues
and places that you've maybe never played before. Even maybe
some cities that you've never played before? Is it interesting
for you playing in somewhere that you've never played? Does
it make you a little more nervous to see like, Okay,
what's the crowd gonna be like? Or do you usually get nervous in
that way?
Conan Gray: I mean, I get nervous before every show
because I have stage fright. I do think, um, I think it's
different everywhere you go. It's really interesting. It
really reflects the culture. I do feel like the Midwest slash
the south are the happiest crowds because I grew up in the
South. I know how boring it is. And to go to a show is like a
really fun time. So they can tell they're, like bored and
kind of want to really like let loose.
Jon Weigell: Did it take a lot of time to kind of get over? I
know you said you're not completely like, not nervous
every time we do a show. But it did take a while to kind of like
ease your way into playing live especially as a solo artist in
front of all these people usually.
Conan Gray: Yeah, I like wanted to vomit before every Friday try
quit music forever. never see the light of day. But I got over
it because my fans I'd really hate to let them down. So I
really just did it because I am a people pleaser.
Jon Weigell: Oh yeah. You find that is it's kind of hard to
navigate as a people pleaser, especially in the music
industry, because I feel like we're always kind of like, oh
yeah, no problem. I'll do that for you or like whatever you
think is best. Do you find it difficult to like? to state your
mind and what you want to do,
Conan Gray: I really love saying no to people that I don't like
that's
exceptionally great skill actually. Can you do this? No,
no. Yeah. So if you say no, that means you don't like the person.
Yeah, they know that means that
they should take it personally and they should cry.
Jon Weigell: Good. Oh my god. Speaking of crying a lot, a lot
of crying on the new album, a lot of moments of personal
experience coming out a lot of emotion. Talk to me about the
new album. I know you've already released now than previously to
this is your second full album after Kitco for this one, given
that you released kid Crow, and I read in an interview that you
you know, did the whole thing in your bedroom, and that it was
very emotional process for you to get that done. This time
around doing it again. Was it still that difficult? Was it a
little easier for you to get everything out there?
Conan Gray: It was so much harder. I hated every second
harder. I hated every second of break, I'd never do it again. I
wouldn't wish it upon anyone is miserable.
Jon Weigell: Oh my god, I
Conan Gray: hated it. I wrote them still in my bedroom. But it
was just like one of those things where I just didn't feel
like saying things but I knew I had to. And then and it was
rewarding because I got it off my chest. But you know sometimes
what you're like, I just kind of feel like being a little
miserable right now. Yeah, I wasn't ready to get over it. But
I was forced to by making this album, which I think was good.
Thanks to break. Yeah,
Jon Weigell: I mean, that's really tough. I feel like
working on music that makes you miserable. Or like having misery
and like in your emotions kind of lead your creative process
throughout the making of this album, not to take you back to
like times where you felt like horrible or not not so great
about it. But was it particularly because of the
subjects you were talking about? Or was it because maybe you just
had second thoughts about your music and what you were doing?
Conan Gray: To me, my first album was so simple, because I
was just kind of telling, introducing myself and be like,
Hi, I'm Conan, I'm from Texas. I am sad sometimes. And this one
person made me really sad. Like, it was really simple. With my
second album, I was like, oh, shoot, I actually have to talk
about what actually hurts. What I actually am dealing with in my
actual life, you know, I have to kind of dig a lot deeper than I
really normally it's helped. So it was scary. And I think I was
apprehensive at first to really tell people how I how I felt
about life. But in the end, it ended up being a very miserable
album. So I think I did a good job of telling people how I
felt, I guess you
Jon Weigell: must have been yes, no, when you were doing that,
and you take those songs and you play them live for people now.
How does that affect you? If it does at all?
Conan Gray: It's great. Because I was so depressed when I was
making the song and then to have all these these smiling happy,
screaming faces scream back all of my mom most miserable moments
back to God. Really. It's It's a truly healing experience. You
should try it. I mean, it sounds religious in a way it's very
religious. You it just is a great way to get over any, like
lingering emotions that you have attached. And they just scream
at you and like oh, yeah, like I'm not alone. Wow. Yeah, that's
like
Jon Weigell: a crazy juxtaposition. Because, you
know, you're giving them these songs that you know, have so
much about them and then people are genuinely very happy to hear
them. You know, has anybody at your show? You know, mouthed,
the words cried. Have you ever seen it affect people in such
ways when you're playing live?
Conan Gray: My show is a single long show, sing along show
everyone is there to sing along everywhere. I think I may be
saying one or two lines, the whole show the whole time. Like,
Jon Weigell: it's great. Listen, to pick up the slack and do the
word. You know, like the
Conan Gray: show is to have fun, and just scream and like get all
of your like shit out. You just like want catharsis. That's all
the show is. And it's so fun. It's like, the more people are
there the more you just want to like lose your mind and really
like scream at that one person in the back of your head. You
just despise it's so special. And an everyone is screaming at
the same time. Right? Yeah, it's it's it's it's so special. Wow.
Jon Weigell: I love just the image of a room of people just
screaming. Oh, yeah, it's great.
Conan Gray: So I just I'm so glad that like, they're like me.
I'm with my like minded people at the shows.
Jon Weigell: That's so sweet. Now talk to me a bit like in
that like mindedness about having your fans and kind of
having this community together? And do you have a lot of
interactions with your fans either before the show after the
show online? In which ways you do it? Have you heard some
really good stories from any fans about listening to your
music? Possibly?
Conan Gray: No, my fans don't listen to my music. They just
sing it. Just sing it. They just, they just see me Maybe not
today. Um, I mean, my fans are like my friends. I know them. So
well. I stalked them on the internet. Oh, great. I know
everything that they do I know the school is the go to I know
their home addresses. Amazing. I know the social security
numbers, and I do rob them. Good. So it's it's a really
special, very intimate friendship. I
Jon Weigell: really like them. It sounds like yeah, mutually
beneficial.
Conan Gray: Mutual and not illegal at all? No,
Jon Weigell: definitely not. No, no, no, let's get back to them.
You're writing and producing for this new album? Did you do a lot
of the production yourself as well as the first did that kind
of change hands this time around? Or did you keep it kind
of the same process as the first
Conan Gray: one made this album with Danny I didn't I grow the
same guy that I made my first album with and my EP with so in
a lot of ways, it was just kind of like a sequel. It's like you
listen to sunset season and Kitco. And then you listen to
breaking like, oh, yeah, this is just like a family of albums. It
was very similar to the way it was before where I'd write in my
bedroom. And then I'd play him a song that I'd written and
recorded, like some kind of voice memo to and then we'll
work together to kind of produce it out. But um, we usually have
a pretty clear idea of what we want to do. And I've been
working with Dan, for five years now. So I think we really are
usually on the same page seems like you get each other really
well. Yes, I do despise him, though.
Jon Weigell: Do that damn. No, no, that you were hated? No. But
for SuperBreak Are there any songs off of that record that
maybe came to very quickly? Or came to just so fast that you
didn't have a second to think about it?
Conan Gray: Yes, the very last song was a song called memories.
And it was the last song that I wrote for the entire album. I
literally wrote it in like five minutes. I went, wow. The whole
song. And then I finished and I pressed the last night and I was
like, the album is done.
Jon Weigell: It was so Oh, man. It was so good. Oh album filled
out before that. And then you just had one
Conan Gray: and I wrote memories. And I was like, that
was the last song. And it was magical. It was one of those
moments. I was like, Yeah, I know exactly what this needs to
be. And I think memories really does sum up the whole album. You
know, it's an album about lingering pain and about like,
you know, trying to get over people and trying to get over
your past trying to get over experiences. And that's what
memories is It's a song about wishing that all of your pain
and all these people in your past could just stay in your
memories and stop showing up in your actual life.
Jon Weigell: What do you think it was a lot easier to make that
trek because you already had this framework of what you had
the album, maybe as and maybe you were like, Okay, what's a
good ribbon to put on this? You know, at the end? Yeah, I
Conan Gray: think I think it was on my mind. And it was just
like, I just needed to get it off my chest. Maybe that's why
it happened so fast. And yeah, it does really feel like the
ribbon. It sums up the whole album and one song
Jon Weigell: Beautiful. And when you're on tour, do you write at
all on tour? Or do you just wait till you're home most of the
time and really get into it there?
Conan Gray: I usually don't write on tour. When I'm not on
tour when I'm home. I write like one or two songs a day. Why
insane amounts but on tour, I usually say nothing but
something's something's different this year. And I've
been on tour all year. And I'm I write constantly. I don't know,
really, maybe I'm just going insane. Could be very, I finally
reached my limit. And I'm writing terrible songs that no
one will like but I am writing a lot. And it's it's weird. It's
very unlike me.
Jon Weigell: Is there a sense of you know, since obviously, it's
been a few years since you started releasing music and
whatnot. But at this point now that your two albums in and now
that you're touring regularly around the world, is there been
any moments of burnout? And have there been any moments where
you've had to kind of power through something or times
where, you know, you really thought to yourself oh man, can
I really keep doing this?
Conan Gray: I am an endless ball of energy, and I spread joy and
laughter everywhere I go, and I'm never miserable, and I never
have to be dragged out of bed ever. I was never someone who
wanted like this lifestyle at all. And so everything that's
come all the touring and everything, it's been a huge
surprise to me and I'm always learning as I go. I know there's
like little things that I do to try to preserve myself. Sure.
Yeah, because I really am like a homebody I really enjoy sitting
in bed and, and my my pretty friends. Like that's kind of
just what my life is. And I do think my career has been a
blessing because it's dragged me out of the house and really made
me have a lot of wonderful experiences that give me so much
to write about some.
Jon Weigell: Yeah. And when you're not on tour when you're
not working on music, what are you doing? sitting in bed, but
additional things
Conan Gray: sitting?
Sitting is cool
FaceTiming my friends Yes. Okay, I made my Friends do this
activity called lay in play, lay in play, which is where we lay.
And then we play. So we wake up and we lay in each other's beds.
And then we go play and by play, I mean, like, we get a coffee.
Then we go lay again. And then we like play like watch a movie.
Oh, and then we lay. That's all I do when I'm not on tour. But
that's not much time, because I've been on tour all year, ya
know, like, a couple of weeks the entire year. So yeah, I
guess you could say like, I'm a girl boss or whatever, really.
Jon Weigell: But with your friends, it sounds like they
really kind of keep you saying a little bit and really like rein
you in and stuff. Yeah,
Conan Gray: they are the basis of my sanity. My best friend
Ashley is right there. And she's just texting away. And I love
her and I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for her. So blessings.
Tasha
Jon Weigell: is adorable. Are they all friends from Texas
area? Or have you met them kind of through?
Conan Gray: I've known Ashley since the sixth grade, asked me
to sign her yearbook. Oh, but old middle school, just 40
minutes down the road from here. And we've been best friends ever
since. That
Jon Weigell: is amazing. And kind of going off the fact of
working with other people. You mentioned Dan, as well. Is there
anybody else that you think like within your career within your
music has really helped you kind of figure it out a little bit
more and kind of get your sound down?
Conan Gray: I mean, I do feel like Dan and I really built the
sound together. You know, it's a it's a very distinct sound that
I think we had so much fun building. I mean, when I first
met Dan, when we first started working together, he wasn't
doing pop music. So I was like five forced him to like make pop
music out of curiosity doing indie, like songwriter stuff, he
was doing a lot more like indie pop kind of vibe. And I was
like, Oh, I make pop music. Yeah, like who are you?
He's like, Get out of my house. Like, literally, we were in his
garage. What's wrong with you. Um, and so I really feel like
we've built that sound together. And I've learned a lot from him.
And I think we've learned a lot from each other.
Jon Weigell: That's beautiful. I think, when working with other
people, it's like super important to just like, make
sure everything's out there and make sure everything's
communicative as well. And I think it sounds like you have
that kind of relationship with him. And from you just
discovering your own sound. What was that journey like for you?
Because I feel like maybe where you started isn't exactly where
you envisioned you'd be right now. Or maybe when you started
making music you wanted to sound like something else. And maybe
you just sound like completely different. But when you first
started what was what were you forecasting? I guess for your
sound? And did you end up around the mark? Or are you a little
bit different than that? And that's cool.
Conan Gray: That's a good question. I have no clue. I
mean, I never thought I would be singing so I wanted to be a
biology teacher. a biology teacher. Yes.
Jon Weigell: What what unit of biology is your favorite unit of
bio?
Conan Gray: Well, I fucking hate marine biology so much I think
the ocean is a horrifying it's thing way too deep to way too
deep. And I think that maybe we should get rid of it. I'm sure
ain't like canceled the ocean. Um, but no, I had no real idea I
went into making music being like oh, these are just songs
that I wrote I don't know how to produce them I don't know what
what's what's going to happen I just followed what I felt like
was right and I don't really have much of a genre I think I
just kind of make whatever is right for like each song what
Jon Weigell: you want to make. Yeah, that's awesome. And last
few things are last thing what is next for you musically? You
know? Of course you just put out this album and I believe June
and you know you have the rest of the year doing some door
touring after that. What are you excited to do with your music
Conan Gray: next? Do you think I'm going to be quitting music?
I've had enough luck. I am going to be on tour for a long time to
touring super eek. I'm having so much fun like seeing the fans
again after so long of not being with them. And I don't know, I
guess I guess we'll see what my next album was something we'll
find out.
Jon Weigell: Well, I hope to see you again real soon. Conan.
Yeah, pleasure talking with you. Thank you very much and good
luck with all the touring that you must do in all the places
that people need you in you very much.