GRAY AREA

There s one word that aptly describes exactly how life has been for Macy Gray since her critically lauded, platinum-selling, Grammy-winning debut On How Life Is suddenly propelled the hugely eccentric 29-year-old singer to international fame and that word is busy ! Too busy for me, anyway. Last month I flew to London to interview the Ohio-born hip-hop diva, only to have the meeting cancelled at the last moment because her rehearsal for the Brits (where she picked up yet another award) had been rescheduled. Plans to join her somewhere on her European tour were consistently thwarted by the demands of the local media all over mainland Europe.
Finally today, we re face to face in Dublin s Pod where she s already met the folks from RTE and TV3 and still has another two interviews to go before tonight s Point show and I m told by the hugely apologetic man from Sony that I can only have ten minutes.
I m really sorry, Macy squeaks in that hugely distinctive Marge-Simpson-meets-Kermit-The -Frog voice, I ve gotta do another one after this and then I gotta go soundcheck. It s been like this for weeks!
I m well annoyed, but given that she s over six feet tall (increased dramatically by her gravity-defying Don King hair) and looks more than a little weary anyway, decide not to argue the point. So, ten minutes then. Not much time to explore the life, times and crimes of one Macy Gray (a moniker she stole from an old neighbour). After all, she has been homeless in Los Angeles (she lived on the streets for a few weeks), incarcerated in Las Vegas (a week, for theft of petrol and outstanding traffic warrants), married with three kids and divorced, hugely failed (an earlier rock album was never released by Atlantic) and hugely successful in her 29 years. The girl s been around, something very evident from the variety of life stories told in the raw, obviously autobiographical lyrics scattered across the ten wildly diverse and eclectic tracks of On How Life Is.
At first, with her eyes hidden behind massive goggle shades, she comes across as rude. Gradually, however, you realise that it s just her mellow Californian vibe. Initially more chilled out than an air-conditioning factory, it takes her a good eight minutes to warm up . . .

OLAF TYARANSEN: Are you enjoying the tour?
MACY GRAY: Yeah, it s going great . . . (stares off into space)
You re not very talkative today are you?
No sorry! (laughs and snaps back to attention). It s cool. I m really happy about everything as far as my career goes. It s going swell.
Are you missing your kids?
Yeah, I m missing them a lot. I can t wait to get home.
How long since you last saw them?
Two weeks.
Do you get to see very much of them even when you re in the States? You must be doing a lot of promotion since you won the Grammy . . .
When I m home I see them every day. They can t travel with me because they go to school. But they ll be with me all summer.
Are they aware of what s been happening?
My little girl told me they ask about me a lot in school. That s pretty funny.
I know you studied to be a script writer at the University of Southern California for a while. Now that you re in a position to probably make things happen a lot faster in that area, is there anything you re working on movie-wise?
Yeah, I m working on a script. I want to get it made by next year, I think. That s my goal anyway. It s a love story about kids growing up together. They meet as high school sweethearts and the script s about that whole journey of going into their thirties and still being together. And just how crazy that is.
Is it a happy story?
It has ups and downs. That s a long time to be together when you hook up in high school. That s pretty wild.
I know that you re divorced, but is it based on your own family in any way?
No, it s real fiction. The stuff that happens you draw from. But I don t know anybody real well that is still with their husbands. My mother and father have been together for almost thirty years now, but she was about 28 when she met my dad.
Your songs would suggest otherwise, but do you believe in true love, the perfect person?
Absolutely! I believe there s someone for everybody. The trick is that it s not always guaranteed you ll find them. That s what s spooky. Maybe you ll meet them and you don t have it together enough to recognise it. You ve just got to be smart enough to pick out whoever it is.
Anybody in your own life at the moment?
I got a boyfriend . . . (silence)
You don t enjoy interviews very much, do you?
Not really. I m getting used to them as work but I don t enjoy them.
Were they more fun at the beginning?
No. I always hated them! (laughs)
I thought that as a writer yourself you d be interested to see how people interpret the situations?
I love reading them back and I always appreciate the writing more than anything, but, you know . . . (silence)
Which writers do you admire?
I haven t read in a long time. You probably shouldn t ask me that because I m not going to come out very intelligent.
Where s home at the moment aside from hotels?
I live in LA but I m planning on moving to New York, maybe this summer. But I may not have time. I bought a brownstone in New York.
Are you a Lauryn Hill fan?
Yeah, I loved The Fugees. The Fugees are a really big influence on my record. I like her a lot and I think her putting that record together was amazing. But I m more a fan of The Fugees than I am of any of them individually.
Your voice is very distinctive . . .
When I was young everybody used to laugh at my voice so I d always keep my mouth shut. These days I feel lucky to have it.
I know that you re a weed smoker. Does that help maintain the vocal chords?
No. I talked like this before I ever smoked a joint (laughs).
Are drugs a big influence on your songwriting?
No. When I smoke we don t get anything done (laughs). I have a song called Moment To Moment that I wrote on an acid trip. The psychedelic stuff like ecstasy or mushrooms, stuff like that, you get a lot more . . . (pauses)
Creative?
I wouldn t call it creative. I don t know what the science of it is, but your subconscious seems to come to the forefront. You get a new perspective on so many things. At the time you think it s so brilliant, you know. They are probably more inspiring than weed as far as writing goes. Though most of that album was written sober and improvised with the addition of alcohol. I don t think that s bad. You re in the studio and everybody eats and drinks all day. But it s not like you sit down and say I ve got to do a few grams of coke and write . I m not that far gone.
Have you ever had a bad one on mushrooms?
No, but I ve only done them maybe four times in my whole life. I don t do stuff like that too much. It s pretty scary. You feel your brain moving around. That s a trip (laughs).
Are you quite scatty in your approach to life just throwing yourself into things to see what happens?
Like what?
Marriage, for instance?
Em (laughs), I m probably a bit impulsive, but not intentionally.
What s the most impulsive thing you ve done recently?
All the time, most of it is impulse. I tend to think things out after or maybe when it s too late. That s probably my downfall. But I m working on it!
Have you done or said anything publicly in interviews, for instance that you ve later regretted or has gone against you?
There s been a couple of things that have been a bit embarrassing or that I wish I d answered differently. Sometimes you say stuff and it comes across differently in print or they misquote you or whatever. But I ve also learnt that most people read it and then ten minutes later they re on to something else. Unless you say something really fucked up, most people don t remember or hold it against you.
Different with the album, though.
What do you mean?
Well, surely making an album is having a stab at some kind of immortality. You know, that it s always going to be there.
I hadn t really thought about that. It s definitely one thing that s really permanent. You can t go back and change it. It s there forever. Once you re gone, your record s still around. That s what s really heavy about showbusiness. Same with movies, anything you put on film. You can make a little Super-8 of your dad and that s it (laughs).
What s going to happen next career-wise? Another album or more touring?
We already got four or five songs I wanna put on my next record. I m writing songs for other people. And me and my partner have just started our own record label and we ve signed a DJ. And I m working on that movie and writing. And we re doing a behind the scenes kind of video.
What s the best thing about what s happened over the last year?
I ve really grown up a lot. I don t think it was due to fame or whatever, as much as it was a need for me to grow up and me responding to it and making it happen. I m really proud of myself for that.