By the time Loren Gray got around to releasing her debut album, she’d already survived the music industry, social media fame, major label meddling, and her own self-doubt. So naturally, she called it Guilty.
“I finally got to a place at my big age of 20—about to be 21—where I was in a place to release an album independently,” she laughs. “It took two years to write. It feels surreal. But I finally got to say what I wanted to say.”
That’s not something she could always do. Signed to Capitol Records at 16, the label was apparently more interested in making a hologram of a pop star than amplifying the very real, already-followed-by-millions Loren Gray. “There were so many differing opinions of who I should be rather than just me being me,” she says. “I started social media before I started music. I was already solidified as Lauren. There wasn’t really a need to create this persona.”
But, surprise, the industry disagreed. “Your opinion becomes last on the list to matter,” she deadpans.
Now independent, she’s flipped the script. Guilty isn’t some PR-polished identity parade—it’s the sound of someone clawing their way back to themselves. “I found my voice when I became independent,” she says. “It was really liberating.”
If that all sounds like the stuff of tortured singer-songwriter introspection, you’re only half right. Because the voice she found? It’s just as likely to shout as to sing, and it’s not afraid to steal emo thunder along the way. “I’m a huge fan of My Chemical Romance and Lil Peep,” she beams. “So when I had the chance to write with Bardo and Beauty School Dropout, I felt like I got to be a part of a punk rock band for two weeks.”
Those sessions, which included songwriting camps that sound more like pop-punk retreats, were the turning point. “We slept in the same place for a week. Everyone got to be themselves. We were experimenting, having fun—and I didn’t feel stupid,” she says. “Which was new for me.”
Not every track sounds like it should come with a Warped Tour laminate, though. “There’s a little country in there too,” she adds, name-dropping Misery Loves Company and Enough for You as her nod to heartbreak and Garth Brooks. “I’m from Pennsylvania, my family’s from Ohio and North Carolina. I’m a huge country fan. I just wanted a little taste of it.”
But her biggest genre? Emotional honesty. “I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression. I’ve been really transparent about it,” she says. “And I was always told, ‘That’s not pop star.’” She rolls her eyes, then adds: “But that’s what I wanted to say. So I did.”
Never Be Perfect, one of the album’s standouts, is a low-key wrecking ball of vulnerability. “It’s a confession. I’m an avoidant person, I push people away, and I’m working on it. But these songs are me coming to terms with falling into the same patterns over and over.”
She doesn’t just want you to hear the songs. She wants you to see them, too. So she made four music videos in two days. Inspired by Donnie Darko, of all things. “I love Frank the rabbit. I didn’t want it to be ‘Look how sexy Lauren is.’ I wanted a story. I wanted weird,” she grins. “All the videos connect. There’s a point to it all. I have my own interpretation, but I want people to make their own.”
Which brings us to Taylor Swift. Of course it does. “Beyond fair to call me a Swifty,” she confirms. “I love how she creates a whole world, how everything means something. That’s what I wanted to do. And Eminem too, by the way—his world-building is just as rich. I grew up with Taylor Swift and Eminem. And honestly, it makes sense.”
She’s about to take all of this—her world, her stories, her liberation—on the road for the first time under her own name. “I just want to connect to the fans. That’s my biggest dream,” she says, visibly emotional for the first time. “For six years I’ve been begging for this. And it’s finally happening.”
Guilty? Maybe. But Loren Gray doesn’t sound the least bit sorry.
Watch the interview above and then check out the video below.
