Alice Grey and The £2.99 Witch Mask
It’s that time of year again. Darkness falls across the land, all the leaves are brown, and I was working in the lab late one night, when my eyes beheld an eerie sight. The sight in question is Alice Grey’s new seasonal offering, a celebration of Autumn and Halloween entitled ‘What’s In Your Head?’
Alice Grey and Friend.
This isn’t Alice Grey’s first musical foray into our shared human traditions. At the end of 2020, we wrote about Grey’s not remotely uplifting EP ‘This Year’s For Me And You’, centred around her love for the Christmas period. With four covers including selections from Joni Mitchell and The Pogues, Alice Grey donates all proceeds made from the EP to Shelter.
Just a couple of months later, Grey returned again with a new EP inspired by the romantic notion of Valentine’s Day called ‘The Vein That Bleeds’. This new offering concluded with an often untold Cinderella story in Western culture, a modern classic featuring its very own Prince Charming in ‘Mail Order Bride’.
March 2021 brought the release of a single in honour of Alice Grey’s birthday. The two tracks, subtitled ‘Snipers’ and ‘Birthday Party’ went under the banner of ‘Almost My Birthday’ and were released exclusively to Bandcamp as with the previous two EPs.
Later that summer, Alice Grey began her next project by releasing three new singles in April, May and July. ‘Man In The Sky’ was followed by ‘Cooler’ and finally ‘Empire’, with all three being released to regular streaming and downloading platforms. Grey’s new EP, ‘What’s In Your Head?’ serves as a break between these three singles, with more original music in coming in 2022. Until then, Alice seeks to tide you over with a couple of original songs on this collection, beginning with ‘Velvet Dress’.
There are lots of subtleties in the music of Alice Grey, and plenty of those exist in ‘Velvet Dress’. Grey uses delayed acoustic guitar, sparse piano chords, bassier guitar notes, keyboard strings and a gentle bass drum thud to punctuate her chord progression. As with all of Alice Grey’s music, the focus is on her vocal delivery, and the importance of her words.
‘I'm a stone's throw from losing it all, it's a tightrope I'm walking and I just might fall, but the limelight's brighter here and now, in my childhood pictures I'm acting out.’
In my opinion, Velvet Dress is the best song Grey has released so far. Alice has always written songs loaded with story and meaning. They require careful listening, but the reward is an invitation into the world from which they hail, where Velvet Dress is much like the theme song to a film that does not yet exist.
Something Alice Grey is excellent at doing is making a song her own when covering it. The Cranberries’ ‘Zombie’ is a perfect example of this, with Grey extracting all the grunge out of the track and disposing it, replacing it with acoustic guitar and piano. The tempo is pulled back, strings are added, and Alice recites the lyrics to Zombie as if they were a story of her own write.
That isn’t to say Zombie isn’t recognisable. The recording retains the intensity of the original, but instead of anger, there is sadness. It’s also this track that gives the EP its name – What’s In Your Head? Grey uses a similar approach with her Christmas and Valentine’s EPs. ‘This Year’s For Me And You’ is taken from ‘Fairytale Of New York’, while ‘The Vein That Bleeds’ is a quote from Placebo’s ‘Post Blue’.
Understandably, an iconic song that was released thirty-six years ago has been covered on numerous occasions by many artists. What sets this cover of Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ apart is I wasn’t expecting Alice Grey to arrange it in quite the way she did. Many have longer introductions, building the instrumental backing as Bush does on the original.
Here, Alice goes straight for the jugular – ‘It doesn’t hurt me’ is the first thing you hear, a cappella, forsaking the use of introducing the melody before the lyric. The music is driven by piano and strings, as well as a programmed drum part that takes you out of your comfort zone, keeping the listener from settling in for an easy ride.
‘What doesn’t kill you leaves you scared…’
‘Trapdoor’ is the second original song on this collection, with Alice Grey bringing back acoustic guitar, strumming rhythmically throughout as she tells her story. Grey adds strings with some solo violin, which would sound beautiful in a live setting.
Lyrically, Trapdoor focuses on a single ‘ghost’, and is the spookiest corner of this whole EP. It’s Alice’s descriptions of the ghost, comparing him to the painting known as ‘The Anguished Man’, and the way she describes being haunted by him is what makes this song:
‘You're a whiskey glass spinning on a Ouija board calling me home in the low light of my last resort.’
When taken in the context of the music, the words sound less chilling and more from a place of sadness. This shouldn’t be mistaken for weakness either though, as Grey repeats variations of the line ‘I won’t come back’. Is it possible to move on when you’re haunted by a ghost?
Alice Grey ends What’s In Your Head? with a beautiful rendition of Iron and Wine’s ‘The Trapeze Swinger’. Grey yet again makes this piece her own by almost halving the track in length and cementing the lyric as the focal point. It stays in keeping with the sound of the rest of the EP too with acoustic guitar, piano and strings. Alice’s lead vocal is frequently augmented with a harmony on The Trapeze Swinger. Though it’s kept simple, it’s this tiny addition that makes a world of difference in the quality of Alice Grey’s home productions like this one.
Of the three EPs Alice Grey has themed in this way, What’s In Your Head? is the least self-deprecating, and is made all the better by pitching cover versions alongside her excellent original material. With Alice constantly writing and conceptualising new pieces of music, there is much to look forward to from Alice Grey in 2022.
Continue reading for our Q&A. We ask about the themes behind this EP, as well some of the other work Alice released in 2021. Alice also looks to the future, hinting at some of the music that’s yet to come. All this and more below!
1. Your new EP 'What's In Your Head?' is a seasonal appreciation of Autumn and Halloween, what do you like most about this time of year?
Everything. I'm completely obsessed with this season. I like the colder weather, the shorter days, the countdown to Christmas, and the way the whole world gets a bit whipped up by spooky season. There were fake cobwebs on the Co-op self checkout the other day, which my heart leapt at. It's a calmer, moodier, more introspective time than the summer, which obviously suits me down to the ground.
2. This EP is made up of three covers and two original songs. Did you instinctively know which covers you wanted to tackle?
Not exactly. I knew I wanted to cover Zombie, but that's it. The Iron & Wine cover I happened to relisten to, and thought it fit well, with its quaint description of Halloween. Obviously I truncated that because the original is an epic!
3. Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill' is the most intriguing addition to the tracklisting. What connects this piece to the concept of the other songs?
There is no clever or interesting rationale here, she's just a bit witchy. And I've always liked the simple, quite haunting concept that the song is centred on - that of making a pact with God in the event of a loss. It's very dramatic.
4. A while back you recorded a cover of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller', were you not tempted to collect that one here too?
The main reason I didn't is because the sound was distinct from the five I have here. It crossed my mind though! And its still floating around on Soundcloud.
5. As well as the covers on this EP, you've also written a couple of originals in 'Velvet Dress' and 'Trapdoor', were these always intended for this EP? Or have they been floating around for a while?
I wrote both for this EP. I love ghost stories, and I've always been drawn in by the idea of being haunted, whether by a spectre, an event, or a feeling, such as that of guilt, longing or regret. Trapdoor describes being unable to shake the memory of somebody, however you really felt about them. The protagonist is fairly dreadful, throwing around unsophisticated ideas about relationships, out enjoying themselves with people that weren't you and so on, but they got their hooks in all the same. The song describes the futility and the dread of knowing you've got an uphill climb out of it. It references a painting (The Anguished Man), that the artist literally put his own blood into - which I find morbidly fascinating, and included here as a metaphor. Velvet Dress is a bit of a mosaic of people, places and experiences, but is essentially a story about having self-knowledge of oneself as reckless, hopelessly romantic and occasionally destructive in the pursuit of love. It's a pretty despairing 4 minutes.
6. Very importantly: What was your signature Halloween costume when you were growing up?
Oddly enough, we didn't really do Halloween as kids, so how I've come to be fixated with it as an adult I'm not sure. But the few times we did celebrate it, I was a classic £2.99 Tesco-mask witch (like I am in this album art.)
7. Are you a Pumpkin Spice indulger around this time of year? Is there a food or drink you think is lacking a bit of pumpkin spice?
I'm basic all year round but I really do lean into the seasonal beverages. I made a pumpkin fondue recently. Roaring success.
8. Earlier this year you released an EP inspired by Valentine's Day called 'The Vein That Bleeds'. It concludes with an original song called 'Mail Order Bride', where did that idea come from?
I watched a YouTube video about mail order brides and I was really intrigued by the men in it, who are buying wives on the internet, and the humanity that's obscured by what on the face of it is fairly seedy, depressing stuff. On the one hand they're selfish losers, blowing their kids' tuition fees on their new girlfriends and making lame gestures of free coffee and off licence wine, but on the other they're just a bit lonely and world-wearied, trying to make the best of a life that didn't turn out quite how they expected. He's an intentionally complex character, full of contradictions - you hate him and pity him and feel sorry for him all at the same time (or at least, that's how I want it to make people feel.) It absolutely belonged on the Valentine's collection, because this, as much of anything, is the complexion of love.
9. In a separate project, you put out a trio of singles over the summer called 'Man In The Sky', 'Cooler' and 'Empire'. Tell us about the thread that ties these songs together.
These three songs belong on three fifths of an EP called Between These Yellow Walls, which was inspired by lockdown. There are two more singles to come, but their release date is TBD. It borrows its title from the novel The Yellow Wallpaper, as I wanted to invoke claustrophobia, and the imminence of insanity. They all explore (pretty hefty) themes that surfaced for me during this time - God, men, addiction, Catholic guilt. It's not dancefloor stuff.
10. Whatever happened to the 'Adult Themes' concept EP?
I really love the five songs I intended for Adult Themes, and they still haven't seen the light of day. They keep getting trampled under vanity projects. I think Adult Themes will ultimately get cannibalised by another album, Death By Misadventure, which is sitting patiently in the pipeline as well. Basically - watch this space (I don't quite know!)
11. You're always busy writing, recording or playing a gig - what can we look forward to in the next chapter of the Alice Grey story?
I was going to 'rebrand' (fancy) and I still might, so maybe that. But in the immediate term, I'll be releasing the rest of my lockdown album, with the second part coming in March. Next December, I've got some songs I'm really excited about sharing, including a music video I've really enjoyed storyboarding.
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The music of Alice Grey is available to download and stream in all the usual places.
Alternatively, purchase Alice Grey’s music on her Bandcamp page.
Follow Alice Grey on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @alicegreymusic.
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