Saya Gray Releases Debut Album 'Saya'

Immeasurably talented experimental artist Saya Gray has released her highly-anticipated debut album SAYA via Dirty Hit. The project was heralded in by previous singles “SHELL ( OF A MAN ),” “H.B.W,” and “LIE DOWN..,” and serves as a flawless 10-track introduction.

Since her first project release, the critically-acclaimed 19 MASTERS, only a couple years ago, Saya Gray has become globally defined by the undefinable – an artist whose work is limitless, beguiling, intimate, exhilarating and truly unlike any other musician releasing songs right now. It’s easy to call something “one of one;” it’s harder to live it, breathe it, encapsulate it, and share it with the world: Saya Gray embodies that rarified space and invites everyone in.  

Somewhat of a musical nomad, Saya bounds from genre to genre with a natural elegance, blurring the lines between them so seamlessly you don’t think twice. “SHELL ( OF A MAN )” draws from Country music, a sound that makes an appearance for the first time in Gray’s output, opening with a twang fueled guitar riff and vengeful lyrics, but is flipped on its head with sweet and airy vocals collaged a few times over. The resulting track is something that feels like a familiar breakup anthem, with resonant lyrics like “I’m still hung up on cobwebs,” but has what can only be characterized as a disjointed, uniquely-Saya melody that sets it apart from the rest.

Ahead of release, the project was championed by outlets like NPR All Songs Considered in their list of 2025's most-anticipated albums, Pitchfork’s 32 Most Anticipated Albums of 2025, Rolling Stone’s Pop Acts We’re Most Excited About This Year, Alternative Press’ 25 Most Exciting Artists to Watch, Stereogum’s Artists to Watch, and HITS New & Developing Q1. Last year The New York Times also placed “AA Bouquet for Your 180 Face” (from her EP QWERTY II) at #22 on their ‘Best Songs of 2024’ roundup.

SAYA finally came after the dissolution of a troubled romantic entanglement; Gray booked a flight to Japan in the fall of 2023. And like a feel-good movie protagonist, Gray detangled herself from the outstanding psychic ties by journeying solo on a cross-country road trip. Moved by the vastness of albums by the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, as well as her Canadian folk forebear, Joni Mitchell, Gray kept an acoustic guitar in the passenger’s seat, just in case inspiration would strike. In recording SAYA, Gray sanded and fine tuned the rough edges of records past into more cohesive works of melodic folk songcraft.

Saya follows a pair of critically-acclaimed EPs QWERTY and QWERTY II. Born out of the large periods of 2023 she spent in studious isolation and her healthy fear of the ever encroaching digital world, the 14 tracks perfectly demonstrate her stunningly detailed compositions. She first introduced herself to the world as a solo artist in 2022 with 19 MASTERS. Recorded in large part through her iPhone’s Voice Notes app, her dissonant electro-rock sketches aptly met the moment of global post-pandemic disarray. It was dubbed one of the best albums of the year by TIME and her work has generally received accolades from The New York Times, Pitchfork, NPR, and more. She also began unveiling her own kaleidoscopic inventions to such major festivals as the Montreal Jazz Fest, Pitchfork Music’s Paris festival, and Primavera Sound in Spain.

Gray was born in Toronto, Canada, to a Japanese mother and Scottish-Canadian father. She first got her start playing in a house band at a Jamaican Pentecostal church; by 16, she was recruited for gigs at open mics, nightclubs and jazz festivals alongside adults. Soon, Gray began entertaining bigger offers to tour internationally as a bass player for Grammy-winning artists before embarking on a solo career.  

Photo credit: Jennifer Cheng