Upcoming Auckland Artist Lucy Gray Drops Debut Mixtape
‘Bitter is the fruit of the labourless’ is the subtitle that underpins Lucy Gray’s genre-expansive debut mixtape Break it which is out now. Serving as a light at the end of the tunnel, and a compass for what’s important in the project. Break it takes the listener on a journey from self-evasion to brutal reflection over 10 tracks without wasting a tear, or a breath.
After touring Australia in August 2025, feeling disconnected from music, Gray was inspired to teach themselves music production to take full control of their sound. Stamping their mark by using selective samples from favourite childhood mobile games, sampling breaths into drums and weaving perceptive callbacks through the tracks.
Gray spent 12 months curating a world for Break it to live in with the intention of creating a narrative and sound that felt personal and unaffected by social noise. It dives into the experience of not being able to escape who you are and the spectrum of wonders and horrors that it creates. Gray talks openly about how having such a dedicated love and passion for music feels like essentialising a ‘One true love.’
“I’ve always felt like an outsider in music and in my social circles because there’s always so much of me that lives in my head where the music is and I struggle to realize myself into the real world.” This is reflected in I wish I didn’t Gray sings “I know I wasn’t built for love, there’s only one thing that I’m dreaming of”
“All of the songs are about my life, and it’s by far the most personal thing I’ve ever worked on. But within that, I’m trying to convey that these real life events are happening, maybe, but the love and emotion I feel that’s personified is not about the person, it’s about the music.”
Parts of the project emulate a diverse and honest coming of age novella, filled with hope, confusion and a desperation to convey emotion. I get it from u is a tongue and cheek, upbeat,
4-to-the-floor anthem that captures the essence of a friendship. The bug is introspective, nostalgic, and delivers a unique, addictively plastic quality. ‘Phone Song’ blends summery-pop
elements with a harsh industrial core. Gray self-produced tracks U + I, Angel, Better luck next time, and co-produced tracks such as Wasteland, G-R-O-U-P-I-E and Phone Song.
Sonically Break it blends industrial alternative pop, trap, electronic pop, and dance. Gray’s performance leans heavily on flow and rhyme and dips into rap. Gray built a strong base
musically as a songwriter, which serves this project well. Gray’s writing shines in the final song of the mixtape Better luck next time over ambient piano and trap drums. It pulls from all of the
self-doubt and heartache previously expressed and sums it all into a finale that leaves the project on a raw and honest note.
Continuing to expand the Lucy Gray world, they announced Auckland showcase on October 30th Break it Live featuring artists such as Letoa, awkwatch, rede., boyracer, and smurgy. The title track Break will be accompanied by a music video the week after the project’s release, alongside their first Australian headline shows in Melbourne on December 11th at Bad Decisions and Sydney on December 12th at The Lansdowne.
